Two Goldsboro residents to run in Boston Marathon

By Brandon Davis
Published in Sports on April 17, 2016 1:47 AM

• Print
• Email

bdavis@newsargus.com

Five years ago, Steve Jones struggled to breathe.

The 41-year-old Goldsboro native walked out of his front door and jogged to his mailbox -- a good 200 feet -- and stopped. His breathing sped up and his determination slowed down.

His personal goal lifted his foot for another step.

Jones saw a church down the road -- 440 yards away. He moved his arms and his legs until he arrived at the church.

He wasn't finished.

Tomorrow morning Jones -- now 46 -- will stand at the starting line for the prestigious Boston Marathon. More than 30,000 people from around the world are expected to compete in the 26.2-mile trek.

"I weighed 255 pounds," Jones said, who was diagnosed with hemochromatosis in 2011. "I had too much iron in my body. The iron settles in my organs and could cause damage, so I had to start having phlebotomies on a regular basis to get my iron levels down.

"Along that same time, I started running. I don't know if it's because of a mid-life crisis or because the iron overload," Jones laughed.

"It's not anything like I was built to run or anything else. In other words it was something that took a long time to just build it up. Basically, 200 feet was as far as I could go before I had to stop."

After losing the weight, Jones took on a mile, but a mile quickly became three miles each day. He said the realization of running every day pushed him to sign up for races.

Now a svelte 193 pounds, Jones has increased the number of miles he runs and his participation rate in races.

In between working at his family-owned business, R & H Oil Company and directing the choir at Love Memorial Baptist Church, Jones says he runs four to six days -- somewhere between to 30 miles a week -- in preparation for local marathons.

He ran his first marathon in 2015.

Jones was timed in Myrtle Beach, S.C., in February during a qualifier for the Boston Marathon. The race requires a standard time of 3 hours, 22 minutes, 32 seconds based on the registration of other runners.

Jones qualified by 18 seconds.

"Over 26.2 miles, when I was rejoicing that I had qualified and not thinking anything at all, it was possible I still couldn't have run Boston because it depended on the registration," Jones said. "I'm what you call a squeaker. I squeaked into Boston according to my time."

Out of 30,000 runners, Jones will be the 12,612th runner in the second of four waves -- set by running time, gender and age -- to leave the starting mark.

He gave God all of the glory for qualifying. Jones, his wife and their children thanked God at Love Memorial -- where another Boston Marathon qualifier Goldsboro native Carol Long -- also attends.

"I've been running seven years now," Long said, who will participate in the Boston Marathon for the first time as well.

She joined a group, Women Only, in Goldsboro and fell in love with running. She describes her love as a "high," which comes from God's creation, she said.

As Long ran, she took in the trees, sounds and colors, calling it "spiritual." She continued running in her neighborhood with her friends, but Long wanted to take the next step.

That's when Boston popped in her head and her heart.

"I just thought it would be neat to qualify, but I didn't know if I was capable of it," Long said. "Because I have short legs, and I've seen short-legged people be killer runners before, but I just didn't know if I had it in me, but I felt it in my heart."

The training didn't stop.

She ran weekly with her friends until she found a Boston Athletic Association Certified Marathon -- Cary Tobacco Road Marathon in March.

Long was required to finish the marathon under four hours and 25 minutes. Long said she ran toward the finish line and saw her friends jumping and screaming, and she knew they just longed to see their running partner accomplish a race. She pulled off her headphones and realized their jumping and screaming meant she qualified.

Long will stand in the fourth wave of runners and will enjoy stepping over the finish line -- where a tragedy the world remembers occurred three years ago.

On April 15, 2013, the Boston Marathon changed forever according to Jones and Long -- for good. Two brothers set off two bombs that exploded at the finish line of the race, killing three people and injuring 264 others. In spite of the incident, Jones and Long believe more people sign up for the marathon than ever before.

"Absolutely no fear about that whatsoever," Jones said. "I really believe, I'm 46, if the Lord takes me today, I'm ready. I'm ready whenever He calls me. If He calls me with a bomb up there in Boston, then that's my time up there doing something I love to do."

"I'm a firm believer, I'm a Christian and I know that no matter where I go or what I do, when it's my time to go, God's going to take me," Long said. "Generally, a person that really loves running, they look at things differently, that nothing's going to get in the way of me running."