YOUNG AT HEART: CAROL WRIGHT BREAKING AGE BARRIERS AT 79 WITH RUN IN BOSTON MARATHON
CAPE COD TIMES
As Carol Wright, 79, wound her way through “seven little towns” — from Hopkinton to Boylston Street — during the 2021 Boston Marathon last week, she was “pretty wiped out,” by the time she reached Heartbreak Hill.
“Once you go up Heartbreak, it’s supposed to be time to celebrate but I was moving pretty slow at that point,” Wright said, “But the spectators, who are always just fantastic, began cheering me on and it was just what I needed to push through the last 6 miles.”
Wright, who is from Sandpoint, Idaho, was the oldest woman runner at this year's Marathon and came in sixth in the 75 to 79 age group. The elite runner has participated in six Boston Marathons in total — including the virtual race in October 2020. While she admits this year’s run wasn’t “her best time,” she said it was an “achievement all the same.” She clocked in at 5 hours, 27 minutes,18 seconds, according to 2021 Boston Marathon records.
“I think I can be an inspiration because many people say I’m too old to run,” Wright said. “But I know that if you want it bad enough, you’ll figure out a way to do it.”
Paying respects on the Cape
A big part of running the race for Wright — who competed against 11 other women in the 2021 age group category — is coming to Cape Cod afterward to pay respect to Johnny Kelley, who is often known “as the Marathon Man,” Wright said.
Every year, Wright and her family, including her cousin Pam Eaton, a 30-year Cape resident, walk through Johnny Kelley Recreational Park in Dennis. The trek is followed by a visit to Quivet Neck Cemetery in East Dennis, where Kelleyis buried.
“I read his book ‘Young at Heart,’ before every Boston Marathon for inspiration,” Wright said. “I feel associated with him in a way and it feels good to know so much of his history and remember a man who is known for completing in 61 Boston Marathons.”
Kelley ran his last full Boston Marathon when he was 84. He died in 2004 at age 97.
'You are never too old to start'
Wright’s dedication to running the Marathon doesn’t begin and end on game day. The late-in-life athlete, who began her running career at 70, trains five days a week to prepare for the Boston Marathon, but also other races across the country.
Mike Ehredt an ambassador, coach, and healer with Hyland’s, a homeopathic product company, is Wright’s coach. By checking in with Wright weekly and assigning training exercises, the elite and ultra-distance runner was able to teach Wright how to achieve her goal of becoming a marathon runner.
“When we first started, Mike had me running four minutes, and walking one. Then we went to eight minutes running and walking two,” Wright said. “He met me at the track to do speed work and taught me how to do uphill training and recovery. He helped me stay accountable.”
Ehredt, who ran across America in 2010 and 2012, stopping every mile to plant a flag in remembrance of a fallen soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan, said “miles are just miles — whether you are young or old.”
“Your body doesn’t really know any different — it just knows it's running,” he said. “Whether you are age 70 or 7, you are never too old to start and you are never too old to stop running.”
Ehredt, who has nine Boston Marathons under his belt, said he never looks at Wright’s age as a hindrance. Because, for Wright, “every day is a good day and every marathon is a good marathon.”
“What helps Carol is her discipline, her consistency, and her ability to listen,” Ehredt said. “Her enthusiasm has never waned.”
Ehredt was chosen to run alongside Dave McGillivray, famed cross-country runner and current race director of the Boston Athletic Association, at this year’s Marathon.
Coral Darby, who met and worked with Wright through Hyland's, said that within moments of meeting Wright, she was “awestruck.”
“Carol is remarkable, and I’ve always been amazed by her humility and her ability to be simultaneously so passionate,” Darby said. “She is an exception in terms of the elite level she is at as a runner, but she shows people that regardless of her age, you can always strive for more.”
Already training for next year
While the Marathon was her latest adventure, Wright, who spent her professional career in accounting, has always been up for a bit of excitement in her life. Retiring early at age 46, along with her late husband Robert Henry Wright, the duo chose to “live off the grid” in northern Idaho for 13 years.
“We moved to a cabin in 1988 and it was so remote that there were no services there at all,” Wright said. “In wintertime, we used snowmobiles to get around and we had only a wood stove to heat with. It was so quiet and peaceful and I really got to know who I was out there.”
In some ways, Wright thinks the remote lifestyle taught her how to be independent and self-sufficient, which is one reason she's already begun training for next year's Marathon.
“I want to keep running marathons for as long as I can and I don’t know how long that’s going to be,” she said. “And that might mean I’m the oldest person running but that’s okay because every year I become more confident and comfortable and running is the best feeling in the world.”