Boston Marathon postponed, prolific runner turns 106 laps on MA track

MOULTONBOROUGH — Thirty-four years ago, Scott Graham was on Boylston Street in Boston, sitting on his backside and crying, as the two most important women in his life stood over him.

“I was broken, physically and emotionally. I said to my mother and wife, don’t ever let me do something like that to my body again,” Graham recounted on Monday, which was Patriots’ Day in Massachusetts.

He was telling the story of his first Boston Marathon. Within a couple of months after that first one, he had already taken back his Boylston Street declaration and had his sights set on going back again, with an eye toward improving his time.

Graham is a member of the “Quarter Century Club,” people who have run in the Boston classic more than 25 times. He’s been a member of that club for eight years.

Graham was planning to add to his streak again this year, and decided that if the coronavirus was going to push the 2020 Boston Marathon from April to September, he was going to run his race, anyway.

“I’ve run a marathon on Patriots’ Day for the last 33 years, year 34 wasn’t going to change,” Graham said.

He couldn’t do it in Boston. And the 61-year-old didn’t want to punish his body by trying to find a 26.2-mile route through the hills and dirt roads of his hometown of Moultonborough. So, with the blessing of the principal, he arrived at Moultonborough Academy’s running track at 4:45 on Monday morning and started running in circles on the quarter-mile track.

“I figured, what the heck, I’ll do it here,” he said.

Running might sometimes be seen as a solitary sport, but Graham said that it takes a village to run a marathon. He has a group of friends that are attempting to run every road in Moultonborough, other friends that explore the trails in the Ossipee Range. At around 6 a.m., his first fans appeared.

“A lot of the running community started to show up as the time went on,” Graham said.

And they brought signs. Some cheered him on using his running nickname of Scotty PHAT Graham – the middle part of which stands for “Pain, Heavy At Times.” Others brought a flip-board to display the name of the town he would be running in at that moment, if he were in Boston. And as he approached his final miles, a Citgo sign even came into view, as the crowd grew to about 20 supporters.

“The running community is strong, it’s a great group of people,” he said. At the stroke of 9 a.m., he was completing his final of 106 laps of the Moultonborough Academy track. Unlike his first Boston Marathon, Graham now says he is certain he’ll be back for more.

“It’s very addictive. It’s a rush, and there’s the camaraderie. You’re racing, yes, but you’re not racing against the other people, you’re racing against yourself,” Graham said.