Boston: Patrick McAdie, a sales manager by profession, decided to run the half-marathon 13.1 miles from Wellesley to Boston after the 2020 Boston marathon was postponed until September 14 due to COVID-19 pandemic.
"I was planning to run Boston (referring to the Boston Marathon) this year, my buddy and I were, and obviously with everything going on in the world, it was the most prudent thing to cancel it, obviously. So, I still wanted to do some of it. So, I texted my buddies yesterday and I said, 'Guys, should I run the full thing and try and just, like, break three hours or should I run the second half of it all out?' And the guys said to just go run the second half of it all out," Patrick McAdie said.
Asked about his experience of running a marathon alone, he said, "Definitely a surreal experience because we – I expected that there would be more runners out there doing what I was doing, but I think I might have been the only one. So, at least for the route I ran."
Amid this global crisis, McAdie and his wife are expecting a baby. So talking about the current situation he said, "My wife and I are expecting a baby in the next three weeks. And it's a scary time for a lot of people. So, the thing that keeps me normal and keeps my life sort of balanced is running. So, I wanted to be ... Oh my God. Wow. You know, you want to maintain some sense of normalcy and also be smart about social distancing and not putting other people at risk, and obviously not being at risk yourself."
The marathon was originally scheduled for Monday, but organizers and authorities have postponed the race until September 14th due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision has stripped the streets of brightly coloured singlets and opened a gap in the sporting schedule for runners from all over the world.
The absence is being felt all along the 26.2-mile (42 kilometres) course that was largely empty of runners, except for medical devices sales manager Patrick McAdie.
Worldwide, the outbreak has infected more than 2.4 million people and killed over 165,000, according to a Johns Hopkins University tally based on figures supplied by government health authorities around the globe, though it has become increasingly clear that the true numbers are much higher.
