Park Pilot columnist Don Belfort competes in 2014 Boston Marathon. Article written by Rachelle Haughn. Photos provided by Don Belfort. Read Don Belfort's quarterly “Electrics and Electronics” column in Park Pilot.
On April 21, 2014, Park Pilot columnist Don Belfort traded his transmitter for a pair of running shoes and competed in the 118th running of the Boston Marathon. Before the race began, Don carried a sign provided by AMA to the start line that said, “The Academy of Model Aeronautics salutes the Boston Marathon and its runners.” This was the fifth time that Don has competed in the Boston Marathon, and his 80th race. He typically runs in two to four races per year. Don qualified for the 2014 Boston Marathon at last year’s Flying Pig Marathon with a time of 3 hours and 37 minutes. He was in the 11 a.m. heat of the Boston Marathon and finished at approximately 3 p.m. “[I’m] not real happy with four hours and a few seconds, as I know I can do better,” he said. “My training runs had gone better than my race performance but the time went by very fast as it only can at Boston. There were record crowds cheering the whole way, which is something else.
“It was hot for me—finishing in temperatures in the low 70s.” Don also competed in the 1993, 1996, 2000, and 2007 Boston Marathons. He said that when he was running in the 1993 marathon, there were news reports about the Branch Davidian compound fire in Waco, Texas, and the Virginia Tech shootings were reported when he was running in the 2007 Boston Marathon. He did not run in the 2013 Boston Marathon, which was marked by the tragic bombings that killed three and injured more than 250. One of the suspected bombers, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, is set to go to trial in November. “Boston is always a high-intensity marathon, just by the fact that a qualification time is needed. The large presence of local and military law enforcement just reminded everyone that someone was watching. Memorials around Boston where the bombs had gone off were a constant reminder of what had happened. The crowds combined all this to create the Boston Strong image throughout the race,” Don said.
The modeler ran his first marathon in May of 1981. He said it was called the Milk Run Marathon and he still has the T-shirt from the race. Don plans to compete for as long as he can. He has been an aeromodeler since the mid-1960s when he built his first stick-and-tissue rubber FF (Free Flight) and CL (Control Line) models. He writes the quarterly “Electrics and Electronics” column in Park Pilot.
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