Sitting in his spacious dining room overlooking Iris Avenue in Salem, N.H., the street which has served as the starting point for literally thousands of training runs, Bill Hames insists that tomorrow is indeed it.
Sure, there will still be some jaunts. Five and 10K runs and perhaps even a half-marathon or two, but there will be no more busses to Hopkinton early in the morning and no more foil wraps on Boylston Street later in the afternoon.
A marathon odyssey that started in 1979 when Hames, at 31, cruised over the finish line with a respectable time of 3:26 will reach its conclusion tomorrow in the same spot for the 60-year-old sales representative for Palmer Gas Ermer Oil of Atkinson, N.H.
"This is it," he reaffirmed just days away from his 20th consecutive Boston Marathon and his 30th marathon in all. "I've promised too many people."
At the top of that list is his wife, Peggy, who will be manning her familiar post, with a personalized flag, on the corner of Boylston and Hereford streets tomorrow.
But it's also a promise Hames' own internal clock will not let him break. While still seemingly spry enough to give his bouncing 7-month-old golden Lab, Bella, a run for her money though downtown Salem, the svelte runner is intent on walking | not limping | away from this very fruitful chapter in his life.
"It's time. I want to still be able to take walks on the beach and be active," he said. "A friend of mine who's 61 is almost crippled now from knee injuries. We're talking about a star runner, too."
And make no mistake about it, Hames is going out on top. Yes, the TV trucks will be long gone when he strolls into the Back Bay tomorrow in a time that is likely to exceed five hours, but that is not the number that counts.
The one that does is the better than $50,000 that the longtime member of the Merrimack Valley Striders Running Club has quietly raised in 20 years for Merrimack Valley Hospice.
Giving back
Hames had no idea that an organization like Merrimack Valley Hospice even existed until a co-worker became gravely ill. Throughout the entire ordeal, Hames was blown away by the way the organization smoothed out even the roughest of edges in the most dire of times.
"I just saw how they treated the family," he said. "They can only do so much for the patient, but they take care of all the business from soup to nuts, and they stay calm and cool.
"If it's your loved one, you just can't think straight, even if you're the smartest person in the world. There's all those loose ends, and that's where they come in. It's just an amazing organization. I just called them up and said, 'You don't know me, but I would like to run the marathon for you and raise some money.'"
The admiration is returned by Merrimack Valley Hospice, which on a typical day is helping more than 190 families in 80 cities and towns from Swampscott to Portsmouth, N.H.
"Bill is truly a superstar," said Kerri Eaton, a public information specialist for the organization. "Every February I get the call from him and we formulate a letter, and he uses his own network of contacts to send them out to. ... It's such a special thing, and to be doing it as long as he has for us is truly amazing."
Given the fact that the hospice guarantees help for all families in need, regardless of their insurance, Eaton said, the sizable donations that Hames has delivered for the past 19 Aprils truly make a difference.
No pain, no gain
It's a difference that Hames will feel not only in his heart tomorrow, but in every joint of his body.
Over the last 20 years, he's scheduled a painful foot surgery around one marathon, taken an impromptu ride on the hood of a sedan while training for another and completed a third marathon with a double hernia.
His wife, who's a talented artist and photographer, knows all this, of course, despite Hames' effort to mask it.
"I'll wait till my wife goes to bed, and I'll go out there and grab some snow and put it in a bag, and I'll just ice (my knees) down on the couch," Hames said with a sheepish grin. "I don't want her to worry, but I don't want to be stupid about it either."
He wasn't always so smart, however. After he lugged a double hernia up and down the cobble streets of Lowell in the Bay State Marathon a few years ago, it was his wife who implored him to call it a day with six miles to go. Guess again.
"Peg pulled over in a van and told me to get in and that I didn't have to prove anything," he recalled with a smile. "I said, 'Peg, don't do this to me. This EMT on a bicycle behind me has asked me 20 times already if I wanted to quit. If I'm telling him no, I'm telling you no.'"
Even a painful neuroma that was removed from his right foot three years ago and is a sure bet to flare up right around the 12-mile mark tomorrow can't derail this marathoner.
"I don't even see it until around eight or 10 miles, but then you really start to feel it," Hames said of the painful nerve injury that has never really left him | even after surgery.
"It's the kind of thing where you can stop to get a drink of water and it will feel great, but the second you start running again it's right back there."
Finding his stride
Hames is quick to say it's the 200 or more letters he sends out each February seeking donations and the promise he has made to himself and Merrimack Valley Hospice that help dull the pain and keep his focus on the task at hand.
He also says it's the support and expertise | not to mention the Boston Athletic Association number | that he has received through his affiliation with the Merrimack Valley Striders that have gotten him from Hopkinton to the Hynes Convention Center finish line each year.
He credits his coach and former Boston College distance standout Fernando Braz with coming up with a program that has taken away a lot of the trepidation from tomorrow's endeavor.
"We meet every Wednesday night to do speed work, and he's got everyone on a program whether they're 60 or 20," he says of Braz, who still holds the 10,000 meter record for the Eagles.
"But I still have to do my homework. I have to do every mile that they do. I just do them slower."
All that homework is now done for Hames, who admits he's got plenty of butterflies heading into a final exam for which he knows each and every answer.
All that's left is to look for the flag on the corner of Boylston and Hereford streets one last time and put one more check in the mail.
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Bob Albright is an Eagle-Tribune sportswriter. You can e-mail him at balbright@eagletribune.com.
Hames' numbers
20 | The number of consecutive marathons he'll have run after tomorrow's race.
25 | Number of Boston marathons overall.
30 | Total number of marathons.
50 | The total, in thousands of dollars, he's raised for the Merrimack Valley Hospice.
