Running For My Sister Mary

A weekend resident of the town of Hampton, Mike Fallon, will be running in a half-marathon event in memory of his sister, Mary E. Gistis, who passed away from cancer in 2009. The road race will be held on Sunday, September 30th, and a significant portion of the race route takes place along Hampton’s seashore.

“We’ve been coming up to Hampton since we were kids,” declared Mike Fallon, “and running in this race conjures up a lot of great memories of my sister Mary and our family.” The Fallon children spent their summers in Hampton, and many of them had summer time jobs. “There were several summers spent working for Kennedy’s Restaurant at the end of High Street,” Fallon said. “Mr. Kennedy was a tough man to work for, but we had a lot of fun working there every summer. I remember him yelling at my sister, Mary, to stop talking with the customers, but she couldn’t help it, and the customers kept coming back.” There were eleven Fallon children altogether, “so at times, it seemed like we should’ve called Kennedy’s ‘the Fallon’s Restaurant’ instead,” he commented.

While at the beach during the summer, the children’s father, Thomas H. Fallon (who passed away in 2010), would go for walks along the beach and have the children race in the sand. “The Beach Plum used to be Pope’s Ice Cream, so we called that section of the beach ‘Pope’s Beach’ and all eleven of us would race down to Plaice Cove,” he said. “You could say I’ve been running up here since I was a kid.” After a few years in the Army, Mike moved back to Malden, MA, but he and his wife and daughter ended up buying a home in Hampton in 2007.

Long distance road races require weeks of training. “You end up doing a lot more running, weeks in advance,” Fallon said. “But every muscle ache or pain that I have is nothing compared to what Mary had to persevere with the cancer treatments.” A lot of his training has been done in Hampton. “Reflecting upon those thoughts of Mary and fond childhood memories are strong motivators,” he declared.

In early 2012, family and friends of Mary Gistis formed a charity in her memory called My Sister Mary Foundation. The goal is to raise $100,000 over five years doing a variety of fundraising events that would support cancer research or treatment facilities. Each fundraising idea was a way for each of her family and friends to contribute. Mike hopes to raise $1,000 for this race. “Perhaps next year, we’ll get more people to run for the charity,” he said.

The public is invited to pledge Mike for this race and to learn more about the charity by visiting www.mysistermary.org online.