Rockwall YMCA member finishes Boston Marathon ‘Boston Strong’

(ROCKWALL, TX – May 19, 2015) When J.E.R. Chilton YMCA member Estus Barron, 47, crossed the finish line of the 2015 Boston Marathon with a remarkable net total time of 2:58:43 to place 144th overall in the 45-49 age bracket, he really began to appreciate the meaning behind the infamous race’s slogan “Boston Strong.”

“I felt like I could do anything,” Estus said.

Fans and supporters lined the sidewalks and backyards of the 26-mile race course to cheer on the marathon runners. The energy and adrenaline from their cheers helped drive Estus and his coach, Barrett Hopper, as they trekked on mile after mile.

“That’s the push – that’s what keeps me going,” Estus said. “You feed off of it.”

The sheer amount of audience support can have one feeling like a celebrity, especially near mile 13, where the students of the all-female Wellesley College have made it a tradition to come out and show their support for the marathon runners. Each year, thousands of students line about a quarter mile of the course to form what’s known as the Wellesley Scream Tunnel. The girls motivate the runners with loud hoots and hollers of encouragement and even kisses. Runners have said the Wellesley students are so loud they can hear them from a mile off.

Estus said when he first ran the marathon last year, he immensely enjoyed the experience of running through the streets of Boston giving high-fives and shaking hands with the onlookers. But this year, he focused his mind on his goal: to finish the race in under three hours.

After the tragic bombings near the left side of finish line of the 2013 Boston Marathon left five dead and numerous others injured, Estus said he always thinks of the tragedy each time he runs the marathon, and almost subconsciously avoids the left side as he races to the finish line.

“I ran the Boston Marathon twice after the bombing, and I always think about that,” Estus said. “So I always go to the right.”

Of course, running 26 miles will take its toll on any runner. There comes a time during the race when a runner begins to feel the fatigue set in and begins to dig deep for that special form of encouragement which will give him or her that extra boost. For Estus, this moment came about the 17th mile, when he started thinking about his grandfather who helped raise him and also inspired him to join the military.

“I start thinking about him, and then there’s no way in the world I can quit,” Estus said. “He never quit on anything, and was in the military and went through wars. So I always feed off of that.”

Estus served in the U.S. Navy for 23 years before he retired and began to take up running as a means to expend all of his energy. He became a member of the J.E.R. Chilton YMCA at Rockwall in 2007 while still in the Navy, and shortly after his retirement in 2011 started training at the Rockwall Running Center, where he and Coach Hopper one day got together a small group and decided to train for the Boston Marathon.

The group received a tremendous amount of support from the community and the J.E.R. Chilton YMCA. A week before they left for Boston, a group of local supporters met them out at the track to hand out care packages which included “Boston Strong” wristbands.

The effort definitely didn’t go unnoticed by Estus and his fellow marathon runners.

“That little thing, it’s small, but it shows a lot that people in the community care and they helped us,” Estus said. “That meant a lot.”

Estus plans to run in next year’s Boston Marathon as well as the New York City Marathon on November 1, 2015.

While he has certainly racked up a lot of miles since he first began running four years ago, Estus said the satisfaction of finishing up a long run will always motivate him to continue participating in marathons and to push himself to achieve better results.

“I don’t care how many times I run a marathon, I always feel like, ‘Why am I doing this?’” Estus said. “But then I always feel that self-satisfaction. It’s called a runner’s high; once you get it, you roll over at night and think, I can’t wait to run in the morning.”

Story by Austin Wells, Blue Ribbon News reporter. Photo by Bonnie LaVielle. 

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