Thirty-seven year old Alexis Mastronardi, of Wilmington, finished her third Boston Marathon in five hours and 44 seconds, but the story behind the race is much longer. It is the story of one man, Alexis’ father, and the family that runs marathons to remember him.John Mastronardi was a special education teacher in the Revere public school system for more than 30 years. After his death in 1994 following a struggle with blood disease, his family could think of no better way to memorialize him than to start a scholarship in his name. For every year since, The John Mastronardi Memorial Scholarship has been awarded to a Revere High School graduate intending to pursue a career in special education every year since 1995.
“He used to run the Boston Marathon,” remembers Mastronardi. “He was an avid runner.”
Completing the marathon himself several times, John even held Revere’s course record for short time when he completed the marathon in 2:56:42 in 1978. The scholarship reflects that love, as well. The funds for the scholarship are raised through the marathon, with someone completing the race for the fund Last year, it was Mastronardi’s cousin, Sarah Russell, of Tewksbury. Russell, an athlete for Tewksbury Memorial High School and Cushing Academy before playing four years with the Boston University women’s hockey team. She finished the course in just under five hours last year in honor of her uncle.
“It is something that I’ve been thinking about doing for a while and so I am very happy to have accomplished my goal,” said Russell last year in the Town Crier. “It was also especially rewarding for me that I was able to raise money for a scholarship in memory of my Uncle John.”
This year, it was Alexis who wanted to run for her father and nothing – not even soaring temperatures – was going to keep her from that task.
- Alexis Mastronardi at Mile 24
“It was so cool,” said Mastronardi. “It felt like he was running with me the whole way.”
To train for the race, Mastronardi completed three runs during the week, and one long run during the weekend. As the mother of a five-year-old and Emmanuel College’s Associate Athletic Director, it was a struggle to find the time, but she did it, with the help of a very supportive family. Her husband, Jerry Walsh, and daughter, Jaelyn Walsh, would often meet her on her long runs with water and other supplies, and get even more creative with support for her finish.
“I’d get back from a long run and there’d be a sign that said ‘Good Job, Mumma,’” said Mastronardi.
Once, Jaelyn and Jerry even set up a mock finish line in front of their house, stringing a rope across her finish. Mastronardi was hoping Jaelyn would be able to run the last two-tenths of the last mile with her, but she was unable to come out on the day of the race because she was sick. She still spent the day tracking her mother at home on the computer with her grandmother.
In addition to her friends and family, who camped out at mile 17, Mastronardi found support from the tens of thousands of strangers who crowded along the 26.2-mile course, that starts in Hopkinton and winds through eight Massachusetts towns and cities before finishing in Copley Square in downtown Boston.
“The crowd support along the way was incredible,” she said. “It was there the whole 26 miles.” People turned out with everything from hoses to ice cubes to orange slices to encourage the runners.
Though Mastronardi had run the marathon twice before, the most recent time was 12 years ago and she always had someone else to run with. The first time, it was her college roommate. The second time, she had someone to run with her from mile 17 on. This time, she was all by herself, and the hills of Newton seemed near impenetrable. She was particularly nervous about some recurring pains and injuries that cropped up during her months of training and prevented her from competing a planned 22-mile practice run prior to the race. Luckily, come the day of the race, the familiar pains did not cause any problems.
“I thought that these would really hamper me, but they didn’t. It was the heat. It was exhausting,” said Mastronardi. “It was a hot one.”
That fact, perhaps, cannot be overstated. The temperatures, which reached well into the 90s on Monday, were high enough to prompt the Boston Athletic Association (BAA) to advise registered runners who were inexperienced or ill to opt out of the race. The BAA offered registration deferral for those who chose this option, an offer they made two years ago to a smaller contingent when an Icelandic volcano prevented some European marathoners from making the trip.
Despite the challenge the heat presented, Mastronardi thinks it’s pretty cool she ran in the second-hottest Boston Marathon on record. And, in some way, the heat connected her to her father. Mastronardi’s mother remembers a similarly tough marathon her husband completed. Mastronardi’s brother, Michael Mastronardi, who graduates from Coast Guard Boot Camp this coming weekend, would like to do the marathon in the next couple of years for the fund. For Christmas this year, he got his sister an IPod that she could listen to while training and in the race – a bit different from the Walkman she had last time she was training for the Boston Marathon.
“I plan on passing the torch to him,” said Mastronardi, not eager to undergo the grueling training process again. After that, there’s always Jaelyn, who wore her mother’s medal all of Monday night.
“She said, ‘Do you think, when I’m 18, I could run it?’” recounted Mastronardi.
Sounds like the family tradition is safe.
By: Kayti Burt – Sports Correspondent. Complete article can be found in the April 20, 2012 edition of the Wilmington Town Crier or at: http://homenewshere.com/wilmington_town_crier/sports/article_14f5f3ce-8b24-11e1-a9fa-001a4bcf887a.html