There’s a good reason why there are only 119 current members in the Boston Marathon Quarter Century Club.
It’s because there aren’t a whole lot of people on Planet Earth who can run the 26.1-mile classic 25 years in a row and live to tell about it.
Langhorne’s Peter Lederer is getting close, despite stress fractures in both hips over the past two years.
When he toes the starting line in Hopkinton, Mass. on Monday, April 20, he will be looking to pass his 23rd consecutive Boston test.
He’s run the course as quickly as two hours and 56 minutes but in 2024, after being diagnosed with the first hip ailment, he needed a crutch to cover the hilly course and it took him the better part of six hours to limp to the finish line.
Just when he thought he had put that character test in the rearview mirror, his other hip gave out. However this time he had enough time to recover and last year was able to complete the course in a spiffy 3:19.
The outlook for 2026 appears to be much more promising. He would like to get back closer to three hours.
“Things are going well right now,” he said during a telephone interview. “After two years of brutal injuries and everything. Knock on wood, I’ve kind of found the formula that works for me now.”
Last year provided the real moment of truth.
“It went great,” the Langhorne resident said. “Because of the injuries and stuff, I didn’t really start training until the beginning of February. I was really nervous and worried about how the race was going to go.
“In a marathon, a hundred things can go wrong. And if one of them goes really wrong, your whole day is over.
“But the stars aligned. The weather was good. It is hard to pace yourself the right way when you run Boston and I’ve failed many, many times there. Last year I did a really good job of pacing and being patient, fueling correctly and I wound up running 3:19. I was over the moon thrilled with it.”
Lederer, who turns 60 in November, thought one fractured hip in a lifetime was enough. Then came the second.
“So it took a few months after Boston to feel like I could run again,” Lederer recalled of the 2024 experience. “I had already registered for Berlin and so I started training again for that in August.
“Three weeks before Berlin I was doing a long run and I felt something in my hip in the other side. I didn’t get it checked out. I kind of knew but I didn’t want to know.”
Things didn’t go so well in Germany.
“Then in Berlin, around mile 22, it was one of the worst pains I’ve ever had,” Lederer said. “It wasn’t a limp, it was baby steps the last few miles to get through it. It was really painful. Sure enough, I got it checked and it was another stress fracture.
“The first time it happened I thought, ‘well, crazy things happen. I probably did too many miles.’ When it happened a second time, it was really sort of more eye-opening. It was, OK, I can’t keep doing the same thing.”
With that in mind, Lederer changed everything. He hit the gym to build up his strength, took prescribing vitamins and supplements and watched his running mileage carefully.
“Now I take vitamin supplements for some deficiencies there,” he said. “I completely changed my training. I was peaking at 70-80-mile weeks. Now I just broke 40 miles for the first time last week. Probably won’t make it to 50.
“I spend way more time in the gym than I care for. I’m not a go-to-the-gym kind of guy. I’ve had to. It’s just the way it is now. My training used to be 95 percent running, five percent go to the gym. Now it’s about 60-40 gym/run. Between strength training and cardio at the gym, it makes me stronger and keeps the pounding off my legs. It’s allowed me to be healthy for a good stretch.”
In 2028, there’s likely to be a big party in the Lederer household when he hits the 25 mark.
What are the benefits of being in this exclusive club?
“At 25 I don’t have to qualify anymore,” Lederer said. “As long as I finish each race, I can continue to go back. There’s a quarter-century club and they keep tabs on this. I would be a part of that.”
Any particular reason for completing this streak? Is it just part of his personality?
“It’s just my personality,” he confirmed. “I’m a pretty competitive person by nature and so I’m still racing these things for the most part. I’m not just trying to run a qualifying time. If there’s bad weather, I’ll dial it back and try to be smart. I’m still trying to run as fast as I can.
“I do love the streak. But I love the race, I love Boston. Everything surrounding that marathon, it’s just an amazing weekend. It’s part of my family. My kids grew up going there. They’re in college, they’ll come home for the weekend and go up with me. It’s part of our lives. We have had a dog named Boston, we have a dog currently named Fenway.”
You can be sure twin daughters Ainsley and Abigail (24) plus son Calvin (22), along with their mom, Linda, will be there in Boston in April, 2028 for the big event.
In the meantime, Pete is making sure he stays healthy. Blood tests showed he was low on calcium and vitamin D, so he keeps an eye on that.
Once the Boston streak nears completion, he has another goal in mind: Complete the six Abbott World Marathon Majors.
He’s already run Boston, New York, Chicago, Berlin and London. The only one left is Toyko.
His training partner and medical confidant Dr. Johnny King-Marino told him now is better than later.
Lederer recalls the conversation well: “He said, ‘don’t wait, you’re not promised tomorrow.’ It was never my goal but now I’m going to try to get into Tokyo next year.”
Then he added with a chuckle, “it’s sort of my excuse to travel.”
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Sunday
BCRR Winter Series Staggered Start 4.6-Miler, 9 a.m., Tyler State Park, Newtown. Contact www.bcrrclub.com
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