Elite Perspective

Each year John Hancock invites and hosts an elite team of the best marathoners in the world to compete at the Boston Marathon. During its 33-year tenure as the principal sponsor, the Company has welcomed over 800 elites from 48 countries to join the 122-year legacy of this historic race.

As the recruiter of elite runners, I’m inspired by the focus and drive of these accomplished athletes. A lifetime of work goes into getting to the starting line and in the democratic nature of this sport, similar dedication is required by the 30,000 runners who will follow in their footsteps.

Here’s elite inspiration for the back of the pack:

Embrace Your Opportunities

American Serena Burla returns to Boston this year with an advantage: she is a two-time cancer survivor. For her that is a positive, that is opportunity and that is a gift. She is alive, a mom and still going strong. “Running this race allows you to focus on what you can control; to be strong, to rise-up and to commit yourself to moving forward.”

A two-time top World Championships Marathon finisher, Serena had surgery on her leg this past August to remove a second tumor. She recently ran the New York City Half Marathon and is ready to race at Boston.

Follow Your Passion

Yuki Kawauchi from Japan has never made an Olympic team, but he has a full-time job, graduated from university, and with a personal best time of 2:08:14, has won more than 30 marathons. Yuki has a passion for the sport and nothing will get in his way of seeing just how far he can go.

In January, during a Boston training trip, he set a side goal—to run the Marshfield Road Runners New Year’s Day Marathon and break the world record for the most sub-2:20 marathons ever run. Yuki was at #75 and he needed one more to attain the title. In sub-zero temperatures and running by himself, he was behind by 30 seconds at the half-way point. With numbing legs, wind and hills still ahead, he could have stopped, but Yuki just has no quit. He finished in 2:18:59 and says he had to live up to his word of accomplishing his goal.

Yuki expects a top-three performance at Boston and no one is counting him out.

Work for Your Moment

I was near the finish line of the 2017 New York City Marathon when American Shalane Flanagan realized she would win. In her moment of triumph, she pumped her fist before confidently breaking the tape, the first American woman to do so in four decades. Earlier in the year, Shalane had committed to run Boston, but unexpectedly found herself injured. She sent me a note saying she was devastated and gutted, but would not be able to compete in Boston.

Shalane is a four-time Olympian who grew up in the Boston area. She is one of the toughest athletes I’ve ever worked with and has never missed a major race, so her withdrawal went well beyond missing an opportunity to win Boston. With the support of family, friends and coaches, she accepted the set-back, regrouped, healed and never lost belief in herself or her work ethic.

As the fastest American woman to ever run the Boston Marathon, Shalane returns for a fourth time to seek the win.

Act with Thoughtfulness

In 2013, Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa won the race, a fact that turned into a footnote on a tragic day. Krystle Campbell, Lu Lingzie, and Martin Richard lost their lives during the race day bombings and more than 200 people were seriously wounded, with MIT police officer Sean Collier losing his life a few days later.

Lelisa, like many of us, felt helpless in the moment. He was not a medical professional or a first responder, but he knew as the champion he needed to act. So in a sign of solidarity, he gifted his winner’s medal back to the City of Boston and to all those affected. When presenting his medal to the late Mayor Thomas Menino, Lelisa was cognizant that the coming year would require healing. He said, “My message is that sport holds the power to unite and connect people from all over the world with one another, allowing them the opportunity to share in their common humanity and to celebrate the richness of our cultural diversity.”

On the fifth-year anniversary of the race day tragedy, Lelisa returns to race Boston, committed to unifying all of us through sport.

For more info about the 2018 John Hancock Elite Team, visit www.johnhancockmarathonhub.com