Marathoner's run began in Astoria
· Yahoo Sports
Every athlete has that special place where they used to practice or that inspired them to pursue a dream.
For Dr. Chloe Maycock, her love of running was born on the track at Astoria Middle School.
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“I never ran competitively,” Maycock said. “But my first ever training run was at Astoria Middle School as part of a club.”
Maycock, 51, grew up in Astoria and graduated from Astoria High School in 1992. Though Maycock now lives in Portland with her husband Nathan and two children, Lili and Gabe, she still has ties to the area. A few years ago Maycock and her former classmate, Scott Attwood, took part in the Boston Marathon. This was a continuation of a long journey that restarted after her daughter Lili was born.
“I took a break from running for a little while,” Maycock said. “But after my daughter was born during my fourth year in medical school, I got back into it.”
With her daughter, Lili, now 20 years old and her son, Gabe, 26, Maycock has more time to do what she loves. Instead of doing normal 5-kilometer and 10-kilometer races like many runners, Maycock chose a much harder path — running marathons.
Maycock has run 17 marathons.
In addition to the Boston Marathon, she has run the New York Marathon three different times, the Chicago Marathon, the Berlin Marathon, the London Marathon and recently wrapped up the Tokyo Marathon.
These six marathons are part of the Abbott World Marathon Tour and completion of all six gets athletes something called a Six Star Medal. Running marathons is one of the most challenging things any athlete can do, so those who receive the Six Star Medal are in elite company.
Many try, but very few are able to successfully complete all six marathons to receive a medal.
As of her recently completing the Tokyo Marathon this year, Maycock is one of only 23,000 people worldwide to have the prestigious honor. She said she was able to complete the series by maintaining a continuous 16-year training cycle. And even then, there were challenges around just being accepted and more.
“These marathons are so hard to get into,” Maycock said. “Tokyo is the hardest to qualify for since the odds are so low.”
Marathon memories
Maycock can go into detail on every marathon she ran and said the average age of those who complete the Abbott six are 50.5 years old.
“It took me eight months to qualify for Boston and it’s always unpredictable because of the weather,” Maycock said. “I love Boston because of all the hills. It feels like what I train on back home. … During London I was super sick, but still ran it hard. My favorite by far is New York City due to the size of the crowd. I’ve run it three times, twice for charity and once as part of a competition.”
Maycock says her best marathon time is 3 hours and 43 minutes, which she ran at the Las Vegas Marathon. This comes out to 8 minutes and 30 second miles over 26.2 miles.
Maycock says she enjoyed the three international marathons because it allowed her the opportunity to see the beautiful scenes of London, Berlin and Tokyo.
“The best way to get to know a new city or town is to go for a run,” Maycock said. “It’s a privilege to have the streets shut down for us.”
“Since Tokyo had all the switchbacks we were able to see the elite men and women running at the same time as us. It was fun to be able to cheer them on.”
A family affair
As with any sport, it can easily become a family affair. Many athletes will see their sons or daughters pursuing the same interests as they do. This is true of Maycock and her daughter Lili.
Lili grew up running with her mother and is now a distance runner at Cal Poly Pomona. Maycock reminisced about their mother-daughter times in Atlanta for the Olympic Trials.
“We ran the half marathon together,” Maycock. “Of course we started the race together and then she just took off, since she’s at a whole different level than me. But it was awesome to run the half marathon, then cheer on the runners trying to qualify for the Olympics.”
Being able to run with both of her kids and having her husband and parents cheer her on during the marathons is something that never gets old for Maycock, she said. She’s happy to have inspired her daughter to become a distance runner and to have an activity that allows her to stay active.
“It’s a cumulative journey,” Maycock said. “Years of training cycles and marathons to stay in the game. It’s a privilege and honor, just to have the body hold up for so long. I feel super grateful for having longevity.”