It’s an exciting day for Hope’s running community. After running 42.2 km, and crossing through eight towns, Hope’s very own Megan Bissky finished the 127th Boston Marathon with a time of 3:26:16.
“It was incredible. The Boston Marathon just lives up to the hype. The crowds were spectacular and it was such a fun day out on a amazing course,” Bissky said. “I ran a few marathons before. I’ve had the opportunity to run the Vancouver Marathon. And I found that distance really challenging.
“Boston just seemed like this elusive qualifying standard that I just really had a goal to work towards to achieve. And when I was able to do that last year, after qualifying, I took the opportunity to run Boston.”
This was Bissky’s first time running the Boston Marathon, which took place on April 17. Attending with her family, she competed with nearly 30,000 athletes, from more than 100 countries — such as Kenya, Switzerland, and the U.S. Starting in Boston at Copley Square, where the official starting line is located, the race saw Bissky running through Hopkinton, Ashland, Framingham, Natick, Wellesley, Newton, Brookline, before heading back to Boston.
First starting in 1897, the marathon is the oldest in the world and one of the more difficult routes to run due to it’s terrain. Winners for this year’s marathon included Evans Chebet (Top Men Runner), Scott Fauble (Top Americans (Men) Runner), Hellen Obiri (Top Women Runner), and Emma Bates (Top Americans (Women) Runner).
Bissky, who grew up in Hope and works with Indigenous Child and Youth Mental Health, qualified for the marathon last year, with a time of around 3:29:00, during the Vancouver Marathon. For women runners, between the ages of 35 to 39, the qualifying time for Boston is 3:35:00 — which means Bissky already qualified for next year’s marathon. That being said, Bissky isn’t sure what her future running plans are. She said she wants to enjoy spending time with her family and “ditching the road” and getting back to enjoying the outdoor trails and hikes.
With such an impressive run, people might assume that she’d been training for the marathon her entire life. Instead, Bissky got into running five years ago after giving birth to her second child.
“I wanted to build in a few things for wellness,” Bissky said. “I definitely didn’t start at the marathon level but I just kind of built it up. Hope has a lovely growing running community. We have the Hope Running Club in town and it’s nice. There’s a few of us that have been getting out and working together on our running.”
During this time, Bissky joined the Hope Running Club which was established in 2017 and started by it’s presidents, Miles Bissky (Bissky’s husband) and Dave Murphy. It was also during this time that Murphy coached Bissky and helped her improve on her running and train for marathons. As such, she’s been grateful towards Murphy, as well as her fellow club members, who have been supportive of her journey. She is also very grateful to her family who have been with her every step of the way.
“I’m just so thankful for my husband and kids,” Bissky said. “That they were able to come out here and support me, and cheer me on yesterday. And today we get to spend the day together just exploring the city and having a nice little vacation.”
READ MORE: Hope Running Club easing new runners into sport
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