By Samantha Brown
Sitting at the round tables of the Lightkeeper’s Residence, those who attended Monday’s Rotary Club meeting were inspired. In conjunction with the “One Book One Cohasset” program, which will formally kick off Feb. 5, author and marathon runner David McGillivray, who is also the Boston Marathon Race Director, came to share his story with the first of many groups he will visit with in town.
Cohasset is taking part in the One Book program for the first time this year. Spearheaded by the staff at the Paul Pratt Library, the goal is to have the town collectively read McGillivray’s book titled, “The Last Pick,” and as a community participate in activities and discussions which will bring everyone closer together with a common thread. The program will culminate April 1 in conjunction with the Rotary Club’s Road Race By the Sea, which McGillivray plans to run.
Cohasset resident Linda Glass Fechter co-authored McGillivray’s book, which is one of the reasons the library decided to choose “The Last Pick” for its first One Book selection. But even without the Cohasset tie, McGillivray’s story is so inspiring, the library felt it would strike a chord with everyone in the community, young and old.
“To think a community has selected our book as the inaugural book for ‘One Book’ means an awful lot,” said McGillivray, adding while in his lifetime he has received many accolades for his athletic ability, being recognized for the book is a new and wonderful feeling.
When asked what his book is about, McGillivray says he always gives the same answer — “It’s about the person reading it.” He said anyone who reads his book could identify with the message and apply it to their own lives. “It’s about turning negatives into positives.”
For sending that message, McGillivray has been asked to speak at more than 1500 venues, from kindergarten classrooms to prisons to the Junior Catholic Daughters of the Americas to the Rochester School for the Deaf. However, he noted everyone has a story to tell, and anyone can provide inspiration.
But his story begins with his childhood. McGillivray said he always wanted to be a “stud athlete” but was, in a sense, handicapped, due to his short stature. “I was vertically challenged,” he said, standing at 5-foot 5-inches tall. “I couldn’t dunk, I couldn’t hit the ball over the fence,” and in turn, he would always be the last picked for sports teams, which provided the title for his book.
“It was so devastating for a young boy who only wanted to be an athlete” to always be picked last by his peers he said, adding growing up, basketball and baseball were his two favorite sports and he practiced all the time. He would throw free throw after free throw and continued to beat his own records. As a sophomore in high school, he tried out for the basketball team and was the last player cut. He was told by the coach, “If you were just 5 inches taller, you’d be my starting guy.”
That afternoon McGillivray challenged a 6-foot 5-inch center to a game of 21. “I beat him,” he said, adding it was a very defining moment in his life.
Feeling discouraged, McGillivray went home and took out a marker and made a sign that said, “Please God, make me grow,” and hung it over his bed. “As I got older, He did make me grow — internally, because isn’t that where it counts? Inside, I was 6-foot 5,” he said.
It was training for the sports he loved that led him to running. “You become a runner by default,” he said, adding very few people set out to be runners, they just fall into it while getting in shape for something else. For him, running was a sport no one could tell him not to do, and his size didn’t matter.
Boston Marathon
At the age of 17, McGillivray heard about the Boston Marathon for the first time. He said although he grew up in Medford, somehow the race had never come across his radar screen. He called up his grandfather and told him he was going to run, and he in turn was very supportive of that goal. He told McGillivray he would be waiting for him at Coolidge Corner.
McGillivray began the race well and made it about 18 miles — to heartbreak hill — when he just couldn’t go any farther and collapsed in the street. A police officer saw he was in distress and brought him to Newton-Wellesley Hospital. All the while, he couldn’t stop thinking about his grandfather, waiting for him to pass by. He came home from the hospital later that evening and called his grandfather and there was no answer and McGillivray, picturing his grandfather still there waiting for him, felt awful for letting him down.
When he finally got in touch with his grandfather, he apologized for his failure, to which his grandfather said, “You didn’t fail, you learned.” What he learned was that it is not reasonable to set reckless goals and one must set realistic goals to achieve anything in life. His grandfather told him to begin training and said he would be there again next year, waiting for him on the marathon course.
McGillivray’s grandfather passed away two months later. Training continued until McGillivray was running 120 miles per week. He was ready to race, until he came down with a terrible stomach virus two days before the marathon. While his parents advised he not run in his condition, McGillivray had made a promise to his grandfather and wasn’t about to give up. He asked that his parents not deny him at least the opportunity to start the race, and they agreed.
