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Surgery no obstacle for marathon runner
By Bonnie Pavelonis/Michael Butler
Tallassee's Grayson McMeen crossed the finish line of the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington D.C. on Oct. 27 with a time of 3:15:16. Completing a 26.2-mile race is impressive enough and being within the top five percent even moreso. But how about doing it just one year removed from having a collapsed lung?
McMeen was training for the same race in late October last year, but one day before the race his doctor discovered the lung issue and he was unable to compete.
"I was on the way to the airport to fly to D.C.," McMeen said. "It really put a halt to my running career."
After a month in the hospital and two surgeries later, he started his training once again.
"I started as soon as I could, trying to regain all my strength. I knew I wanted to try again. I trained for about two months and then ran it this year. I had a time set last year and stuck with it this year. I wanted to go faster than three and a half hours, and I did better than expected. It was a lot of fun.”
McMeen's pace was 7:27 per mile. Among the 16,556 participants, he place 702. He was 96 out of 280 in the male 20-24 age group. And, this just happened to be his very first marathon.
His reason for not giving up after the setback last year?
"The goal of doing (something) I'd never done before," he stated. "My dad is a retired Marine. It was just fitting that I could run the Marine Corps Marathon for him as well. It was a race I wanted to run.”
After three-plus hours of running in the Nation's Capital, McMeen found a welcome sight at the finish line - his mom.
"It was really awesome. Of course, she broke down and started crying. It was a really great experience. I would love to run it again and try some others as well."
The pinnacle for marathon runners is the Boston Marathon.
"To qualify for Boston, you need under three hours. Now I want to do that. Just setting new goals."
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