Tracy Press

 
Marathon runner prepares for biggest challenge yet

Ron Harvey, who will compete in the Boston Marathon later this month, warms up for a 6-mile run April 2. Photo by Glenn Moore/Tracy Press

Ron Harvey didn’t know what an all-out effort was until last summer, when he ran his first marathon.

Now, he counts himself among the athletes who know what it means to reach the limits of physical and mental exertion.

“You can’t fake it,” he said. “The distance is so great, and it takes so much out of you. As you’re running, you go through such an emotional and physical roller-coaster. It literally beats you into submission.”

Then he discovered that he comes out on the other side stronger than ever.

“The runner’s high, where you feel good about yourself, lasts for weeks,” he added. “I’ve never gone out for a run and felt worse getting back than when I left.”

Harvey, 43, said that while he won’t be among the top finishers in his races, he feels honored to run in the same events as the sport’s greats.

On April 21, he will run with the biggest champions in the world at the Boston Marathon.

His time at the California International Marathon in Sacramento in December — four hours, 47 minutes, three seconds — is well over the 3:20:00 qualifying time for the Boston Marathon in his age group. But he gained a spot among the 25,000 runners after the American Liver Foundation offered him one of 246 places in the race as part of the group’s Run for Research team.

He had to raise at least $3,000 for the Liver Foundation and expects to raise more than $5,000 by the time race day comes around. One way or another, he will earn his place in the marathon.

“This is the first time it will mean something to someone other than me,” he said.

He learned about the typical feeling a runner gets during a race during his first race, the San Francisco Marathon in July 2007.

After about 20 miles, he was confident that the marathon wasn’t as hard as he expected. That was just before he discovered that the real race hadn’t even started.

“A lot of people say the last 6 miles is the toughest half of a marathon,” he said.

At the finish line, his first thought was that the race would be his last, but within an hour, he was thinking about how to improve his performance next time.

He ran the California International Marathon a few months later and finished about an hour faster than at San Francisco. His most recent race was the Napa Valley Marathon on March 2. He plans to run the Big Sur Marathon on April 27, a week after the Boston Marathon, and his second running of the San Francisco Marathon in August will be his seventh race.

Harvey expects the Boston Marathon will put up challenges he isn’t likely to face in any other races.

The climb of about 200 feet in elevation between the 16th and 21st miles consists mostly of rolling hills. Between Newton and Brookline is a slope that goes up 100 feet over less than a half-mile between the 20th and 21st mile. Runners refer to it as “Heartbreak Hill,” Harvey said.

But unlike most races, which include long lonely stretches, race fans will be there to encourage him and everyone else at the event for the entire route.

“Boston is literally, from one end to the other, one big cheering section,” he said.

Harvey also expects that he will have put in his hardest work in the daily training it takes to prepare for a big event.

“The marathon itself is the victory lap.”

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