Holden shines – despite rain, wind – in Boston Marathon debut
Written by Rob McGuinness
BOSTON, Mass. – The wicked weather was one of the leading story lines for the 122nd running of the Boston Marathon. Temperatures near 40 degrees, steady rain and stiff headwinds made the 26.2-mile trek from Hopkinton to Boston even more of a challenge for the 26,948 runners who toed the starting line on Monday morning.
But Mother Nature did not slow Shannon Holden '16, who made her debut in the world's oldest annual marathon. The former cross country captain not only crossed the finish line on Boylston Street, but she did so in a personal-best time, dropping 11 minutes from her qualifying mark. Holden's time of 3 hours, 12 minutes and 19 seconds placed her 352nd among the 11,604 women in the race and 3,755th overall.
Holden, who set or shared multiple cross country and track records during her running career at Salve Regina, was determined not to let the elements dictate the outcome of the race, or undermine months of training.
"For about a week, I was hearing, 'The weather is going to be so horrible. What are you going to do?'" Holden said. "I responded the same way each time: I'm not going to let myself get worked up over it. The weather is one of the only things I can't control; I'm sure I've run in worse."
That may have been an understatement, but after a final check of the weather app on her phone – which confirmed a temperature of 38 degrees and headwinds gusting at 28 miles per hour – Holden made up her mind. This was the Boston Marathon, after all.
"I said to myself, everyone is going to be running in the same conditions," Holden recalled. "It's race day. It's THE Boston Marathon. I'm not going to let the weather dictate my race."
Holden, wearing bib No. 13020, started the race in the sixth corral of Wave 2. That wave was called to the starting line at 10:25 a.m. The wind and rain were unrelenting, but Holden opened with a few steady splits, reaching 5K (3.1 miles) at 22:53 and 10K (6.2 miles) at 45:37.
"I was soaked, but I didn't feel too cold besides my hands and arms, despite wearing long sleeves and gloves. I just embraced the rain and tried to stay positive," Holden said. "When the winds would pick up, or there was a big downpour, I would put my head down, tough through it, and thank God that I made it through another trying part."
Her steady pacing continued: 1:08:06 at 15K (9.3 miles) and 1:30:42 at 20K (12.4 miles). A half marathon split of 1:35.36 indicated that a significant personal best could be in store, but there was still a long way to run.
"My goal was to go out conservatively and settle in to my marathon pace, which ended up being faster than planned," Holden said, "but I didn't waste my fast miles in the beginning and tire myself out for the rest, which, for me, is a big accomplishment."
The later miles proved to be as steady as the first ones, even as Holden climbed the infamous hills in Newton. Her split at 35K – 2:39:46 – which comes not long after Heartbreak Hill, showed only a little lost time on one of the most difficult stretches of the course. She looked to the spectators – and her family – to maintain her morale.
"I knew I would start to see my family around Mile 19. That helped the miles pass more quickly," Holden said. "There were people cheering on every stretch of road, and they loved it when you interacted with them. The crowds helped so much. I was absolutely soaking it all up."
Holden tried to take in as much of the atmosphere as possible in the closing miles. The crowds began to swell, and the energy intensified. The final turns – right on Hereford Street, left on Boylston Street – are etched in her memory. She spotted her family among the crowd and surged for the final few strides.
"I had a huge, beaming grin on my face for the last .2 miles," she said. "I crossed the finish line and started crying – very happy tears – and hugging complete strangers. It was an experience I will never forget. I consider myself so blessed to be able to do it."
A source of inspiration – and motivation
Every runner who enters the Boston Marathon has a story, a "what" or a "why" that brings them to the starting line. Earning a bib, either by qualifying in a previous marathon or by meeting a major fundraising commitment, requires unwavering dedication.
Shannon Holden, credits her mother, Kristi (McArdle) Holden '88, an avid runner who has run three Boston Marathons – 2009, 2013, 2014 – and nine career marathons, for getting her started in a sport that she has grown to love. It began when Shannon was a high school sophomore, and it wasn't the easiest transition.
"I wasn't very good at it. I was doing it to trim down and get in shape," Holden said. "I remember going on 2- and 3-mile runs with my mom and complaining the entire time, about a cramp, being tired, or not being able to breathe, anything."
It was only a matter of time, however, before she was "addicted" to running, and running well.
"Once I had the addiction, I made running the Boston Marathon a life goal," Holden said. "Never did I think I would accomplish it at 23 years old, or at the pace that I ran it."
Kristi Holden crossed the finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon minutes before the bombing that killed three people and injured hundreds of others. The Holden family was on Boylston Street to watch the race. Shannon, then a freshman at Salve Regina, was in Newport, awaiting word from the scene. The Holdens, thankfully, were unharmed.
"For that hour that I couldn't reach them, I was thinking the worst," Holden said. "It was a very emotional time, and I would say it only added fuel to the fire of my Boston Marathon goal."
That goal started to become a reality during Holden's senior year at Salve Regina. Holden, by then an All-Commonwealth Coast Conference honoree in cross country, was more comfortable at longer distances on the roads. It was decided, on a cold Saturday long run, to start building toward a qualifying race.
Holden picked the Bay State Marathon in Lowell, Massachusetts, for her debut at 26.2 miles. The training – and the race, on Oct. 16, 2016 – went exactly as planned. She finished, with cross country coach Rob McGuinness by her side, at 3:23:35. That cleared the way for the 2018 Boston Marathon.
The training for her second marathon looked much like the training for her first, only faster and stronger. Holden started strength workouts at CrossFit Bridgewater, and her training runs, in general, were 15 to 20 seconds per mile faster than they had been on the last marathon cycle. She set her sights on a new personal best at Boston.
"I ran Bay State in 3:23, so my 'goal' for Boston was maybe to run around the same time. If it was a really good day, I would try to break 3:20," she said. "I felt really comfortable at 7:30 pace (per mile) and the thought of maintaining that for 26 miles didn't intimidate me at all on race day. So that is what I set out to do."
She did even better: 3:12:19 is 7:21 per mile. And she is eligible to run Boston again in 2019.
Will she go back?
"The thought of training for another marathon right now is daunting," Holden said. "But I have a feeling, in a year, I will be itching to do it again. I don't think I can say no to the Boston Marathon."