Marissa Greco running the Boston Marathon, May 4, 2015.
Your body aches, you are drenched from rain, you still have to run another five miles before you can get dry and start to recover, and yet you are wearing a big grin.
Welcome to the Boston Marathon.
Marissa Greco, a 2008 Hopewell Valley Central High School graduate, got to experience the thrill of it all on May 4 when she completed the famed race in 3 hours, 25 minutes, 9 seconds to finish 1,652nd out of 12,022 women. After weaving through various suburbs she hit the streets of Boston for the final six miles knowing she was part of something special.
“I think I was just smiling the whole time,” the 24-year-old Dartmouth graduate said. “I felt such a sense of accomplishment from that point. I knew I was going to finish. Even though it was raining there were so many people still out there and still so supportive.”
And that support—from both spectators and participants—is part of what sustains so many runners over the 26.2 miles. Greco was no exception.
“I think it was mile 24, this one guy came up to me and fist bumped me and said ‘You can do it, you’re awesome,’” Greco said. “That was really great. I really needed it at that point.”
While at Hopewell, Greco was part of one of the greatest distance running teams in program history along with Claire Buck and Julie Jablonski. Greco and veteran HVCHS coach Aaron Oldfield remember things a little differently when thinking back to her efforts with the Bulldogs.
“I liked running,” she said. “I wouldn’t necessarily say I liked running distances, but in high school I ran the mile, that was my favorite, and the 800. Claire, Julie and myself, we did pretty well. I think I won the 800 at indoor sectionals, but I wasn’t exactly keeping tabs. I just liked running.”
And though she preferred the two-mile, her love of the sport led her to run any race Oldfield needed help with.
Asked why Greco didn’t recall her 3200 with as much enthusiasm as the coach, Oldfield felt it came down to her competitive nature.
“She’s one of those kids that was very tough on themselves,” he said. “She was an overachiever. Maybe in her eyes she didn’t think she was doing very well in that race, but she did very well. We accomplished a lot because of her in track and cross country.”
Greco performed well enough to run for Dartmouth College for four years. She listed running in the Ivy League’s fabled Heptagonal meets as her greatest college memories.
After graduation, Greco became a research assistant, studying tuna fisheries in the Pacific Ocean. But her passion was always health care, and she began taking courses toward her masters degree in Public Health. The next step toward reaching that goal begins Jun. 1, when she enters a nursing program at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital. She currently volunteers as an EMT for the Princeton First Aid Rescue Squad.
In between checking out tuna and being part of first responders, Greco decided to give marathons a try.
“I thought about running them a little bit in high school and it became more of a reality after college,” she said. “I was on the track and cross country teams, but I wasn’t putting a lot of distance in my workouts. Afterward, I was able to put on more distance and it became more of a reality to go for it.”
In October 2013, Greco had a friend who decided to run the Marine Corp Marathon in Washington. She says it was the push she needed because she wasn’t sure she wanted to do it on her own.
“I knew it was a qualifier for Boston and I did want to qualify, but that wasn’t my entire purpose for running it. I just kind of wanted to run one,” she said.
Greco said she did not feel great from the midway point on, but she kept plugging, was making her splits and was confident she would reach her goal. The result was a time of 3:20, which qualified Marissa for Boston (the qualifying time was 3:35). But since the registration for 2014 had just passed, she had time to think about whether she wanted to do it. She was battling a slight knee injury after the Marine Corp race and could not train for eight months.
Fit again, and after she took some long runs with Buck, who will run the New York Marathon this fall, she decided to give Boston a try.
“That definitely helped motivate me to sign up,” Greco said. “Claire has always pushed me.”
Buck continued to push Greco as she trained for Boston. Because Greco had never run long distances, her old teammate helped get her through workouts between 8 to 13 miles per day to get ready. Greco also did her homework, watching YouTube videos to learn about the course layout.
Upon arriving in Massachusetts with her dad, they stopped at the town of Hopkinton to see where the race would start, and then drove part of the course down to Framingham, where they were staying. The night before the race, Greco left nothing to chance.
“I just went through all the logical steps,” she said. “I set everything out before I went to bed, and I made sure I had my alarm set and a second alarm. I had my phone alarm and my watch alarm set. I was definitely a little nervous. You have to be crazy not to be.”
The start consists of sectioned off groups of runners, referred to as waves. Greco started in Wave Two based on her qualifying time.
Beating that time was her goal, but once she saw the cold, rainy conditions, she didn’t think that was feasible.
That hardly dampened her spirit as she got ready to run.
“Honestly, I was so happy to be there,” she said. “There’s a great sense of camaraderie, it was just the happiest start I’ve ever been part of. I feel like Boston’s the goal for so many people. Once you’re there it’s just a great race to run in.”
Because the field is so jammed in the downhill start, Greco didn’t utilize any strategy for the first five miles.
“You’re just running as a herd,” she said. “People were cutting over to the sides and running off the road a little. For the most part you’re starting with a bunch of people who are at the same pace as you. You’re not thinking about it as much until it spreads out and then you run your own race.”
Greco said she was hoping for even splits and may have started a little faster than she hoped due to the hype of the race getting her a little excited. She ran a 1:37:17 the first half of the race and slowed slightly to 1:47:52 in the second half.
The midway point of the race was through the town of Wellesley, which is famous for its spectators encouraging the runners with signs and vocal support.
“You could almost hear them a mile away,” Greco said. “It was the perfect time for that. It’s right at the halfway point, so to hear people so loud, it’s a great feeling, it keeps you going.”
Now that she has one in the books, Greco is considering running Boston again but may hold off a year to give her body a break. Since she will be in Philadelphia she is considering doing the Broad Street Run just to keep her involved in competitive running.
Whatever she does, Greco’s effort on the first Monday of May makes Oldfield proud to know his program produced a Boston Marathon finisher.
“We were fortunate to have runners like her for four years,” the coach said. “To see them take the values they learned in high school, and learned from their parents, and carry them on into life is great. It’s nice to see they are still giving back to the sport. As a high school community, we’re obviously very proud of what she has done and how she represented Hopewell Valley.”
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