Cove Residents Remember Running Boston Marathon

This year, Christine Thompson, 99, and Dr. Ramon Burket of Roaring Spring celebrated their 45th anniversary of running in the Boston Marathon together in 1979.

At the time of the race, they were 53 and 43.

Burket said when Thompson set the record for 53-year-old women in the Johnstown Marathon and it was published in Runner’s World Magazine, they called her Chris, which made people think she was a man.

Thompson recalled when the American Medical Jogger Journal came to the office, a call was made to California to have it corrected.

Thompson and Burket ran two marathons together, and it all started where they worked at Nason Hospital.

“He always made his rounds after the lunch hour,” she said.

One day he came over to her office with a slip of paper that said they were looking for runners over 50 to do a documentary for a producer for New York.

“Well I have never done anything like that, “ Thompson said. “Dr. Burket said think about it.”

When she went home, she was encouraged by her family to do it.

“Burket said I’ll train you,” she said, which took her two years.

He told Thompson how much to run each day and then they decided to run a marathon in Johnstown.

“That was my best one,” she said. “That was four hours and five seconds.”

Then in the fall, they went to the Boston Marathon, and then in the spring they made a return to the one in Johnstown.

“Once they got me started, I didn’t want to stop,” Thompson said.

“It’s addicting,” Burket said.

Thompson said at the time there were no other women around who jogged.

“All these young football players would run past my place and up the hill, and I thought I would continue and I did,” she said.

Thompson said for them to get ready for the marathon back then, they would walk through the Cove, and go up Tussey Mountain and back.

The day before either Burket’s wife or Thompson’s husband would take them places every few miles to hide the gatorade so they wouldn’t get dehydrated.

“On Saturdays we would run the long route,” Burket said. “We go almost to Saxton and then come back up over the mountain.”

In the Cove, they would go out past the airport and through the back roads, he said.

Burket said the first marathon he ever ran was in Johnstown and he had a terrible time.

At about 18 miles, he had horrible cramps, he said.

“What happened is I was not doing any long runs, and in Runner’s World they talk about six weeks before a marathon, you should run 20 miles at least once a week,” Burket said.

For Boston, he said it is horrible because there is something called “Heartbreak Hill.”

“I think Newton Hill is the proper name — running hills is different from running on a flat surface,” Burket said.

He said a lot of people that run the Boston marathon do not care about the time.

“They just go to finish the 26 miles,” Burket said.

Thompson said when Burket was training her, they wouldn’t do 26 miles, they would run 18 miles.

“If you can run 18 miles, you can certainly finish a marathon, “ he said, to Thompson.

Burket said when they ran the Boston marathon, they got off the bus at 9 a.m.

They did not start the race until noon but it rained continuously and was 42 degrees, he said

“That is why I decided to never run the Boston marathon again because I could not control the conditions,” Burket said.

“Marathon day is a holiday in Boston,” Thompson said. “It is really something to see – there is a lot of fun that goes on.”

Thompson said it was a long time ago but she has a lot of memories from that time and it is something she will never forget.