CTV Atlantic reporter to run 2023 Boston Marathon

Each spring, some of the Maritimes’ fastest and most dedicated runners take part in the Boston Marathon, and on April 17 the start line will include a face familiar to CTV Atlantic viewers.

CTV Atlantic’s Ryan MacDonald is best-known as a reporter and video-journalist based in Cape Breton.

He’s also an avid runner, and is among the nearly 30,000 competitors from around the world who are officially entered into the 2023 Boston Marathon.

The 127th edition of the race will be MacDonald’s first time participating.

"I qualified for the Boston Marathon, and that's been a dream of mine for at least 10 years,” MacDonald told his CTV Atlantic colleague Laura Brown after finishing the 2022 Fredericton Marathon in a Boston-qualifying time.

The Boston Marathon is considered by some to be the Super Bowl -- or the Stanley Cup -- of long-distance running.

However, unlike championships for professional athletes, the majority of those who run the Boston Marathon are amateurs – everyday working-class people.

Each person comes to the start line with a story, and MacDonald is no exception.

"I'm not naturally athletic. I was that proverbial last kid picked in gym class,” MacDonald said in a recent podcast hosted by friend and Cape Breton Road Runners president Herbie Sakalauskas.

MacDonald explained that growing up, he liked sports, but wasn’t particularly good at them.

He said he had moderate success as a hockey goalie, but a brief stint as the backup on his high school team was as far as the dream went.

Trying out for hockey teams often meant running a few kilometers during dryland training, which is when something happened that surprised the then-teenager.

"All these guys who (bested) me at other sports, I'm like, 'Why am I lapping them on the track? Did I finally find a sport I'm good at?'" MacDonald recalled.

By age 22 though, MacDonald said he became overweight and slipped into an unhealthy lifestyle.

"Christmas 2004, we took a family picture,” MacDonald said. “After I saw that family picture, I was horrified. And, after almost crying a little bit, I said, 'I'm doing something about this.'"

To start getting back into shape, MacDonald started simple by walking on a treadmill.

A few years later, he started going on jogs a few times a week just to stay in shape.

Eventually, he rediscovered the natural love for running he had stumbled upon in high school.

MacDonald says the next family picture looked a lot better.

He went on to run his first half marathon and then his first marathon in 2010. But the stringent qualifying times – particularly for younger men – to gain entry to the Boston Marathon seemed out of reach.

"It was unthinkable. Like, I wasn't sure if this body was physically capable of doing that,” MacDonald recalled.

Fast forward to the 2022 Fredericton Marathon, MacDonald had just turned 40-years-old, but says he was in the best shape of his life.

He felt it was time to try to qualify for Boston.

The day was a success, with a finish time of 3 hours, 1 minute -- more than enough to meet the Boston standard.

"My wife told me this morning, it was the final text I saw before I went out, she said, 'Ryan, if push comes to shove -- run based on love and gratitude.' And whenever push came to shove out on the course, that's what I did -- and that's what saw me through today,” MacDonald told CTV Atlantic after the race.

This winter, the soon-to-be 41-year-old has been training as hard as ever.

He will be among nearly a dozen Cape Bretoners, and dozens more Nova Scotians, who will toe the start line in Hopkinton, Ma., on April 17.