Josh Holley crosses the finish line in Saturday's Indianapolis Monumental Marathon to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
Submitted photo
INDIANAPOLIS — Ever since he began running marathons a few years ago, Josh Holley’s goal has been to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
So after he narrowly missed qualifying in the Circular Logic Marathon in Seymour in May, Holley’s friend and former running buddy Zane Yeager gave him one of his medals from the Boston Marathon.
Now, Holley is about to get a Boston Marathon medal of his own. The 22-year-old Columbus North graduate broke the 3-hour cutoff barrier for the first time in Saturday’s Indianapolis Monumental Marathon.
“It’s amazing,” Holley said. “I’ve been working at this for a long time. Now, I finally get to do Boston next year, and I get to finally give Zane Yeager’s medal back to him.”
Holley, who has autism, is only the sixth or seventh Special Olympics athlete ever to qualify for the Boston Marathon and the second from Indiana after Andrew Peterson.
“I’m so proud of him,” said Andy Hunnicutt, who has coached Bartholomew Brown Jennings (BBJ) Special Olympics.
“He worked hard, and he’s learning from his mistakes. He actually cut back some of the miles he was doing because he was wearing himself out.”
As he did at the Circular Logic Marathon, Hunnicutt biked most of the race alongside Holley.
“He paid more attention to his nutrition,” Holley said. “He ate better, and he hydrated all the way through the race. I don’t think he missed a water spot. He just did smart things, and you could tell the difference. I was just extremely proud of him.”
Holley finished 280th overall in 2 hours, 53 minutes, 55 seconds, a 6:39-per-mile pace for 26.2 miles. He shattered his personal best of 3:02:32 from the Circular Logic Marathon by more than 8 minutes.
“I went a lot faster in this marathon, compared to Seymour’s marathon,” Holley said. “In this marathon, there were about 12,000 runners, and in the very beginning of the race, there were three different people that fell right in front of me.”
Beginning in downtown Indianapolis, Holley was able to start in Corral A with the Elite runners. He was at 40:28 through 10K (6.2 miles) and 1:24.26 at the halfway point (13.1 miles).
“He did very well,” Hunnicutt said. “He didn’t bolt out of the gate. He ran the pace he wanted to run. He was 1:24 at the halfway point, and I told him then, ‘If you’re comfortable with this pace, you’re going to make it.’”
Holley went through 30K (18.6 miles) in 2:01:17. He kept that roughly 6:32 pace through 20 miles before he began to slow down.
“When he had about five miles to go, I heard him say under his breath, ‘I can’t do this,’” Hunnicutt said. “I said, ‘You ran the first half so fast, you can slow down a little.’ We were trying to maintain 8.9-to-9 MPH, because I’m timing it on my cycle computer, and I don’t have runners’ pace on it. I did the math, and we knew what we were supposed to be running. I said, ‘You could slow down to like 8.7, and I think you’ll make it,’ and he did. He had to slow down a little bit, and it worked.”
Holley’s brother Kyle Michaelis rented a scooter from downtown Indianapolis and rode alongside Holley and Hunnicutt the last few miles.
“It was very well organized,” said Holley’s mother Deana. I’m very thankful that Andy was with him. His time dropped a little bit, and he perked up by seeing Kyle there the last few miles.”
“I struggled the last six miles, but I ended up holding the pace because my brother was motivating me, and Andy was motivating me to keep up the pace because I was really struggling those last six miles,” Josh said. “It was really tough. I could barely feel my legs those last six miles.”
Holley is planning to enter the 126th Boston Marathon, which will be on April 18, 2022. For Holley, who battles asthma, his qualification was cause for celebration in more way than one.
“I think this is the first marathon that he’s run that we haven’t had to take him to the medical tent,” Hunnicutt said.
