By Fred Sgambati (’83)

Barry Hennigar (’87) never figured when he put his name in for the 2012 New York City Marathon that his number would come up.

Although the race boasts about 50,000 participants, only four per cent are selected through an annual lottery process and most who apply aren’t picked first time out.

“I had never seriously thought about doing a marathon,” says the Port Williams, Nova Scotia resident, “and it was three strikes and you’re in. If you put your name in for three years and don’t get in, you get an automatic entry on the fourth try. I figured I’d put my name in, get the first strike in 2012, the next two in 2013 and ’14, and run the 2015 marathon.”

Prior to this, Hennigar, 46, had decided a lifestyle change was in order. He wanted to get in better shape and thought that running would be a good way to do it. Trouble was, he needed an objective and thought first about the Valley Harvest Half-Marathon, then keyed on the New York City event.

“I had no background in running,” he says, “but thought that the NYC would a cool, bucket list kind of thing.” He investigated online, discovered the lottery process and signed up.

He was home alone when the e-mail confirming his entry arrived and he admits, “it was a bit of a shock, like a Pandora’s Box kind of thing. Whoosh! I said, ‘Oh my god, what have I done to my summer?’”

He was sure he’d be one of those “to whom race organizers would say thank you for your interest and we encourage you to apply again.”

No such luck. Still, he couldn’t pass up the opportunity and immediately formed a posse to help him literally figure out next steps. “I found there’s a massive runners’ community out there that is supportive and interested, especially if you’re doing the New York City Marathon.”

‘Hey, I can do this’

He listened, learned and started slowly. He did shorter runs, under three miles, working up to four times a week and then a fifth day of cross-training  doing yoga. At about the three-week mark, he realized, “Hey, I can do this. I had done 12-14 runs and there was some improvement. I began to find the pace and within a month I had found a comfort zone. I felt like I could go on forever.”

In the final 12 weeks of preparation, Hennigar did three short runs of four-six-four miles Tuesdays to Thursdays, cross-training on Friday and longer runs of 16, 18 and then 20 miles on Saturdays and Sundays.

He was looking forward to joining thousands of other runners in New York City on November 4, 2012, saying, “I was thrilled. It felt like a crescendo was building and I pictured myself on the start line, taking the ferry to Staten Island, being in the village two hours early, wondering if it was going to be freezing cold.”

But something else was building – Superstorm Sandy  - and it pounded New York City less than a week before the Marathon, cutting power and causing millions of dollars worth of damage.

Initially, race organizers the New York Road Runners and Mayor Michael Bloomberg indicated that the race would go on, but tension mounted as the week progressed and Bloomberg announced on Friday, Nov. 2 that the 2012 race was cancelled.

“Ninety minutes after I landed in New York,” Hennigar says, “it was cancelled.” It was an emotional time, “and I was in shock. I was there, 40 hours before the Marathon, and I’m not going to run it. Is that what I heard?”

He says the Marathon was the carrot that motivated his training, prompting him to accrue 460 miles on the road and 920,000 strides toward his goal, and he wanted to grab it. “But I nodded my head and got to acceptance very quickly. It was very easy to see suffering, and it was a wild kind of suffering, too: people flooded out, sand in their living rooms, houses ripped up, power out, no subways, no traffic lights. Everyone was impacted.”

In the aftermath, some of those who had signed up actually ran a 26-mile marathon, but “that, to me, was mind-boggling,” Hennigar says. “To run 26 miles with no traffic lights or traffic control. I don’t know.”

Like many others, Hennigar did a five-mile junket around Central Park and made a donation to the relief effort before coming home to Nova Scotia. “I went to New York City with an objective and then spent three days looking for silver linings,” he says.

The good news is he has his training, which he plans to continue, a guaranteed entry into next year’s New York City Marathon, a healthier lifestyle and a pretty darn good sense of humour, too.

“I got a taste of it anyway,” he says of the experience, “and be sure to mention that I tied for first in my first marathon. Nobody beat me!”