A relative newcomer to triathlons and marathons, Odessa Regional Medical Center Director of Education Allan Espina is heading east this weekend to run the Boston Marathon.
There is a group of local runners who are participating virtually and that version started Oct. 8.
The qualifying time for his age group (he is 47) is 3 hours and 20 minutes. They also require a buffer so you actually have to be faster. He didn’t have enough at first, so he was rejected. But the Boston Athletic Association, which hosts the Boston Marathon, added more runners to the original 20,000, he said.
“… I was fortunate enough to get an invite and switch it from a virtual, which I paid for, to do the in person. All I needed to pay was an additional fee that included COVID testing …,” Espina said.
He added that he still needs to show his COVID vaccination card.
Espina signed up for his first marathon in 2015 in Las Vegas.
“And it was awful. It was raining, it was cold, it was late at night. It’s the only marathon I think I’ve joined that you start at night because of all the lights and sounds of Vegas at the strip. But I trained early morning, so I didn’t know that you don’t have to walk around, or you don’t have to do anything before the run in the evening. By the time I started running, I was already tired from all the walking in Vegas. So it was really awful and I thought during the race that I will never do it again. I mean what’s the point, right? But not even a week after that, I said maybe you could beat my time, and it snowballed from there,” he said.
Espina added that representing the Permian Basin is very humbling.
When he comes across the finish line in Boston, Espina said he will be a Boston Marathoner.
He added that he has not been athletic most of his life and he just began running, biking and swimming about 10 years ago.
Espina said he got very determined to improve and he improved his speed gradually. It has also allowed him to raise money for causes and people he believes in, such as children with cancer. He plans to do that with this event as well.
He figures that for the people he is running in honor of, the pain and suffering he will endure in Boston will pale in comparison for the year that those with cancer and their families have had to endure.
His Boston run will raise money and awareness for those with childhood cancer in the area and give it to them after he returns.
“If I am to be able to help raise awareness for childhood cancer in the area while pursuing a very personal milestone in my life to be able to run the Boston Marathon, then I take it,” Espina said.
He said he started at ORMC in 2003 and they helped petition him here. He is from the Philippines.
They paid for his lodging and food. He worked in the neonatal ICU until he got the director of education position. Espina still works in the NICU when they need someone.
What’s good about Boston is that supporters line the entire route.
“There is just so much cheer and goodwill being sent to the runners …,” Espina said.
There are the Newton hills and then Heartbreak Hill at the 20 mile mark.
Espina said the cheering crowds will actually push the runners on and help them realize “okay, you’re not going to die, you still have six miles, but get over this hill in it’s all downhill from there.”
“And then the minute you go, you take a left on Boylston Street. You have to run like a little under a mile, and it’s all full of people,” Espina said.
Espina said he practiced for the hills in Big Spring.
“Thankfully, we have a hospital in Big Spring,” Espina said.
He added that he has been able to walk and run around the hospital campus in Big Spring and in Odessa and with running clubs in Midland and Odessa.
He noted that the triathlons have helped him prepare for the marathon.
“… I’ve never been very sporty. When I did first my when I first did my triathlons, I just wanted to finish and then you’ll get that little sense of accomplishment because you finished it. And then you get a little bit more prideful when they award you with third place in your age group, even though there’s only three of you. I probably have had a lot of that, so I could maybe I could improve myself. …,” Espina said.
After Boston, there are more races to come and he’s looking worldwide to possibly the top races in the world. Aside from Boston, they include Tokyo, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York.
