Hartley honored at Boston Marathon

Hartley honored at Boston Marathon

Young Harris man oldest runner to finish the 26.2 mile race

By Frank Bradley

Sentinel writer

Running marathons is nothing new to 81-year old Clarence Hartley, he’s run plenty of them. Still getting invited to run in this granddaddy and oldest marathon of them all was something special for him, and as it turned out having this cancer survivor and U.S.Air Force veteran of both Korea and Vietnam was something special for Boston as well.

The Boston Marathon is the world’s oldest marathon. This year marked its 115th year running. It is run on Patriot’s Day, which this year was Monday, April 18. This year’s winner, Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, also ran the fastest marathon ever with a time of 2 hours, 3 minutes and 2 seconds. There were 23,879 runners representing 45 countries who finished the marathon of them Hartley was the oldest. He finished in 20,185th place overall coming ahead of almost 2,000 other men. He finished first in his class of age 80 and older with a time of 4 hours, 26 minutes and 25 seconds.

Hartley said he was “treated like royalty.” He was selected as a hero for Patriot’s Day along with a 26-year old Wisconsin National Guard veteran who had run a military marathon in Iraq that coincided with last year’s Boston Marathon.  Both men were interviewed on Boston TV and participated in a national and international news conference. Hartley said he was invited to come up early before the race. He and his wife and daughter Denise were put up for two nights at the Copley Hotel (a historic landmark in Boston.) He also has a son, Christopher, who lives in Boston, and was there to cheer his father on. Hartley’s other daughter Debra had not planned to go up with them because she had other commitments; however on the day before the race, some friends of her bought her ticket and she flew to Boston and surprised him being there for the race.

The Boston Marathon starts out at Hopkinston, a town west of Boston. It continues through Ashland, Natick, by Wellesley College, by Newton and Boston College finally winding up in downtown Boston. Along the way there were some 500,000 fans cheering the runners on. Since there are so many runners, buses are employed to take the runners to the starting point. The Massachusetts State Police picked up Hartley at his lodging and escorted him to a special bus for veterans.

Hartley said it was a bit chilly at the start of the race. He wore a plastic garbage bag with holes punched out for his arms. He also wore gloves. He said about five miles out after he had warmed up, he shed both the bag and the gloves. He also had an escort, a young SWAT Team marathon runner, who ran beside him and sometime fetched him water or sport drinks. Hartley said there was also a blind Iraq veteran who ran and was escorted by a four-star Admiral.

Hartley said the race starts out going downhill for the first mile or so, then levels out. There is no up hill for the firsrt 15 miles.

“Mile 16 through mile 21 was the hardest part of the race,” Hartley said. “During that stretch I was going up hill a good part of the time.” That was the part of the race that has “Heartbreak Hill” on it. He said it wasn’t steeper than other marathon hills he has encountered; however it was a longer hill.

Hartley said he had his right arm taped with 26 lines marked on it. He also had a GPS watch. With this system, he could keep track of how fast he was moving and adjust his pace.

“I could tell I was running 8 minutes ahead early on,” he said. “But I knew I had hills that would take more time. He said he felt good about how he was managing his time.

“It was my goal to beat a lot of younger people,” he said.

Asked if he was up for running the Boston Marathon next year, he said he will be running the Atlanta Marathon in the fall, then he paused a bit before saying, “Yeah, I’ll probably do it again next year.”