Sudbury firefighter conquers Boston Marathon

A Sudbury firefighter is celebrating her first Boston Marathon and she says her experience in the Sudbury Rocks Race definitely had a big part in her journey.

Sudbury’s Elissa Bertuzzi is riding the wave of exhaustion and elation after crossing the finish line at the 130th Boston Marathon on Monday.

“Just the fact that the whole world can come together for this one race, it’s unbelievable,” said Bertuzzi.

The firefighter completed the historic 42.2-kilometre course with a time of 3:15:00, averaging a pace of four minutes and 24 seconds per kilometre. She placed 7,169th overall among more than 29,000 participants.

From Sudbury Rocks to Boston’s Boylston Street

Bertuzzi’s journey to Boston began years earlier with cross-country running in elementary school – but it was only after university that she decided to test herself in the Sudbury Rocks half-marathon.

“I’ve done it every year pretty much since then and I was at the point where I was like, I gotta do something a little bit more. So like, maybe a marathon is the next step,” Bertuzzi said.

“I saw the Toronto one. It was in May of last year and I decided to just kind of go for it.”

She told CTV Ness that during the Toronto Marathon, she secretly hoped to achieve a qualifying time for Boston and once she did, she registered immediately.

“They only have so many qualifying spots. So sometimes, even if you do hit that, they do lower the number. So, luckily my time was like way in advance.”

Injury strikes

Preparing for a marathon is demanding, but Bertuzzi’s training faced an unexpected hurdle when she was injured just 14 days before the Boston Marathon.

“I probably started around like February, like three months before. Consistently, I run every day,” she said.

“I’m kind of used to the running aspect of it. So, I just made sure, like I kind of hit those long runs every single week and actually leading up to this year, I ended up getting injured two weeks before this race.”

Bertuzzi explained she hurt her IT or iliotibial band around her knee.

“I did a lot of rehabbing this last two weeks. I didn’t do too, too much running. But luckily it ended up holding up for the race,” she said.

Despite the setback, her body held together through the gruelling Boston course, allowing her to finish strong.

Sudbury Rocks serves as local qualifier for Boston

While Bertuzzi did not achieve her Boston qualifying time at the Sudbury Rocks event, the local race remains an official stepping stone for runners hoping to follow in her footsteps.

“The Sudbury Rocks race has multiple distances, including the 5K, 10K, half-marathon and the marathon distance, which is a Boston Marathon qualifying course,” said Sudbury Rocks organizer Shelley Walushka.

“Participants come from all over northern Ontario and beyond, for that chance to race the qualifying time required to apply to get into the Boston Marathon.”

The annual event is scheduled to take over the streets of downtown Sudbury on May 24. Organizers told CTV News that they expect more than 2,000 participants and 300 volunteers, all supporting the Health Sciences North Foundation’s cancer care fund.

Bertuzzi plans to take part, though over a shorter distance.

“I am signed up for the half-marathon as I knew I had a marathon a month before. So, I didn’t think doing the marathon was the greatest idea for coming up… that’s the only plans, I have so far. But of course, after doing one major, you kind of want to do another, so we’ll see the future,” she said.

For more information or to register for Sudbury Rocks, visit the event’s official website.

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