A native of Newton, Mass., Jack Bracher grew up watching the Boston Marathon every year at Mile 18 on Commonwealth Avenue. Bracher said that watching his mom run the marathon for the second time in October 2021 inspired him to want to run it in the spring.
“The marathon has been a part of my life my entire life, and my mom ran it when I was younger,” Bracher, MCAS ’22, said. “Seeing her run it in the fall made me want to run it in the spring.”
Bracher ran for the Campus School at Boston College and said that meeting his fundraising goal of $10,000 was a challenge, but he cherishes the relationships he built in the process.
“There were so many great people in the Campus School who really helped me understand the cause that I was running for. … It was great to build so many amazing relationships with people in the Campus School and then try to amplify the work that they do,” Bracher said.
While training for the marathon, Bracher said that he often ran with Matt Razek, the associate director of student programming in BC’s Office of Student Involvement. Running with Razek helped Bracher push through the difficult longer runs, he said. The one time that Bracher trained without Razek, he said he had to back out of a 16-mile run at mile 14.
“To have him on those long runs for training made the process a lot better,” Bracher said.
When Bracher hit Mile 21 on the day of the marathon, he said that he was hyped up with adrenaline and that it was the highlight of the 26 miles.
“I was so excited, I wish I could remember it more,” Bracher said. “But it was all just a blur because the students were so loud, and there were so many students out there and so many familiar faces … Mile 21 was definitely the highlight of the 26.”
