Mikey Dubz flashes some well-deserved hardware after finishing the Boston Marathon in 3:08:06. Photos courtesy of Mikey Dubz.
Border City runner Michael Welygan, better known in the community as Mikey Dubz, crossed a major milestone off most runners’ bucket lists by finishing the Boston Marathon on Monday.
In his second-ever marathon, Dubz not only finished the race, he completely smashed it with a time of 3:08:06.
At 37 years old, Dubz started in wave one, and of the roughly 32,999 runners, finished 5,963 overall and 3,269 in his age group (18-39).
“Everyone says ‘If you’re a runner, you gotta do Boston,’ which is exactly what I ended up doing,” he said from New York City on Tuesday night.
One can’t simply wake up and decide they want to run the Boston Marathon as they first have to qualify, which for Dubz, came in the form of a 42km run in the desert.
“My qualifier was a race just outside of Vegas,” he said.
“That race was also one of the first qualifiers for Boston in 2022, so I picked the first race in 2022 that I could find that made somewhat sense, which took place on April 1, 2022.”
Dubz’ goal in the desert was to run as fast as he could, which he noted was tough as qualifying times kept getting lower.
“I got lucky and hit my time and qualified for Boston,” he said, adding the fact he went into Boston with the least amount of training he’s ever had prior to a race.
“When I got to Boston I was telling people ‘OK, maybe I’ll push it and see how I do,’ but I had no training in, so let’s just take in all the energy everyone talks about and see how a person can do … and that’s what I did,” he said.
Mikey Dubz crosses the 30km mark during Monday’s Boston Marathon.
Apparently, that energy everyone talks about wasn’t hard to find.
“There wasn’t a section of 42km that wasn’t packed with people chanting, college students doing keg stands on the side of the road, families set up in tents barbecuing food … it was amazing,” he said.
“The energy, the crowd and the volume from the people kept you running and uplifted for every stride of the race.”
At roughly the halfway point in the race, Dubz recalls approaching a race feature called Scream Tunnel while running up a hill by Wellesley College.
“As you came up to the top of the hill, it was just people belting at the top of their lungs on one side of the road … and the crowd runs about 15-20 people deep and their all shaking guard rails and going absolutely crazy … as a first-time Boston Marathon runner, I couldn’t believe it.”
Dubz also recalls seeing runners grabbing red Solo cups from college kids and slamming back mid-race drinks.
“The college kids went absolutely insane,” he said with a laugh. “There were also little kids with lemonade stands everywhere offering free lemonade.”
This year’s race also marked the 10th anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing, something Dubz said made the experience extra special.
“There were a lot of moments of silence, both at the beginning and at the end, and everyone was really embracing that 10 years,” he said. “At the beginning of the race, there were 7,000 people in my wave and thousands more behind us. There was a moment of silence, the national anthem, they announced the pros and everyone goes crazy, then another moment of silence with 30,000 people.
“They then gave the runner’s a bit of a pep talk to get everyone amped up and it was like the ground was shaking … with that many people jumping and getting warmed up all you could hear was the thunder of footsteps, and it was all around you.”
Dubz also explained while he runs he listens to his footsteps, something he found challenging on the streets of Boston.
“You didn’t know what you were listening to because it sounded like a stampede, for three hours,” he said.
“There was also never a point where I wasn’t an arm’s length away from other runners in any direction.”
Dubz brought a bit of Border City flare to Boston with a custom-made shirt from one of his sponsors, Hoka.
“The singlet that I wore said ‘One Community One Family’ on the front,” he said. “It also had a couple of major community personnel on my back who have supported me through this journey.”
Looking back, Dubz is classifying this as the largest group run he’ll probably ever be a part of and won’t soon forget.
“Some people there are very competitive, which is perfect because that’s what they trained for, but I was there to basically do the world’s largest group run, ever.”
