Submitted photo Marathoner Isaac Landecker was greeted moments after he completed the Boston Marathon in April by Ida Holdahl (left) and his sister Hannah Landecker. Isaac landecker, son of Don and Connie Landecker of Staples, ran the 113th Boston Marathon held on April 20.

Isaac, a former Staples Motley High School cross country runner, finished 193rd overall out of 25,000 registered runners.

To run in the Boston Marathon, a runner has to post a qualifying time at one of several other marathons around the world. Isaac qualified last October with a Twin Cities Marathon time of two hours, 56 minutes and 45 seconds. On Apirl 20 in Boston, he ran the 26 miles plus in 2:40.41.

Below is Isaac's account of his race:

After training for the past few months I felt ready to run the 26.2 miles. The race started in Hopkinton and ended in downtown Boston. The run itself went really well. I started off somewhere between 2,000-3,000 runners back from the elite group, which made the first few miles a little slower than I had hoped for.

At about mile 9.5 my sister Hannah and friend Ida were there cheering me on and Hannah even ran about half a mile with me.

The second half of the marathon was a blast. Most of the runners were beginning to fade back at this point, but this is when I was starting to pick up my pace. The fan support was unbelievable the second half. In all honesty, I probably gave out over 500 high fives to people that second half because the fan support was just amazing.

At mile 22, after getting

through all the hills and "heartbreak hill" at mile

20.5, my legs were starting to get sore and tired and it was hard to imagine running four more miles at the six minute per mile pace I was going.

"However, I decided that as long as I could go the next 100 yards at this pace I would do it. Even if that meant me completely dying and not being able to finish the race, I was not going to even try to save anything or slow my pace."

Isaac reported he made the final 6.2 miles in just under six minutes per mile.

"It feels great to be able to be a part of the tradition of the Boston Marathon. I recognize that God has blessed me with the ability to run and it is for His glory alone that I even decided to run the Boston Marathon.

"I put Hebrews 12:1 on my back during the race because this was my inspiration: "Let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the Founder and Perfecter of our faith."

Isaac, who ran three different times in the state high school cross country race for the Cardinal team, said, "On a side note, the training I received from Coach (Gene) Mattila and Coach (Jerry) Reck allowed me to even think that running six minutes per mile was possible for a full marathon. Staples Cross Country proved to help me a lot mentally with the marathon.