University of New England

Trains and Badgers: A Marathon Run Well

[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the May 2006 COMmunicator.]

Running to a T

Luke Wood likes to run. Actually, he loves to run. In fact, he admits that it might be more like an addiction. “I don’t feel quite right if I haven’t run in a day,” says Luke, a second year medical student at the University of New England College of Osteopathic Medicine. The twenty-six year old Minnesota native ran his first two marathons this spring, with impressive results.

He won the first race on a cold day in late February with a sweltering time of 2:46:09. In that jog, he beat 300 fellow runners to capture the crown in Hyannis, Massachusetts. That race qualified him for a slightly larger event - the Boston Marathon - on April 17th. By the time he crossed the finish line in Boston, Luke had beaten approximately 20,000 other competitors to finish 88th overall. His time for 26.2 miles? A blistering 2:36:25.

Luke’s older brother Ben, also a second-year COM student, traveled to Boston to cheer his brother on: “Watching some of the best marathon runners in the world compete was an incredible experience,” he recalls, “I only saw Luke running by at mile 22. I tried to get to the finish line before him, but he was running faster than the T was moving, and I missed his finish.”

To outrun a Boston train takes more than a little training. Luke started to run in the 7th grade, had a break-through high school career, then competed in the 5K at Duke University. “Running has always been a positive balancing force in my life,” says Luke, “and so the transition to running longer distances as an MS II was pretty natural.”

Still, it was only in early December that Luke seriously considered the Boston Marathon. “I stayed up late one night researching Boston and a qualifying marathon, and found Hyannis Marathon in late February,” he says. “I think I committed to both races that night, but it took me a while to convince myself that I would be running two marathons in the next five months.”

After he won Hyannis, Luke took a week off, then ratcheted up his runs to maximize training before tapering off for Boston. “I was running about 6 times a week and trying to do a long run every week,” he says matter-of-factly. “It is somewhat less than ideal to run 2 marathons 7 weeks apart. When I started training again in the beginning of March, I think I was initially over-training.” He and running partner Pete Sedgwick, a resident at Maine Med, did a 20-miler in cold temps, and Luke was about done. “I had to take it easy a bit because I was burned out,” he says, “Once I got my legs back, I had a few more good weeks of training towards the end of March.” A 21-miler out to Kennebunkport and a game of Ultimate Frisbee were his last hard workouts before the race.

Osteopathy and the Badger Within

Luke believes that his osteopathic training has made him a more efficient runner. “In all honesty,” he says, “I think being in an osteopathic medical school has allowed me to listen to my body while I’m training to a degree that I never could when I was running in high school or college. I can feel when I’m physically out of balance and try to correct it. I have an easier time tuning into this now that I’m at UNECOM.”

Ben Wood believes that there’s another reason Luke has proven so successful at marathon-running. “Running brings balance to Luke’s life,” says Ben,  “It is an essential part of his deepest inner nature.” Then he adds as an afterthought, “And it helps suppress the latent badger within him.” The latent badger? Ben explains: “The night before Luke’s first day of first grade he couldn’t sleep, and he asked me to scratch his back. I pushed him into my stereo and knocked out his front tooth.” So a badger came to his defense? Ben continues, “I never really liked fighting with Luke too often, though. If I shoved him down, he’d always get back up with stronger resolve every time, and if you got him ‘rowled’ up, he had the temper of an angry badger.”

That unyielding determination helped Luke along as he ran 5:58 mile-splits at Boston. And the crowd was phenomenal. “I’ve become used to the fact that running is not a spectator sport,” says Luke, “However, I had a hard time convincing myself of that [at Boston.] It amazed me that the race is over 26 miles and it is virtually entirely lined with spectators. Then you come into these towns and there’s hundreds of people cheering.”

The crowds influenced Luke’s pace. “I have always had the tendency to go out too fast in races, and I knew that was the case when I came through the halfway mark and my split was 2 minutes faster than my previous fastest half-marathon (1:13:10).” Still, he felt pretty good until about 16 miles. “At that point, I started feeling the physical ramifications of going out too fast,” says Luke, “The last 10 miles were a struggle, especially the last several miles.”

Ben saw Luke in the midst of his extremity. “At [mile] 22, I knew he was up pretty far to the front, but I didn’t realize that he was in the top 100, and that he was about to shave off 9 minutes from his time at Hyannis… When Luke ran by, we shouted his name and cheered, but he didn’t really hear us – he was in the zone and looked like he was in a pretty good deal of pain. I think he was still running sub-6 splits, though.” Fast enough to outrun the T as Ben tried to motor ahead to see his brother finish.

Rounding a corner and spotting the finish was “nothing short of a beautiful sight” to Luke. “I had a hard time standing after crossing the finish line,” the tuckered runner says, “and I know I’ve never pushed myself nor reached that level of fatigue ever before in my life. It was a mix of complete and utter exhaustion and absolute joy in running a time that I dreamed [but] didn’t expect.” He didn’t realize his elite place until after the fact when he had thrown on his warm-ups and a silver space blanket. “That’s when it hit me at an emotional level,” he says.

Pleased and Proud

Ben, for his part, is a proud older brother who couldn’t be happier with Luke’s success. “I remember being pretty envious when Luke first started running because it was obvious from the beginning that he was going to be a very competitive runner… Now that we’re older, we mutually support each other in the things we do. He always comes to my shows [Ben is an accomplished guitarist and vocalist], and he has been around a lot to offer his support as an uncle to the twins. I didn’t get the opportunity to watch Luke run in college, and Boston was only the second time I’ve seen Luke run competitively in recent years. I’m proud of Luke’s success in Boston, his victory at Hyannis, and running in general.”

The brothers consider their concurrent time at med school a blessing. “It still blows me away sometimes to think about how fortunate we are to have wound up in the same place,” says Ben. “We pretty much share the same friends and spend so much time together that I think we’ve developed a mild form of telepathy. Luke’s work ethic and ability to focus carry over from running into academics, and I think I often benefit from that when we study together.” Ben and his wife Becca just had twins, and uncle Luke is a constant loving presence in the children’s lives.

Luke is pleased, but low-key about his success at Boston. “In retrospect, I would have been more mindful of my pace over the first half of the race,” he says, “and tried to slow it down a bit. I’m pretty green when it comes to marathoning.” He is not one to rest on laurels. “Of course I was extremely happy with the race,” he says, “but if I had run a smarter race, I’m confident that I could have run a good bit faster.” Beware the latent badger.

-Steve Smith, RSAS