Chuck Augenstein, of Bartlett, stands at the finish of the Boston Marathon last Monday. Augenstein ran the race in 3 hours, 31.21 minutes.
(Courtesy photo)
Chuck Augenstein, a local man from Washington County, competed in the 128th running of the Boston Marathon last week. A Marietta High School grad, Augenstein is from Lowell and now lives in Bartlett.
Augenstein, 49, completed the 26.2-mile course in 3 hours, 31.21 minutes. He described his experience in the premier American marathon, “It was a lot of fun. I was excited, but also nervous because it’s a lot of people… You work endlessly and hard, and it all comes down to about three and a half hours.”
Participating in the marathon was the culmination of years of dedication for Augenstein, “It’s been a dream of mine since when I started running about eight years ago, so I can say all eight years of training came down to this.”
During his training for the race, Augenstein dealt with knee problems. His workout regimen gradually increased to running around 40 to 50 miles a week while mixing in other exercises before eventually tapering down with about a week and a half left to go.
“The crowd was incredible. You go through two colleges on the route: Boston College’s campus and a little all-girls college called Wellesley, and the little girls college was as loud as Boston College. It was very hot. 75 degrees, and if you do anything outside, 75 degrees feels like 90,” said Augenstein of the environment on the day of.
Augenstein was grateful to have some familiar faces in the crowd to cheer him on. Both his son Collin Richards and wife Lisa Richards were able to make the trip to Boston.
“They were standing right there before the last turn of the race. I didn’t see them, but they took a Facebook Live video. Having them there made it easier, because there’s 30,000 people around you and you don’t know any of them.”
The grueling race sent Augenstein back to the hotel room for recovery and left him sore for four days, but he was able to do some sightseeing the following day. Augentein and his family saw a game between the Boston Red Sox and Cleveland Guardians at the historic Fenway Park, walked the Freedom Trail and visited Cheers.
Augenstein highlighted finishes from some other local runners that participated in the Boston Marathon:
-Mike Cooper of Malta, 3:00:48
-Kevin Trippett of Parkersburg and also Augenstein’s coach, 3:06:26
-Matt Fluharty of Parkersburg, 3:07:39
-David Davis of St. Marys, 3:13.32
-Tim Bowman of Beckley (formerly of Parkersburg), 3:14.01
Now that Augenstein has completed the Boston Marathon, he has his sights set on the other two American Abbott World Marathon Majors, “My next race is Chicago. I qualified for that in the same race as I did the Boston Marathon, so I signed up for it too. I was supposed to run it last year, but I had knee problems. There’s three major marathons in the country: Chicago, New York and Boston. I want to do all of them.”
Based on his experience, Augenstein recommends that, “If you are a runner and considering it, you should do it. There are so many other things to do in Boston and it’s a once in a lifetime experience.”
Contact Aaron Lee at alee@newsandsentinel.com