If it’s springtime, this must be Boston. At least in Professor Joe Horvat’s mind.

   On Friday, April 18, as he has for two years running, the Psychology “Master Teacher,” will board a Delta airlines jet and speed toward Old Boston town in anticipation of another 26.4 mile tea party on Heartbreak Hill.

            Chattled amidst 15,000 participants at the starting point in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, Horvat will be running against a veritable ocean of mankind, a stopwatch, and himself. It will cost him over $1,000, four days’ vacation-time, and countless hours of rigorous training to be there.

            Why then? Why will he do it? Why did WSU professors Tony Spanos, Bruce Brewer, Tom Kuehls, Terri Cook (of Weber State Credit Union) and a half-a-dozen students from this university run Boston in 1996? I asked one man this question.

            “Boston is the elite of marathons because you have to qualify to run it with strong finishes elsewhere,” says Horvat. “There is a mystique which has always surrounded the race,” he tells me.

            My internet research reveals this to be true-- ever since good old Pheidippides in 490 BC. was chosen to bear the news of the great victory of Greece over the Persian empire on the plains of Marathon the legendary distance to Athens.

             On April 19, 1897, fifteen members of the Boston Athletic Club organized the first Boston Marathon. It was only the second such race to be held in the United States. Last year, 38,708 runners participated in overall, age-bracketed, women’s and wheelchair divisions of the great, centennial-old race.

            Joe first qualified last year. In the 100th Boston Marathon, he finished in the top 15% overall, a cool 5,323rd place, with a finish of 3 hours, 14 minutes and 33 seconds. This was just behind Ken Moses Tanui, who edged-out out Eldoret E. Bitok by ten seconds to win the race. Uta Pippig three-peated to take the laurel in the women’s division.

            From what I can gather, this is not about winning, however. It’s about changing your life because you’re in the race now...about breaking through physical and psychological barriers...about the incineration of toxic waste in the system and about finishing-- a lot about that.

            “Finishing is important,” Joe says. “Typically, I hit the wall at about the 22 to 24 mile mark. I start thinking ‘it’s over, I can’t do this.’ Maybe it’s because I’m expecting to confront this barrier that I always do...

             “But it’s wretched, scary. I’ve had to draw over to the side of the road at times and just wretch. So far, I’ve always finished (the 12 marathons he’s run.) You have to finish by sheer will and determination, and some people don’t make it,” the Professor said.

            All this after training with 4 a.m. 50- 60 mile runs weekly throughout the year, which steps up to 90-115 miles two months prior to race day. Horvat runs by himself from his home in North Ogden to WSU and back generally.

            All this after giving up cigarettes, coffee and red meat (and, naturally, alcohol and all hallucinogens save the celebrated “runner’s high,” an endorphin-induced breakthrough experience.)

            “Something strange happens to serious runners,” Horvat says. “Kind of a ‘second wind’ effect. I mean, you can suddenly be seized with all kinds of new energy after the 20th mile, when you should really be gone.”

            “You never know when this may happen, of course. But after that you feel like you could run for a hundred miles. You are stronger, you’re faster. I’ve had this last anywhere from ten minutes to half an hour.”

            Horvat says he uses training time as therapy for himself. The tenured teacher of  “Abnormal Psychology” at Weber State says while running he “thinks about school, about life about problems—but they don’t seem so bad when you run.

            “People I’ve dated have often been runners, too,” says the single male sprinter. They relate to the diet, the demands of the thing.”

             Joe says, “some days are just ‘crummy-type’ days, when you don’t feel great. You don’t run great, either... You hope that Boston’s not one of those days.”

            He has run with Jeff Galloway and Paul Pinkington (briefly)-- world-class marathoners, both of Ogden. “They’re amazing,” he says.

            “Jim Fix would have died even earlier if he hadn’t have been a runner,” Joe says.

            Traveling with a friend, Horvat will not order the famous white clam chowder in Boston this year. “It’s too fatty with all that butter.”

             For some hours after the race, which starts Monday noon, is complete, he will be “beaten, beat, and just gone, probably.” The spaghetti-like legs will be sprawled out in some hotel recovery room. He will also be appetiteless for hours.

            Maybe he’ll have realized his goal—a time of 3:10:12, effectively trimming the stopwatch last year by four crucial seconds and defeating his greatest arch-enemy of all—himself.  But by Wednesday at 8:30 a.m., he’ll be back teaching at WSU-- hopefully.

            “My favorite part? It’s the finish. Yeah, last year at Boston, there were spectators there throwing oranges, bananas and hats at me all along the home stretch mile. It gives you sort of a rush, actually. With that kind of support from folks, it makes all the running worthwhile.”

            “My students have been just great about this, too,” says Joe. “They make this possible for me, actually.  They all take part in my race, and allow me to run it.  They don’t have to, of course. They could quit too!”

            “Tell them to come by on Wednesday and see if we made it through..”