Erik Digby runs to finish in rain-soaked Boston Marathon

 

April 19, 2018

Courtesy photo

FROM THE STREETS OF BOSTON - Erik Digby ran in the Boston Marathon Monday and finished the race in spite of a Nor'easter that pounded the area during the event. Digby was the only runner from Sanders County in the race this year and was only one of the 25 from Montana.

When it came right down to it, there was no way that Erik Digby was not going to run in the Boston Marathon Monday, even if it meant running through a frigid, driving rainstorm that forced thousands of others off the course and out of the race.

A physical therapist who operates out of offices in Thompson Falls and Plains in his everyday life, Digby, 49, who says he has now run a total of 12 marathons in his life (including one previous Boston Marathon in 2006), finished the much-colder-than-usual running of the 2018 event in 3 hours, 23 minutes and 12 seconds, in spite of his wife Susan, who accompanied him to Boston, suggesting that maybe this one could be sat out due to the weather.

"There was no way that I was not doing it," he said, "no matter how bad the weather was."

Susan might have had a point about the unforgiving weather which her husband ran through. Erik said almost 1,000 runners ended up seeking treatment for hypothermia during the race, and that another 3,000 people eventually dropped out altogether, mostly due to the unforgiving weather.

"It was a true Nor'easter, like 22 degrees wind chill and driving rain when it started," Digby said while en route back from Boston Tuesday. "There was a 25 mile per hour gusty headwinds the whole way. It really tested everyone, we were all bucking down and going for it and ended up getting through it."

Erik said living in Montana helped him prepare physically and mentally for the big race.

"When you live in Montana you get used to the cold weather and learn how to dress for it if you want to keep running," he said. "That means dressing in layers, with a wind-proof layer on the outside, and that ended up working for me."

Digby said he was the only runner in the field from Sanders County this year, and one of only 25 Montanans entered in the race.

"This was the fifth year anniversary of the Boston Marathon bombing in 2013," he said. "So there were a lot of events celebrating the survivors and it took on added meaning this year. I was very glad that I could be a part of it, the Boston Strong movement."

Digby said the marathon, always a test of stamina and endurance, was even more so Monday in rain-soaked Boston.

"It took absolutely everything I had to keep going, all the fortitude and determination I could muster," he said, "and I was numb from head to toe by the time I crossed the finish line."

Obviously an avid runner, Digby is also well-known in Sanders County bicycling circles as one of the leaders of the Clark Fork Valley Bike Club, or CFVBC, which was featured in another article in the Ledger just last week. He thanked the folks he trains with in Montana for their support.

"There is a pretty tight-knit running and biking community in this area that is really supportive of each other," he said. "I felt like I had to do my best to represent the fantastic support group we have here."

 

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