Courtesy of: Shannon Raneri

Mr. Brown – proudly wearing his medal.

On Sunday, October 13th, the 47th running of the Chicago Marathon took place.  The marathon broke its own record when 52,150 people crossed the finish line after last year’s record-breaking 47,000 runners.  Of those 52,150 runners, Mr. Brown, the sixth-grade Jaguars math teacher, was one of them.  On Tuesday after school, I caught up with Mr. Brown to ask him a few questions regarding his impressive achievement.

Shannon Raneri: What got you into running?

Mr. Brown: I ran in my sophomore year of high school, junior year of high school, and senior year of high school.  I did indoor and outdoor track; loved it.  All my friends did it.  I loved my coaches.  After high school, I did not run as much because I was a soccer player.  What got me into the run of post-college and post-grad school was a lot of my friends, a lot of my coworkers were also getting into running and were doing 5Ks, [and] half-marathons.  My brother’s done a half-marathon, my coworker, Mr. Crombie, has done a bunch of marathons, a bunch of triathlons. So I’ve always kind of been around it, and kind of seeing all my friends get involved and being like “Hey, we should try this out.”  I’ve, personally, always wanted to run the Boston Marathon, that’s always been a big goal of mine.  But I know it’s super hard to qualify for it.  Financial fundraising is a lot, so when I heard about the Chicago Marathon, I was like, “Okay, the fundraising requirement is very doable,” I did not have to qualify, and it’s also a fairly easy course.  It’s very flat.  I was like, “This has to be it!”

SR: Is the Boston Marathon a goal in the future?

MB: That’s a big, big goal.  I don’t know if it’s going to be anytime soon, hopefully down the road.  We’ll have to see.  We’ll take it one step at a time.  It’s definitely still there, I don’t think I’ll change it yet.

SR: Do you think it’s attainable?

MB: I would hope so.  I feel that now that especially that I got my first marathon under my belt, [I feel like], “Okay, I can at least do it.”  I feel like I was really able to overcome the big number of 26.2.  It’s like, “Wow!  I’ve never run that far in my life.  That’s the farthest I’ve ever run.  Ever!”  But the fact that I finally did it, kind of gave me the confidence of, “Okay, I definitely think I could still do it.”  It’s just a matter of timing [of] when?  When’s the training going to take place?  When would all of that prep come into play?

SR: You mentioned that the Chicago Marathon was your first.  What was it like the day before and setting [yourself] up on the starting line?  What was going through your head?

MB: It was funny, everyone had told me, “You’re going to get the pre-race jitters.”  Thankfully I slept the night before great.  I didn’t really have any worries… The morning of, it’s the anticipation part that stinks the most.  It’s literally just us, standing around.  We were able to sit for a bit, which was good.  I ran with three of my very good friends.  It’s just the waiting, waiting, waiting.  We felt very prepped.  We, luckily, were all able to meet up at the same point, so we could all start and run together.  But it’s just the part of [being] there and all you have to do is just wait.  We were Wave 2 so we didn’t start running until 8:30 a.m.  We got there, probably about seven-thirty, seven-fifteen.

SR: How was that waiting?

MB: Long.  Hard.  I tried to remind myself, “Hey, it’s gonna go great.  It’s gonna go smoothly.  We’re prepared for this.”  I didn’t really focus on what everybody else was doing.  I saw a lot of people warming up, getting water, stretching…  I just tried to focus on [the fact that] I’m ready, I’m all stretched, I’m prepared.  I tried not to compare myself to what everybody else was doing before.

SR: What was the feeling, crossing the finish line with your friends, knowing you earned that medal?

MB: It was unbelievable.  I started getting all filled up, actually.  Just knowing that it was something that we had worked so hard for.

According to NBC Chicago, the average running time for the 2023 marathon was 4:14:29 (hours:minutes:seconds).  As of press time, there was no data regarding this year’s average.  But if we compare to last year’s, Mr. Brown ran the marathon in 4:11:11 – three minutes under the average!  Mr. Brown ran for the Brain Injury Recovery Foundation.  Mr. Brown describes it as “a non-profit organization whose mission is to support those who have suffered brain or spinal cord injuries as well as their family, friends, and caregivers.”  He ran because his dad had a minor brain injury as a result of a car accident.  Although his father does not have major injuries, Mr. Brown says that “it still does affect [his dad] from time to time.”  The Brain Injury Recovery Foundation supported him when it came time to register for the Chicago Marathon.  Mr. Brown says, that he “ran this race to honor my dad!”

Mr. Brown, congratulations on this amazing achievement.  We hope to see you run another marathon again, whether it be the Chicago again or the Boston Marathon!