In terms of springtime migration to New England, only the warblers and bluebirds can match the consistency of New Smyrna Beach’s Kitty and Jim Musante.
If it’s April, they’re preparing. If it’s Patriots Day weekend, they’re there — Kitty, after semi-regularly running the Boston Marathon, is there for the preliminary Boston 5K, while Jim is back for another marathon, and no, you can’t label his participation as semi-regular.
“It’s sending chills up my bike right now,” Jim said recently of the world’s oldest 26.2-mile foot race, which dates back to 1897.
That never changes, even though this will be his 45th consecutive Boston run — it’s the eighth longest current streak. Part of the draw for Jim is competitive, of course, but the older he gets, it’s more about the overall experience of an event that draws tens of thousands of Bostonians to the neighborhood and city streets to cheer on 30,000 runners of all ages and abilities.
“It’s 26 miles of screaming, knowledgeable running fans,” he says. “Every time you hit a town, and they’re all along the course, it’s three, four, five and six deep with people. You go by Wellesley College and you have all the screaming girls with their lewd and lascivious signs — if you stop, they’ll kiss you.
“It’s funny and it’s constant entertainment for 26 miles. I’m a Red Sox fan, and the Red Sox play at home that day (always a late-morning start), and you’re getting ball scores all along the line. Such a party atmosphere.”
And of late, not quite as much of a slog for Jim, who at 67 has found another gear in his endurance-race abilities. No, he’s not back to running Boston in the 2½-hour range, as he did in his 20s, but he’s moving down toward 3:30, which stuns him when he considers not-too-distant years when he was hoping to finish below 4 hours.
“To feel good those last four or five miles, when the crowds are really deep and super loud, to be running good and passing people those last couple of miles — and I’ve had that experience the last three years — it’s gonna be a great run down Boylston Street toward that finish line.”
Last year’s time of 3:34 placed him 33rd of 617 men in his 65-69 age group.
“To break 3:30 would be a goal I didn’t think I could reach with Father Time knocking at my door every year,” he says. “But I think I could have a bad day this year and get under 3:30, as long as the weather doesn’t get hot.”
After a dozen Boston Marathons, Kitty Musante now a ‘5K specialist’
By the time Jim is literally going through the early-Monday paces, Kitty Musante will be fully relaxed, having done her annual Boston chore — the annual Boston Athletic Association 5K, run through the Back Bay.
Kitty ran her 12th and final Boston Marathon eight years ago — the first 20 miles with an injured foot, the final 6-plus after it was officially broken. She said in 2017 she was ready to give up marathons (her best-ever Boston time was 3:07) but knew she wouldn’t unless that painful lesson drove it home.
And since then …
“I became a 5K specialist.”
To say the least. Now 68, she rarely faces tough competition, much less loses, in her 65-69 age group. She generally turns in times in the mid-22-minute range, though in last weekend’s Pat & Ed Northey 5K at Gemini Springs, her win took just 22 minutes and four seconds.
Her abilities transfer well to the world stage, too. At the recent World Masters, held this year in Gainesville, she won individual gold in the 10K road race and silver in the 8K cross country, and was part of a Team USA gold-medal effort in both of those events.
Last year, Boston’s 5K delivered a rare runner-up finish for Kitty. After winning her age group the previous two years, she ran a solid 22:35, but she and the rest of the 65-69 group were overwhelmed by Norway runner Synøve Brox, who clocked a blistering 19:46.
Kitty also competes in one-mile street runs — “I do as many serious road miles as I can find,” she says.
“I’m toying with the idea of a 1,500 (meters) on the track, but I haven’t done it yet,” she says.
Though it’s mostly 5Ks and milers, she’ll stretch it out now and then, as she did in early March at Jacksonville’s annual Gate River 15K, which measures 9.3 miles. There, she ran 1:13.12 and won her age group by nearly four minutes.
That’s as far as she’ll go.
“No, I don’t miss the Boston Marathon,” she says. “For me, I’m so competitive, if I was going to train for even a 10-miler, I’d have to go out and run over 10 miles, and I always get hurt.
“Also, I like running fast. The longer distance you go, the slower you’re running. I’m too impatient. I don’t want to be out there that long. I’m still a distance person, and the 5K is perfect. I can do it every weekend.”
She approaches Boston these days as equal parts competitor, support group and tourist.
“I go up there with more of a celebratory attitude,” she says. “I know I have to be out there for 22 minutes on a Saturday. And it’s competitive. And then I’m done. It’s a relief, honestly.
“I have no desire to be out there in a marathon for close to four hours. None. I get to hang out and watch other people run.”
Jim Musante has lowered his running times by … cycling?
While Kitty Musante has found her “happy place” at the 5K distance, her husband’s happiness comes from something unlikely (for a runner) but actually tangible: his bicycle seat.
He rides every day for a few hours and generally stretches the odometer to 200 miles each week. He’s always bicycled, but in recent years, he’s upped the mileage and credits it with lowering his running times.
“One-hundred percent,” he says. “I’ve never not bicycled, but I’ve never been so attuned to biking, as a complement, as another way of training, just putting in time on the bike seat. And I’m into audiobooks now. I can read a book in three days on the bike.
“And it’s way easier than running. Biking has definitely transpired into giving me a lot more confidence, a lot more energy, a lot more stamina.”
Along with cycling, and in order to “keep my foundation,” Jim says he’ll generally run a couple times a week, at distances between 3-7 miles — “I do run some just to make sure my feet are still hitting the ground,” he says.
Eventually, however, our Florida summer begins to break, temps grow friendlier, and Jim puts on his distance shoes to begin his annual build-up to Boston’s 26.2-mile test.
“Normally around October, I’ll start concentrating on Boston and wanting to get in some longer runs,” he says. “This past year was a great year because it’s been so cool. I read somewhere where we had the coolest winter in the Lower 48 in 30 years, and I would attest to that.
“That’s one of the few reasons I think I’ve gotten so out-of-control fast. If the temperature is over 47, I don’t wear a shirt. Under 47, I wear a shirt. I never remember a winter when I wore my shirt so many times. With that, you just don’t have to recover. There are no days off for dehydration, none for rebound. I don’t remember a time this winter when I said, “I need a couple days off.’”
It all adds up to a definite uptick in confidence at a time in life when Jim wasn’t exactly expecting it.
“I’ve always been OK, but this year, I’ve had results I’d never come close to reaching,” he says of pre-Boston run times. “I’m really looking forward to blasting a really good run this year. A lot of good confidence going on.”