No small beer for Boston buster

By Gavin Staindl
BERWICK’S Barry Rogers first discovered his love for running in his early 20s when, to justify drinking, say, a six-pack of beer, he would later run six kilometres.
Today, this enthusiasm – without the beer – has taken Rogers to Boston, in the US, where he crossed the line as the fastest Australian in the 42km Boston marathon.
Rogers, 41, finished the course in two hours and 38 minutes, a personal best.
Racing with 23,125 other people he finished 180th overall and was the 11th quickest male above 40.
Just as impressive, Rogers was the quickest in a field of 75 Aussie runners, even though he says that’s “no big deal”.
“It is actually a bit embarrassing,” said a modest Rogers. “It was always just a personal thing for me.”
Rogers was initially impressed last April when he saw the Boston marathon on television.
“I saw it on TV on the news about the world’s most famous marathon so I said to myself, ‘I want to do it’, so I began looking how to qualify,” he said.
What was needed to qualify was running under three hours and 20 minutes at the Melbourne marathon but it was not an easy process for Rogers who suffered a major bout of shin splints and stress factures in the lead-up to the October event.
For two-and-a-half months Rogers would strap himself to floaties and practise running in the deep end of the Cardinia Life pool.
“It was very boring. There was not much to look at,” he said.
But perseverance paid off and after qualifying in Melbourne in a time of two hours and 50 minutes, Rogers found himself at the starting line of the oldest marathon in the world.
“I was a bit toey. It is overwhelming how big it is over there (in Boston). Along the track they say there are over one million spectators … It is like six AFL grand finals all held in the one day.
“They get thousands of those yellow school buses to carry all the runners from Boston at six in the morning to an oval at Hopkinton where they are then called up to the starting line,” Rogers said.
At the starting line runners are ranked in terms of best time so Rogers’ rank of 1653 (corresponding with his bib number) meant he began towards the front of the line but such was the density of the pack it still took him 18 seconds to cross the starting line.
During the race he had to dodge falling competitors, push through lactic acid build-up in his legs and avoid a kilometre of screaming girls.
“It is Patriots Day and you get 5000 screaming girls from this all-girl university who try to make as much noise to beat their noisy performance from last year, and that goes on for a whole kilometre,” Rogers said.
As for the race itself, Rogers, who uses a training program recommended to him from the Boston marathon webpage, says Pakenham’s hilly terrain meant he was up to the conditions.
“Most marathons are flat but Boston’s is unusual as it is downhill at the start so your legs start to burn … and then there are the hills at the end. But training up around here (Pakenham) is a big help,” he said.
Despite his achievement Rogers, who works at Garry Rogers Motors in Pakenham, is not out to set bigger records.
“I’m just more interested in selling cars at the moment,” he said, with a laugh.