Butler buddies 'run' into each other

By John Enrietto Eagle Sports Editor

May 10, 2013 Last Updated: May 10, 2013 02:43 PM Amateur

PITTSBURGH — As Butler High cross country teammates, Jay Larimore and Matt Cypher went to the state championships together.

Twenty years later, they ran into each other again.

Larimore, 38, now living in Denver, Colo., and Cypher, 36, a professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., ran in Sunday's Pittsburgh Marathon.

“We were pretty good friends in high school,” Cypher said. “But after school, we went our separate ways and lost touch.

“A couple of months ago (through social media), we discovered we were both planning on running the Pittsburgh Marathon, so we hooked up.”

That was before the race started. Once the marathon began, Larimore and Cypher were separated again by a sea of 4,830 runners who took part in the event.

With a little more than a mile remaining, Larimore admitted he was struggling.

““I was running out of gas,” he said. “Then I look up and Matt is running right beside me. I couldn't believe it.

“Out of all of those people, we were running alongside each other at the end. We pushed each other for that mile.”

Cypher finished 77th overall with a time of two hours, 58 minutes and one second. Larimore finished 78th overall, 32 seconds behind his former high school teammate.

“I didn't see him that entire race until the end,” Larimore said. “I had no idea where he was.”

Cypher had only run one marathon before this one. He ran the Pittsburgh Marathon four years ago. He had not been running for a while because of health issues.

“The Pittsburgh Marathon is a unique opportunity to interact with the city and its people,” Cypher said. “Pittsburgh is an undiscovered gem, in my opinion. I love the place.

“What's neat is that Jay and I have maintained our interest in running since high school and it turned into a reunion of sorts for us. I'm planning on taking advantage of this fitness and running the Butler (Road Race), hopefully reconnect with more familiar faces.”

Larimore and Cypher both qualified for next year's Boston Marathon, though neither is sure he will run it.

“Boston is not a priority of mine ... I mean, I wasn't aiming for that,” Larimore said. “Just knowing I'm a Boston qualifier, feeling like I'm at that level, is enough for me.”

Larimore had never run the Pittsburgh Marathon before this year. He had run marathons in Denver and Phoenix, Ariz.

Cypher confessed that the intrigue of next year's Boston Marathon “is interesting because of what happened there this year. .... I don't know.”

Larimore worked with another Pittsburgh Marathon runner — Butler resident Jennifer Bole — through correspondence leading up to the event. Bole, 30, took up running two years ago, dropped 100 pounds during her training process, and finished 640th overall.

Bole's time was 3:35.23, falling 23 seconds short of the female qualifying time for the Boston Marathon.

“My goal was to get there,” she said of Boston. “I feel like a failure.”

Bole had never run a marathon before last Sunday.

“To come as far as she has and get that close in her first marathon is an amazing achievement,” Larimore said.

“I guiess I'm torn between feeling proud of myself and the disappointment,” Bole said. “My legs really started hurting at about mile 20 and by mile 23, I just wanted to start walking. But I kept on going.

“It was a thrilling experience, seeing all of the people, reading everyone's signs as I went. I loved the experience.”

And she won't quit running.

“I'll do the Butler Road Race and go from there,” she said. “I've come this far, gotten this close. ... I'm not going to quit now.”

Pittsburgh Marathon Butler County placers Men

(among top 250 overall)

13th — Daniel Spaulding (Valencia) 2:36.35

55th — Gerald Neely (Harrisville)

57th — Brian Thomas (Cranberry Twp.) 2:54.39

144th — Tom Gramc (Cranberry Twp.) 3:09.40

151st — Trent Wilson (Cranberry Twp.) 3:10.02

166th — Dan Monhemius (Cranberry Twp.) 3:11.46

247th — Dean Rippee (Saxonburg) 3:18.58