Special education teacher Alfredo Korzenik, the Assistant Athletic Director and cross country coach, participated in this year’s Boston Marathon. 

“It’s kind of like life,” he said. “You have your ups and downs, your injuries, your setbacks. I relate the marathon to life a lot.” 

The Boston Marathon is a world-renowned marathon that has been hosted for over 124 years. The 125th race took place on October 11. 

This is Korzenik’s 21st consecutive year with a qualifying time of  3:28:00, which also qualifies him for next year’s marathon. He became the first Mexican-American to participate in the Boston Marathon for 21 consecutive years and his goal is to reach 25 consecutive. 

“I’m already a legacy runner in the Boston Marathon,” he said. “This puts me in another group that very few people can reach” 

This year, contestants had the option to either participate in person with proof of a COVID-19 vaccination, a negative COVID-19 test or to enter the marathon virtually. 

During the race, he says he was very focused and excited. He could hear his family and friends cheer him on.

“ It was really tough, But it always is. But I just kept going. I just kept pushing the pace.” 

However, during the last four miles, he felt it was most difficult. He continued to push through in memory of Milo, a six-month-old child of a family friend who has passed away due to cancer. 

During the race, he could hear people cheering “Go, Milo,” which gave him the motivation to continue pushing forward. 

“I am so fortunate to be healthy and running,” he said. 

Korzenik is a 56-year-old runner. Most runners his age have a 3:35:00 qualifying time, he said; however, his is 3:30:00.   

He grew up in Morales, Mexico until he moved to Texas and began high school there. He began running by the recommendation from one of his buddies, and they began training for elite marathons. 

“ Completing a marathon is such a vigorous thing to do to your body and is really impressive for anyone at any age to run one, but to be able to hit the times that Coach Korzenik did and keep pushing through the race is just incredible,” said runner Nicolas Alonso from the cross country team. 

Korzenik enjoyed it so much that he trained for the Boston Marathon in 2000.

“Don’t be afraid to fail,” he said. “I didn’t qualify the first 10 times, but I continued to try until I made it.’