Courtesy of Robin McShane
Fifteen miles into the 2021 Boston Marathon, Father Ryan Lerner — Yale’s eighth Catholic Chaplain — could tell that something was wrong with his body.
He felt his legs cramping up and stitches developing in his side after starting too fast. But, motivated by his faith and determination, he powered through pain to push across the finish line — with a time of 3:33:28.
“You have to get used to pain,” Lerner said. “You’re not going to improve if you can’t handle discomfort, pain, fatigue … If you’re going to get stronger, you have to break things down and build up. What happened at Boston, that’s after 25 years of dealing with running with discomfort.”
Lerner’s difficulties began just before the start of the race when the GPS tracker on his watch malfunctioned, disrupting his careful pre-race rituals and distracting him. He attempted to reconfigure his watch at the beginning of the run but was ultimately unable to, providing him with inaccurate readings, which threw off his pacing.
According to Lerner, his first 10 miles felt much more difficult than expected. He finished the race’s first half with a time of 1:23:07 — just under two minutes faster than his time in the 2021 New Haven half marathon.
Lerner began running in his first year of high school because the team did not have tryouts. Growing up in Manchester, Connecticut, he went from being one of the worst runners on the team to earning a spot on Trinity College’s cross country and track teams. During his college career, Lerner averaged close to 100 miles a week and specialized in the five-kilometer and 10-kilometer distances, making the 42-kilometer marathon a “natural progression,” he said.
Trinity cross country head coach George Suitor remembers Lerner as being an “unbelievably hard worker.”
“He was an integral part of a team that qualified for the Division III National Championship in cross country,” Suitor said over the phone. “Nobody outworked Ryan. He was an unbelievably great teammate, respected by both the men’s and women’s teams. He did things the right way.”
Two years after Lerner graduated, Suitor offered him a graduate assistant position with the team. According to Suitor, Lerner’s compassion made him a great coach, and he was never afraid to push the team to improve. Suitor believes these qualities serve him well in his role as the eighth Catholic Chaplain at Yale and that Lerner is “coaching at a higher level now.”
Prior to his time at Yale, Lerner worked as a nursing home administrator in Springfield, Massachusetts. Helping those who lacked access to adequate healthcare compelled him to look towards his faith as a means of making the world a better place, and ultimately pushed him to join the seminary.
“[Father Ryan] just does a lot to inspire the whole community,” Mary Margaret Schroeder ’24 said. “Just getting to know him as a spiritual mentor and friend has been really rewarding.”
While his days are devoted to the chaplaincy, Lerner still makes time to train for and participate in marathons. This year’s Boston Marathon was his third time running the course. Despite having completed over a dozen marathons, this race was “the worst in [his] life”, according to his blog, Running on Faith.
As the race went on, Lerner’s initial goal of finishing in under three hours became unrealistic as the pain continued to increase. By mile 16, he had to start walking to avoid further injury. For Lerner, quitting was never an option.
“I’ve never dropped out of a race, and I had no intention of doing it this time … The only way out is through it,” Lerner said.
Father Ryan’s pace decreased significantly as he alternated between walking and jogging, even pausing to head into a medical tent for treatment. According to Lerner, his internal faith, drive and support from the Boston crowd provided him with the motivation to power through the pain. As he reached the base of Heartbreak Hill, Lerner felt a second wind coming and quickened his pace.
“Running up Heartbreak Hill — there’s something about running up a hill to remind you of your toughness or your strength,” Lerner said. “I don’t know what it is, but I’ve always been a hill runner.”
Lerner maintained his speed through the final section of the race and ran the last mile in seven minutes and 47 seconds.
As he crossed the finish line, Lerner partook in his post-race ritual — looking back across the finish line and taking a moment to appreciate his accomplishment.
“It’s just absolute pandemonium: the sounds, the music, the announcers, the people cheering, the volunteers, it all embraces you,” Lerner said. “[And I felt] all this gratitude to all the people who played a part — the spectators, the medics at mile 22, the volunteers, the people praying for me … and this prayer of gratitude towards God.”
The Boston Marathon commenced on Monday, Oct. 11.
