Midlands runners look to keep pace in Boston Marathon

As a senior in college, Sydney Frontz set a goal for herself. She wanted to run the Boston Marathon by the time she turned 25.

On Monday, five months before her milestone birthday, Frontz will be one of 30,000 runners – 155 from South Carolina – running the prestigious 26.2-mile race through Boston.

“I’m very lucky to be here, not many people my age are,” said Frontz, a field service representative for the Hoka One One specialty running shoe brand.

There are 10 South Carolina runners under the age of 25 in the race, including 24-year-old Russell Baker, who like Frontz, ran cross country for coach Jack LeGrand at Chapin High. She said LeGrand was a big part of the reason she made it to Boston.

“He laid a fantastic foundation,” Frontz said. “He was always very positive, and he always preached that it’s a process. He said nothing comes easily, but if you put in the work, you will eventually succeed.”

Coach LeGrand has had several runners go on to compete in marathons, and he is excited to see some of his more recent proteges excel at the long race.

“It makes me happy that they’re still running, period … but also, I’m very proud of Sydney. It’s not easy to qualify for the Boston Marathon,” LeGrand said. “I’ve run 10 marathons and nowhere near qualifying.”

Frontz, who grew up in a running family, said, “At first, I definitely underestimated how hard it would be to qualify.”

She had always been a runner.

“I grew up in a baby jogger,” said Frontz. She remembered watching her father, Kevin Frontz, run the Boston Marathon in 1997.

As a senior at Chapin, Frontz had a personal best time of 20 minutes, 29.66 seconds – a 6:24 mile pace.

But she did not race in college, and it was not until she joined the Team Utopia running club that she decided to train to compete in a marathon.

Team leader Justin Bishop was key in pushing Frontz toward her goal, she said. Bishop trained her and ran as her pacer in the 2014 Shamrock Marathon, where she qualified for Boston. Frontz clocked in at 3:27:26 – a 7:55-mile pace – placing third in her group of 106 finishers.

It was her sixth competitive marathon and her third attempt at qualifying.

Though she and Baker had gone their separate ways after high school – Baker moved to San Diego – she was excited to learn he also had qualified.

“Even though we won’t be running together, it’s great that we’re from the same school and the same team and we both made it,” Frontz said

Among the Capitol City area runners in this year’s race are Irmo’s Tracy McKinnon and Matt Bernthal, Lexington’s Kristin Cattieu, Timothy Gibson, Wendy Hart and Robert Sumerau, and Columbia’s Alyssa Bloomquist, Tyler Baldwin, Jessica Chiu, Timothy Kvam and Howie Phan.

Frontz said she is so honored to be a part of that group.

“On a tour, the guide said that fewer than 1 percent of Americans will ever start a marathon, let alone the Boston,” she said. “So, it is really special to be here.”

This story was originally published April 20, 2015 at 12:08 AM with the headline "Midlands runners look to keep pace in Boston Marathon."