19-04-2025
Tom McCall started running on the dirt track of an Illinois prison. On Monday, he'll take on the Boston Marathon.
'I've never even been to a marathon,' McCall said, 'When I ran [my first half marathon] at Fox Valley it had like 3,000 people there, but I've never been to something with 30,000 people racing, fans packing the town cheering them on.
'I'm really looking forward to this.'
That McCall is Boston bound is certainly a story of resilience, his ability to use six years of incarceration to find a way forward rather than sinking into more dismay. But it's a story that resonates beyond one person, speaking to the value of running in itself, how it can help a human's body, mind, and spirit. To the value of community, how being among like-minded people and building relationships can lift you from most any circumstance. To the value of goal-setting, how the determination and discipline it takes to get there can impact every corner of your world.
To the value of second chances, and how if you open yourself up to people around you, you can take full advantage of them.
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For McCall, who was released in 2022, enrollment in the recovery program at Wayside Cross Ministries in Aurora connected him to their unique partnership with a program called
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Tom McCall (second from right, No. 933) is shown with fellow runners of Up and Running Again, including the program's founder Steve Tierney (second from left, wearing hat). Also shown are Bruce McEvoy (left), Sherman Richardson (No. 6050), and Max Hernandez (right).
Tom McCall
From there, a running star was born, with McCall capping his first 12-week program by running that Fox Valley Half in 1 hour, 36 minutes, 57 seconds. Almost immediately, his volunteer coach at Up and Running Again, Bruce McEvoy, a local pastor and running enthusiast with 36 marathons to his credit, challenged him with two letters any respectable distance runner knows well: BQ.
'At first, I thought that meant barbecue, and I love barbecue, it's my favorite food. I had no idea what it meant to Boston Qualify,' McCall said.
But he listened. He upped his training and within months, ran a 3:15:06 marathon. Time to pack his bags for Boston.
'This is a story of a man that has done the hard work,' McEvoy said. 'When he had no other resources, he did it, not on his own — the higher power of Jesus gave him strength — but his relentless pursuit of health, health in the body, to then having the opportunity to be released from prison and then stumble upon a place that was going to be starting a running program.
'He kept getting fortunate, blessed, and a lot call it luck, but I would argue no, he stumbled into good fortune that might allow him to be at a starting line that will ultimately get him to one of the most historic finish lines of all time, but he's doing the work. And his appendix to the story is setting a personal best at Boston and then continuing to launch to the next thing, his vision to use running and the advocacy he has to impact others, others being fellow veterans, to continue to inspire.'
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Tom McCall is looking forward to adding a Boston Marathon medal to his collection on Patriots Day.
Tom McCall
Therein lies the next chapter of McCall's story. When he's not out running, training well enough that he has designs on immediately requalifying for Boston with his time on Monday, McCall's energy goes into his foundation, which aims to open a tiny-home community for homeless veterans, helping them get off the streets and into their own homes.
As McCall writes on a
From where he was, to where he is now, running has been his most reliable vehicle. What started as indoor gym work, where he took assistance from a fellow weightlifter and rebuilt an ailing knee he'd been told would need surgery, eventually moved to the outdoor dirt track, in large part because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
What happened from there, well, that's a story only McCall truly knows.
I asked him what running has meant to him. His answer was threefold: body, mind, and spirit.
'Well, health-wise it's phenomenal, I have a 44 resting heartbeat and I expect to break a 3:10 marathon at the age of 54,' he said. 'If I can be in low aerobic capacity, which I believe my body has transformed into, then I can finish strong at Boston and Heartbreak Hill will be a success rather than something hard.
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'Mentally, it makes you stronger, too, when you overcome these challenges. Determination and challenges and overcoming them, that's all mental.
'And whenever your mind starts to break on you a little bit out there, you have some rough sessions, you miss targets, you have shoe failures, whatever it might be, you go into spirit. Especially on long runs, I'll go into spirit, suddenly realizing, 'I don't even remember that mile at all.' Your mind is free. I'll be out there in communion with God, I get rid of all the distractions. It's my go-to, my place away from the world.'
From the prison yard to Boston, running built him a whole new world.
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Tara Sullivan is a Globe columnist. She can be reached at
