Running the Boston Marathon was on the bucket list of Aurora University Spanish professor Denise Hatcher for a long time.
Last year, she made that dream come true, and this year, she was back for an encore in the race, which was held recently.
Hatcher, 48, who has taught at the university for 21 years, said she started running in 2003 after she finished her doctorate degree.
“I was looking for something else to do,” she said. “The Boston Marathon is incredible. There’s nothing like it. The amount of camaraderie you feel there and the support is amazing.”
Hatcher’s previous marathons include two appearances at the Chicago Marathon, one at the Quad City race, two at the Fox Valley Marathon, last year’s marathon in Naperville, the BQ2 Last Chance in Geneva, and now two in Boston. Her best time of 3:45.06 was run in Naperville, and she finished this year’s Boston Marathon in 3:57.30.
“Last year we ran in the rain and the cold, and I remember thinking around mile 17 how much fun this would be in better weather,” Hatcher recalled. “This year it was the opposite. It was about 70 degrees when we took off in the late morning, and there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. I developed a calf cramp at the 19th mile and had to change what I was drinking.”
Hatcher said she “had to pull back” during the last part of the race and began exclusively drinking Gatorade instead of alternating with water because she sensed she needed the sodium. A lot of other runners fell prey to the heat, she said.
“I finished with this other runner who said her best time was 3:15, and she was hoping she broke four hours,” Hatcher said. “I later heard there were 1,400 people that wound up going to the medical tents and about 2,500 overall that needed medical treatment.”
Hatcher trains with both the Geneva Running Outfitters as well as the Fox River Trail Runners. Eric Ott, founder and owner of the Geneva store, said Hatcher’s upbeat attitude and sincerity about everything she does is infectious.
“Denise is the most positive, sincere — and whatever other superlative you want to use — person,” Ott said. “She’s always excited and very upbeat. She trains with our up-tempo Tuesday group and our marathon training group, and she always makes the people around her feel good.”
Ott praised Hatcher’s attitude when it comes to pushing herself and embracing hard work.
“Running a marathon, in some degree, is not about the limitations of age,” he said. “It’s more about what you’re willing to do physically and mentally. Having the disposition Denise does makes it easier. If you are facing a tough workout, it’s easy to say how bad it’s going to be. But for someone who looks forward to it, you’ll get better whether you’re 25 or 75. Being positive plays a huge role, and she uses that to her advantage.”
Hatcher said she was in awe of the size of the Boston Marathon, both in terms of the number of participants this year as well as how much it has grown. There were fewer than 10,000 participants a year as recently as 1995.
“If you look online, you’ll see something like 35,000 to 36,000 applied (to run this year),” Hatcher said.
Hatcher said Boston continues to stand strong in light of the bombing that took place in 2013 at the marathon.
“You still see the ‘Boston Strong’ signs everywhere, and they planted something like 2,000 daffodils in the city they call the Marathon Daffodils, which are a symbol of hope,” she said. “We saw some victims from the bombing in the race, including a couple of double amputees, and I think today the Boston Marathon means even more than it ever did.”
“They always sell these Marathon jackets, and in 2014, they were orange, last year purple, and this year they were a teal or a turquoise,” Hatcher added. “You wear them, and everyone knows why you’re in Boston. People wish you good luck wherever you go.”
David Sharos is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
