Adam Prudhomme
Editor
When Napanee’s Jason Lloyd crossed the finish line of the Tokyo Marathon earlier this spring, he joined an elite group of athletes who have earned the Six Star Finisher Medal.
That club is limited to runners who have completed the six ‘major’ marathons, held in the U.S.’s New York, Boston, Chicago, England’s London, Germany’s Berlin and Japan’s Tokyo.
The races don’t need to be completed in any particular order or within any given time frame-it’s simply about completing some of the world’s most famous 42.195 km races. Those that finish are six are presented with the exclusive piece of hardware that is on the bucket list of long-distance runners around the world.
“It’s been a whirlwind,” said Lloyd, who teaches at Deseronto Public School. “I won’t lie, there were certainly tears as I was on the start line and the finish line. It’s been quite a long go. Tokyo it was nice to have that one as the icing on the cake. It’s been a tough go with COVID getting in the way. I would have anticipated I would have finished two or three years ago otherwise. With a little perseverance and a little attitude adjustment, we made our way.”
Lloyd began this journey in 2015 when he completed the Boston Marathon. He completed the feat when he ran the Tokyo Marathon in a time of three hours, 18 minutes and 47 seconds.
“With it being a race in March it was extremely difficult to train for it,” said Lloyd. “Weather conditions and all that over the winter, even though it was a relatively mild winter, it still wasn’t fantastic to get outside and get the major training in that I would otherwise do. Going into Tokyo I knew it wasn’t going to be anywhere close to a personal best or anything like that. I just went to Tokyo with the mindset of this is the last one and enjoy the ride.”
His best finish in any of the races was NYC in 2019, which he ran in two hours, 48 minutes and 39 seconds.
Boston he’s completed twice, running it in a time of two hours, 53 minutes and 42 seconds in 2019. Chicago’s time was two hours, 58 minutes, 30 seconds, Berlin two hours, 57 minutes, 13 seconds and London, three hours, two minutes and 58 seconds.
“Those sub three (hour times) always feel real good,” said Lloyd, who is 49-years-old. “It’s just hitting that magical mark of sub three is something I want to try to hit. Those last couple it just wasn’t in the cards and that as fine at that point in time.”
Along with marathons, Lloyd has an impressive run streak of over 3,030 and counting. That’s consecutive days of getting in a run, whether it be outside or on the treadmill during winter months.
“For the next little while I’m probably going to back off and just do 5 or 10k for the next little bit and back off for the marathons and try to get my body back into a little bit more speedier shape,” said Lloyd, noting his plan to take part in the Napanee Heritage 5k Run coming up on June 15.
“I haven’t ruled out marathons in the future,” he added. “One I do want to do before I call it a marathon career for sure would be the Athens Marathon. It’s the original marathon that goes from Marathon to Athens in Greece. It’s kind of where everything got started and I’d like to finish where it all started.”