Firefighter Qualifies for Boston, but Goal is $3K for Cancer Research

John Dumont had a relatively late start in running. At 40, he took his first three-mile run, inspired after seeing someone running along the roadside one day while driving home.

His first run, around Hopedale Pond, was a disastrous introduction to the sport. He injured his foot in those new running shoes, and had to recover.

A few years later, the first time fellow firefighters suggested he should train for a marathon, he laughed it off. "Are you kidding?" he remembers telling Scott Keefe and Mike DeTore. "I hadn't run any more than five miles. It was absurd."

But he went to watch the race that year, and became inspired. By 2006, he was running 10Ks and half-marathons, and building toward his first attempt at the marathon.

This spring, Dumont is training for his 5th Boston Marathon, the fourth he's run fast enough to qualify for, and is raising money for the Dana Farber Cancer Center.

Dumont, 50, a Milford firefighter, is hoping to finish the marathon this year in under 3:30:00. Last year he ran Boston in 3:22:00 — less than 7.5-minute miles.

He also hopes to raise $3,000 for the Dana Farber Cancer Center, and is running in memory of his father, Bob, who died of a form of brain cancer in 2009.

The training this year has been going well, he said. The mild winter helped for the outdoor runs.

The experience in running Boston helps too. He's now familiar with the course and the requirements for training and nutrition, and what can happen with foul weather conditions. He ran it for the first time, at age 45, in 2007, a year that was memorable for rain and a wind heading into the runners. He started off fast, and at some point, "I felt as if everyone who I had passed before, was now passing me."

Heartbreak Hill was tough. "At that point, I was in some pain. I was just trying to stay focused. My goal was really just to finish." He finished in 3:44:00.

Now, with four Bostons behind him, and two others beside, he knows what to expect April 16. "The last three to six miles, it's more mental than physical."

And really, all the preparation matters, but so does how you feel on that given day. Every year, he said, he gets to a point in the race where he thinks it will be his last one.

"And then, inevitably, the next year, you start training for it again."