On the fast track
at the Boston Marathon

By Melissa Yerkov
Times Sports Editor

Jim Costello has plenty of reasons to run, but he needs only one.
His family.
Costello, a 43-year-old Northeast resident, finished the Boston Marathon on April 21. He joined more than 22,000 sprinters in the rigorous run, which spans 26 miles from rural Hopkinton to downtown Boston.
“Boston is your Super Bowl, Indy 500 and Kentucky Derby all rolled into one,” said Costello, who finished the race with a time of 3:18:12. “I had a great time with the crowd in Boston. There were half a million people along the route cheering on the runners. When you hear people screaming your name and yelling and ringing bells, it really gives you the boost to go one more mile.”
Among the many admirers on the sidelines were Costello’s biggest fans, his wife Diane and three children, Steven, Megan and Ryan.
“It a really incredible feeling seeing your family cheering for you,” said Costello. “I wouldn’t have been able to do it without them.”
On that big Monday in Boston, at about 10 a.m., Costello lined up at the starting point with thousands of other runners on a perfectly picturesque morning. The national anthem spurred pride and excitement. Fighter jets roared across the sunny blue sky. And thousands of people awaited the start of the heralded marathon.
Costello was on his way.
First mile: no sweat.
Fifth mile: piece of cake.
By mile 10 — which featured one of the larger hills along the course — Costello was beginning to feel the burn when he heard a loud roar in the distance.
“I was trying to figure out what the noise was,” he explained. “I was running shoulder to shoulder with this woman Laura from Michigan who explained that Lesley University was up ahead. The roars up the hill were the students at college cheering. It was unbelievable!”
The arduous course zagged through about 10 small towns outside of Boston, including Cambridge, where Lesley University is located. Costello recalled that each town on the route had more people cheering on the roadside than the one before it.
“Running a marathon does take a lot out of you,” said Costello, who has plenty of experience running in the Philadelphia Marathon but made his Boston debut this year. “There’s a sea of people in front of you, cheering the entire time. That really pushes you.”
By mile 25 — along the homestretch — Costello’s perseverance was fortified when he saw some familiar faces among the cheering spectators.
“I could hear ‘Go Jim’ and ‘Go dad!’ and there was my wife and kids,” said Costello. “They just pulled me through. I kept thinking of my whole family.”
Costello was the 3,885th person to cross the finish line, a feat that gave him a sense of pride and accomplishment.
“It was beautiful,” he said. “I kept thinking of the twelve-plus years of getting up at 4:30, before work. It’s my time. It’s in my blood. I’m forty-three years old. I knew I had to do it now or I’d be kicking myself if I didn’t do it. I had to get up and run.”
THE NEED FOR SPEED
Costello knows full well the stamina and endurance needed to run for 26 miles. Here in the City of Brotherly Love, he has participated in seven marathons since 1999.
“The first one, I ran with a handful of people I worked with. My goal was to get there, to finish and to finish running across the finish line,” recalled Costello, who completed his first marathon with a time of 3:45. “I was completely exhausted and I said, ‘I’ll never do this again.’ One week later, I was like, ‘You know what, I can do better.’
“Once you run your first marathon, it’s in you,” he added. “I can do better. Then you go back the next year and the next year.”
Costello started getting up at 4 in the morning and running 10 to 15 miles before work. The following year he made it back to the Philadelphia Marathon finish line, this time improving his time to 3:28.
“That’s when I really started thinking, ‘Wow, I can run,’” he said. “‘I can go out and do another six miles.’ That’s when I got the bug. So I started looking up other marathons.”
Costello — a South Jersey native who moved to Philadelphia 19 years ago — got his running start as a student at Collingswood High School, where he played soccer and ran track.
These days he spends his mornings running around Pennypack Park, near Lincoln High School, and his afternoons as a postal employee delivering mail in South Jersey.
“I’ve been carrying for ten years, but I’ve been in the postal service for twenty,” said Costello. “Working as a mailman helps me loosen my legs up. And the people are great. A lot of people on my route gave me cards and wished me luck before Boston.”
His family gave him a hero’s welcome upon his return home.
“On my dining-room table were balloons from my family to congratulate me,” said Costello. “They said, ‘We’re all so proud of you!’ They’re all pushing me. I’m not here doing it myself. I’m here with my family.”
A FAMILY AFFAIR
Last year, after running in the Philadelphia Marathon, Costello gave his medal to his father, who was undergoing treatment for prostate cancer at the time. Three years before that, Costello had run in tribute to his sister Terri, who had died of a brain tumor.
“She’s always been a huge motivation for me,” he said. “I kept thinking, ‘Terri, you just have to get me through to Boston, just get me one more mile, one more mile.’”
His appeals were answered.
Never underestimating the power of family, Costello — who has five sisters and one brother — apparently passed the speed genes to his children.
Steven, 18, a senior at North Catholic High School, runs cross-country for the Falcons. His sister Megan, 15, a sophomore at St. Hubert, is a sprinter for the Bambies’ track squad.
As for Jim Costello, the marathon man has started to train for his second appearance in Boston.
“I plan to keep running Philly marathons, and hopefully get back to Boston next year,” he said. “It takes a couple days for your body to heal (after running a marathon), so I’m resting. Then I’ll start little, run five or six miles, then seven or eight.
“My wife says, ‘Every year you say you’re done, but you keep doing it,’” Costello said, laughing. “I can’t help myself. I’ll stay with it as long as my knees and feet hold up. I just have to run.” ••
Sports editor Melissa Yerkov can be reached at 215-354-3035 or myerkov@phillynews.com