Five miles in, he felt awful. He ran by his parents, his mother was crying, “as mother’s sometimes do,” and his father was proudly taking pictures. He kept going for as long as he could, until he hit the point where his body just couldn’t take anymore. He collapsed on the curb and once again felt as if he had failed his grandfather.
But when he looked up, now in an unfamiliar section of Boston, he suddenly saw something he recognized. Across the street was the cemetery where his grandfather had been buried. He remembered how his grandfather promised he was going to be there on the day of the race, and there he was. With that, he found the strength he needed and picked himself up off the ground and began running. It took him 4-1/2 hours, but he finished the Boston Marathon, and he’s run that race every year for the past 35.
Once he got the marathon under his belt, he set his sights a little higher. Going back into his childhood, he recalled on his 12th birthday he ran around the pond where his family was staying, which was six miles. Later that day, he ran around the pond again and realized he had run 12 miles on his 12th birthday. Every year since then, he has set the goal of running as far as he is old, and he hasn’t yet disappointed himself.
Last year, on his 52nd birthday, he began in Hopkinton and ran the Boston Marathon course — all 26 miles of it. He then turned around and ran the course again, completing his 52 miles.
But that was nothing compared to the time he ran clear across the country. “I was the Forrest Gump of the ’70s, way before the movie was even made,” he said. Beginning in Medford, Ore., he ran 3,452 miles in 80 days, ending his journey in Medford, Mass.
Jimmy Fund
When he first came up with the idea of running across the country, McGillivray knew he wanted to do it for a cause. He needed something more than his own drive to keep him going when things got tough, and raising money for a charity would be just the thing he needed — but which charity? At that point he was working in the Hancock tower in Boston and one night, he looked out the window and saw a sign at Fenway Park for the Jimmy Fund. Since it was founded in 1948, the Jimmy Fund has supported the fight against cancer in children and adults at Boston’s Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.
McGillivray called Ken Coleman, former Jimmy Fund director, Red Sox announcer, and Cohasset resident, to pitch his idea. Coleman invited him over to his office, and after three hours, they had a deal. “Ken Coleman gave me something no one else ever did — a chance. I’ll never forget him and that’s why I gave a dedication in the book to him,” he said.
McGillivray paid a visit to the children in the clinic before setting out on his journey. He said seeing their strength helped him stay strong and keep working toward his goal. He boarded a plane and headed for the west coast to begin his trek on the other side of the country for two reasons. One, he quipped, was that he has heard prevailing winds go west to east. The other, it would be mentally easier: he would be running home.
McGillivray ran for 10 miles at a time, and then would stop to use the restroom, eat and rest. He would then get back on the road and he repeated this cycle about 5 times per day. He said instead of setting one huge goal, he set many smaller goals and completed his larger goal in pieces.
Of all the states he ran across, the toughest was Pennsylvania, which is very hilly. “I upped my miles to 57 a day just to get out,” he said.
When he finished, 32,000 people greeted McGillivray at Fenway Park, and he ran around the stadium holding the check for the Jimmy Fund. He had never had such a proud moment.
After making it back home safely, McGillivray went on Good Morning America and was asked if he would run across the country again. His response, “Why would I?” He said he sees his life as continually moving forward and that is a goal he has reached and he doesn’t need to complete again. “My best accomplishment is my next one,” he said.
McGillivray has competed in roughly 121 total marathons, including the Hawaiian Iron Man competition eight times. He ran a marathon blindfolded to raise money for the Carroll Center for the Blind in Newton, where his brother worked. Even blindfolded being helped by two guides, he still finished the marathon in just over 3 hours. “I would’ve run faster, but they couldn’t keep up,” he quipped.
Today, McGillivray is the man behind the race, organizing the event and riding in the lead vehicle. However, that doesn’t stop him from running the race after it is over and his direction is no longer needed. “For the last 19 years, I’ve been the very last runner to come in at the Boston Marathon,” he said, and he wouldn’t have it any other way.
Over the years, McGillivray has learned many lessons from his experiences. He has learned that failure usually precedes success and you’ve got to try something and maybe even fail before you can succeed. He had learned that it is possible to live your dreams, and people who say something cannot be done should not interrupt those doing it. But above all, he said with a laugh, “No matter where in this country my car breaks down, I know I can always run home.”
The Rotary Club meets every Monday at 6:30 at the Lightkeeper’s Residence on Government Island. Copies of “The Last Pick” can be found at the Paul Pratt Library, Buttonwood Books and other major book retailers.
