With heavy legs and a full heart, Vincent Gauthier finishes first Boston Marathon of many

Maddison Behringer / THE GATEPOST

By Sophia Oppedisano Sports Editor The Boston Marathon’s is one of the most storied sports events in the world. The unforgiving course from Hopkinton to Boston is hallowed ground for runners who train for years to meet the moment and cross the iconic blue-and-yellow finish line of one of the most prestigious marathons in the world. For freshman English major Vincent Gauthier, a life-long Massachusetts resident, running the Boston Marathon is something he’s been dreaming about for years. Gauthier is a breakout star for the Framingham State men’s cross country team, and Boston is his second marathon at only 19 years old. Long before crossing the finish line on Boylston Street, Gauthier ran in his first road race, a small, hometown 3K, when he was 8 years old. “I wanted to sign up for it, and my mom was like, ‘OK, but you're going to have to actually train to do it, and I want you to do well,’” Gauthier said, recalling the memory with a laugh. He said he was drawn to the road race because of the energy of the other runners and the crowd. “It's super loud and super fun,” he added. He ran with his mother early in the mornings after his dad went to work, setting him on the path to becoming a decorated distance runner. “I remember coming through the finish line, and for a good few years of running road races like that, it was very difficult to not have this big, cheeky smile,” Gauthier said. “I’ve always felt like a runner since - even if I wasn't training all the time. It's been a part of me,” he added. In high school, Gauthier participated in cross country, track, and Nordic skiing, making him a year-round athlete. His race times started improving during his sophomore year, and he was spending extra time training to participate in races out of season, Gauthier said. By the time he was a junior, the Framingham State men’s cross country program was reaching out to him. He said the coaches from Framingham were the first to reach out to him personally. “I committed here in my senior year when the current head coach, Mark Johnson, came to some really crazy meets for him to come out to,” Gauthier said. Johnson went to see Gauthier at the MSTCA Dick Atkinson Invitational, which Gauthier described as “a really good race for me.” Johnson remembers the race well, saying, “It was one of the dreariest meets that I've ever been to, but just talking with Vincent on the phone … he seemed like a great kid. Based off of those first interactions, [he was] someone that I felt would really be a positive addition to our team and program.” After arriving at the meet, Johnson said Gauthier’s mom recognized him and introduced him to her son’s coaches and offered him hot chocolate to fend off the cold. “The camaraderie, the family feel really just fits in with a lot of the values that we’re looking for at Framingham State. … I felt like I belonged with them, and it felt like he belonged with us right from the get go,” Johnson said. “I'm beyond ecstatic to have him and his family for the next three years,” Johnson added. Before his first season with the Rams, Gauthier ran in the New England Green River Marathon right next to his hometown of Sherborn Falls in August 2024, with the ultimate goal of qualifying for Boston. Gauthier described Green River as the polar opposite of the Boston Marathon. “You're running along the Green River on a dirt road with no people around you, really. You’re in the shaded trees, super cool, super scenic, but there’s nobody, not a person.” Despite the lack of a crowd, his finish time of 2:41:19 qualified him for the Boston Marathon with time to spare. “Vincent running 2 hours, 41 minutes is incredible. … It shows how gifted of a runner he truly is,” Johnson said. Gauthier set out intending to run the Boston Marathon in under 2 hours, 35 minutes - an elite pace of just about 5 minutes, 55 seconds per mile, and an immense goal for any runner. With a grueling training block ahead of him, Gauthier began posting his Strava workouts to his Instagram story in December to keep track of his training block and sporadically update his followers on his progress. He tracked everything from “easy miles” to what he described as his “pretty gnarly” 18-mile workouts. One hundred and twelve days later, Gauthier completed his training block and posted his Strava update from the marathon expo in Boston, pointing to his name on the wall of over 30,000 fellow runners. When Gauthier stepped up to the start line in Hopkinton on race day, April 21, he said, “It was just one of those things where you're just so excited. It’s like, ‘This is so awesome.’ You're part of this community, and you're part of this giant crowd, and everyone is just as excited as you are, and it's just like, ‘We're going. This is so fun.’” Gauthier was placed in the first wave of runners who started after the elite athletes. He held his goal pace through the first 10 miles. “I was just enjoying the paces. I felt comfortable,” he said. After passing mile 10 and entering Natick, Gauthier said he ran up a slope and felt the exhaustion start to creep in. “My legs just suddenly got way more tired than they were earlier, and my paces started dropping. I split a 6 minute 20 second [mile], I think, and I was like, ‘I think it's over,’” he said. Realizing he would miss his goal of under 2 hours, 35 minutes, “Plan A,” as he called it, made him shift to just trying to keep on pace with his qualifying time. Getting into Wellesley, Gauthier said he spent a bit of time in two medical tents getting treated for blisters. Losing time at the medical tents was frustrating, but it got Gauthier in the mindset of “OK, let's finish this,” he said. “Plan A, Plan B - we've dropped down the alphabet. We’re at Plan E now, which is ‘just finish,’ and so I just pushed through it all,” he added. Gauthier noted his shifting plans with no hint of regret or sadness in his voice and recalled the fun he had on the course. “I saw some people I knew, and some guy came up to me and he was like, ‘Oh, you look relaxed, I’ll stick with you for a while,’” he said. His favorite sign in the crowd read, “Smile if you peed a little,” along with signs that said, “Push here for a power up!” with Mario Kart power-ups drawn on them. Even with the crowd’s energy keeping him moving, Gauthier said the Newton hills threatened the strength in his legs even further. “Heartbreak was heartbreaking. They call it that for a reason,” he said with a laugh. As his body continued to tire, the last three miles proved to be the ultimate test for Gauthier, “even more so than the Newton hills,” he said. Gauthier recalled how badly his mind wanted him to stop during those last few miles, but he said he “never wavered” and his legs continued “plugging away,” even in his toughest mental moments. He said, “I'd rather crawl to the finish line” than step off the course. “The finish line felt so close, but I was still slowing down. Those three miles were going to take almost half an hour, which is really tough to think about after running that far already. It's so close, but it's just so, so far away,” he said. As the runners emerged from an overpass in the final stretch, Gauthier said he could vaguely hear the roar of the crowd at the finish line and continued to put one foot in front of the other with the end in sight. Boston marathoners often talk about the famous final two turns that lead to the finish line - when the reason for the training, the time, and the effort finally become worth it as the finish comes into view. Right on Hereford Street, left on Boylston Street. “I was already really disappointed at that point. I think I spent most of the race thinking like, ‘Damn, this is such a disappointment. I don't know what my time is going to be, but this is horrible - this is not a good race.’ … But then, Boylston just made everything OK,” he said. “I took the left on Boylston, and I broke down completely. “That last quarter mile - I was crying as I was trying to reach that finish line. … It was just so amazing and intense and unlike anything I've ever experienced. Crossing that finish line was the biggest relief,” he said. Gauthier finished with a time of 03:16:01. Even though his time wasn’t what he wanted it to be, Gauthier said, “It's Boston. Of course, it's going to be that hard. Once I hit Boston, I was like, ‘OK, I ran Boston, and that's awesome.’” Coach Johnson said, “It's a matter of when, not if, he hits that 02:35. … Marathoning is one of the sports you can do for the rest of your life, and I hope that it's one he sticks with.” Gauthier’s ultimate goal is to run the six Abbott World Marathon Majors of Boston, Chicago, New York, London, Berlin, and Tokyo, and earn the Six Star Finisher Medal. For now, however, Gauthier plans to use his qualifying time to run Boston again next year and focus on the upcoming cross country season this fall. After the race, Gauthier said he found his family waiting for him in a bakery near the finish line. His post-race snack was French toast as he relaxed and spent time with his family and girlfriend. As he reflected on his race and his accomplishment of crossing the finish line, he said, “It's such an interesting experience to dedicate several months of your time and mindset and your entire being into this one goal - thinking about one particular race. “It was worth it. … I was still crying after the finish line. … There's no moment where it ever became unsatisfying after the finish line,” he said.