As the Boston Marathon approaches, the BAA High Performance Team has a little home-course advantage

15-04-2025

'Our club members are very well-prepared for the hills, because they're on it almost every weekend through the winter and in all sorts of weather,' said
Mark Carroll
,
head coach of the High Performance Team and the BAA Running Club. 'So it doesn't matter what the day brings, because we've seen it all.'
That applies both to the general club members — around 80 of whom are racing on Patriots Day having qualified at a previous Boston Marathon — and High Performance Team professionals such as
Barry Keane
, who will make his marathon debut next week.
Keane, who like Carroll hails from the south of Ireland, joined the team after a standout career at Butler, where he was a track and cross-country All-American and a four-time Big East champion over 10,000 meters.
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BAA High Performance Team coach Mark Carroll was once winning BAA races himself before transitioning into coaching.
Courtesy of the Boston Athletic Association
'Being from Ireland, I obviously knew of the coach, Mark,' Keane said. 'He's been one of the best athletes to come out of the country, [Irish] record-holder in the 3K and stuff, so I knew the coaching situation would work out for me. Boston, the BAA, was the situation that was just going to support me the best, and I thought would be the best fit to allow me to really give it a good stab.'
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Keane's transition from the track to the roads has been fairly smooth as he posted an impressive 1:01:22 at the Houston Half Marathon in January. That's the sort of performance that might indicate marathon potential in the range of 2:08 or 2:09 on a flat course, but Keane isn't racing a flat course on Monday.
'What I impress upon [Barry] is, that goes out the window when it comes to Boston,' Carroll said. 'There's been a lot of superstars of our sport that have come to Boston and have learned the hard way that they weren't prepared enough.'
Barry Keane will make his marathon debut in Boston next week.
Kevin Morris/Courtesy of the Boston Athletic Association/Keivn Morris
While the team is based at sea level in Boston, Carroll and the BAA have sought to provide ample opportunities for the sort of altitude training common among elite marathoning groups. They just finished up an extended altitude camp at over 5,000 feet in Albuquerque, N.M., continuing to simulate the ups and downs of the Boston Marathon course.
Keane's training peaked with a 24-mile effort in March that stayed on flat ground for the first 14 miles, then entered a hilly neighborhood in Albuquerque for the final stretch.
'We're at about 5,600 feet of altitude here, so it's thin air,' Carroll explained. 'The hills were a half a mile up, half-mile down, half-mile up, half-mile down, basically from Mile 15 to 24.
'There's also gym work that we do, to prepare for the hills, there's some eccentric loading . . . but nothing's going to help more than running uphill and running downhill — a lot.'
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The BAA's High Performance Team has had some success at its own event in recent years, all while proving that experience pays off.
Ryan Eiler put up a strong showing at the 2024 Boston Marathon.
Victah Sailer/Courtesy of the Boston Athletic Association
Matt McDonald
was long the standard-bearer for the home club, earning a top-10 finish in 2023.
Ryan Eiler
took the torch for 2024 with a brilliant tactical showing. Eiler was 25th at the halfway point but bided his time, knowing the carnage that the Newton hills can provide. He picked off athlete after athlete in the back half, picking up 10 places to come home in the top 15.
'A lot of newbies to the Boston course that will definitely go out too hard and pay the price on the hills,' Carroll said. 'And you just have to be like the sweep truck, you're going to come and you're going to sweep them up.
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'That's what I try to impress. If you want to sneak into the top 10 in Boston, you can gamble and go with it, or you can come in the back door.'
With McDonald retired and Eiler a scratch, Keane will be the BAA's lead representative at the start line in Hopkinton against a stacked professional field. For Carroll and Co., though, the impressive entry list isn't of interest.
'[BAA director of professional athletes]
Mary Kate
[
Shea
] is probably not going to be happy with me, but I couldn't tell you who's running,' Carroll said. 'I put no emphasis on it whatsoever. I know Mary Kate is going to do her job and do her job very well.
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'So as far as I'm concerned, I tell the team, 'You can count on it being good. The only question is: Are you ready?' '
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Amin Touri can be reached at