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Director of Athletics and Recreation Jack McDonald Featured In Waterbury Republican-American
"Cheshire Family Marathon" by Joe Palladino, Waterbury Republican-American (April 10, 2012)
Palladino: Cheshire family
marathon
We are one week away from the 116th annual Boston/McDonald
Family Marathon.
The Cheshire McDonalds — that would be dad, Jack, and sons
Brian, David, John Jr. and James — will run the 26.2 miles
from Hopkinton to Boston on Patriot's Day.
They have graciously allowed about 25,000 others to join them.
Jack McDonald, who last ran Boston in 1978, gives the race another
go, this time at age 60. In the highly competitive McDonald
household, dad believed that if he completed a marathon, for crying
out loud, so should everyone else. When the family gathered for
Thanksgiving in November of 2011, dad fetched the gauntlet.
"I told them, 'You bozos have got to run a marathon.'"
Apparently, the word "bozos" did the trick, and all four boys
accepted the challenge. All have trained and are healthy and will
run on April 16, dad included, although he is not making any
promises about finishing.
But that's the beauty of this family challenge. It is not about
time or place, but about creating something of a family running
legacy.
Sports is at the forefront of the McDonald household. Jack is in
his 17th year as athletic director at Quinnipiac University. He is
a Boston native, a Boston College graduate, and was for 10 years
the track coach at B.C.
McDonald, in his prime, was a fast dude. In 1976 he ran an indoor
mile in 4:00.9, still the fastest indoor mile ever run in New
England.
In 1973, while a B.C. student, McDonald started the Greater Boston
Track Club, which became one of the most renowned clubs in the
nation. You may have heard of a few club members, guys named Bill
Rodgers and Alberto Salazar.
The four McDonald boys all attended Cheshire High, where they ran
track or played lacrosse. All went on to Quinnipiac.
But only the old man has run Boston.
"I asked them, 'If I can get you a (bib) number, would you run
it?'" McDonald said.
Apparently, McDonald still has a few connections in Boston,
because they all have a bib, and come next Monday morning, shortly
after 10 a.m., they will dash out of corral No. 9 as part of the
marathon's third wave.
Mom, Linda, is the smart one. She plans to spectate and, if
needed, have the car at the ready just in case her husband
needs mobile assistance to get to the finish line.
McDonald can tell some ripping marathon yarns. A good one comes
from the 1978 race, won, by the way, by that Rodgers guy. McDonald
is laboring on the course, which is not surprising when a miler
puts 26 one mile races end to end. He is wearing his B.C. running
shorts, and he has his track club jersey on, so when he hears a
swell of applause and cheers on Heartbreak Hill, he assumes the
crowd has just spotted him.
"They must have been cheering for me," he thought at the time.
"All of a sudden a woman comes running up from behind and passes
me, and says, 'Let's get going Jack.'"
That woman was Lynn Jennings. Just 18 years-old at the time and a
Boston prep phenom, Jennings would become America's greatest road
racer and an Olympic medalist in the 10,000 meters.
The marathon is a supreme athletic challenge, and McDonald, who
organized marathon training clinics for years, used a simple
teaching technique.
"I would say, 'If I put a million dollars 26 miles away, could you
get there in six hours?' They always said, 'Yes.' I would say, 'OK,
the clinic is over.'
Next week the McDonald clan — Brian is in the Coast Guard,
Jack and Jim are businessmen, David a grad student, and dad the
athletic director — go after that fictitious million-dollar
stash, and something more precious, family honor, at the finish
line of the 116th Boston Marathon.
Send comments to jpalladino@rep-am.com.
