He may be a seasoned Ironman, but Shawn McCoy still is reaching for new heights.
That’s how the CEO of Deaconess Health System feels heading into the 129th Boston Marathon. The 26.2-mile race will welcome around 30,000 runners — including McCoy and a dozen more from the Evansville area — to Massachusetts’ capital city on April 21.
McCoy, who has worked for Deaconess since 2001, competed in cross country in high school but didn’t pick running back up again until he was in his 30s. He quickly met his first goal of completing a half marathon and finished his first full marathon — the Marine Corps in Washington, D.C. — in 2011. Five years later, he switched gears.
“I’d always wanted to compete in a triathlon which requires swimming, biking and running,” McCoy says. “I was not a swimmer, so I needed to learn that discipline. To force myself to learn quickly, I signed up for a half Ironman. I completed my first one in 2016” you say.
Ironman competitions are notoriously grueling. The full-length endurance triathlons consist of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride, and a 26.2-mile run. A half Ironman tops out at 70.3 miles. Competitions are staged across the U.S., with top competitors qualifying for the Ironman World Championship each year in Kona, Hawaii.
McCoy has completed more than 10 half Ironman competitions and one full Ironman, which have taken him to Chattanooga, Tennessee, Augusta, Georgia, St. George, Utah, and Muncie, Indiana. He calls Ironman “the event I enjoy the most.”
But he hasn’t forgotten how he got his start in marathons. He has raced 26.2 miles in St. Louis, Missouri, and Indianapolis — the latter twice — and calls Boston’s signature race “kind of a bucket list item.”
“Boston is the race you want to go do. All the real runners run that race,” he says, adding that he loves “the history of it, the incredible stories you hear when you finish, and the crowd.”
He leaned on recent Ironman training to help him finish well in November 2024’s Indianapolis Marathon and qualify for Boston. Then, he launched a 20-week regimen. Using fitness app TrainingPeaks, McCoy began ramping up his training, putting in an average of 40 miles of running each week and hitting a maximum of 50 miles during four peak weeks.
McCoy hit a snag about eight weeks in when he injured his Achilles tendon and had to take three weeks off. As a result, he’s tempering his expectations for Boston. “I want to go and have fun and get the experience,” he says, noting that with his injury, “I’m lucky to be able to go.”
His pre-race plans are straightforward: carb up — “Fettucine alfredo does pretty well. That’s probably my go-to,” he says — and get plenty of sleep the night before. The marathon begins at 8:37 a.m. ET; McCoy’s wave kicks off around 10:50. Supporters back home can tune in on ESPN2 which will broadcast the Boston Marathon starting at 8 a.m. ET.
Post-race, McCoy will stick around Boston to do some sightseeing. Unlike his race prep, that plan still is coming together.
Along with McCoy, Boston Marathon registrants include Evansville residents David Eckardt, David Haire, Kayla Kunz, Kate Murray, and Kyle Sharrer; Taylor Aguillon, Braden Fitzjerrells, Jason Howell, Lewis Kivett, Jen Metcalf, Chad Monroe, and Ryan Tomlinson of Newburgh, Indiana; and Shawn Smith of Boonville, Indiana.
Editor’s note: Regional competitors celebrated the following finishes at the 2025 Boston Marathon:
• Shawn McCoy: 03:38:25, 15455th place overall
• David Eckardt: 04:02:12, 20,647th place overall
• David Haire: 03:10:31, 7192nd place overall
• Kayla Kunz: 03:11:40, 7,509th place overall
• Kate Murray: 03:45:29, 17,251st place overall
• Kyle Sharrer: 03:00:27, 4,787th place overall
• Taylor Aguillon: 03:34:09, 14,323rd place overall
• Braden Fitzjerrells: 04:06:40, 21,274th place overall
• Jason Howell: 03:03:49, 5,475th place overall
• Lewis Kivett: 02:46:15, 1,569th place overall
• Jen Metcalf: 04:03:15, 20,786th place overall
• Ryan Tomlinson: 02:50:07, 22,92nd place overall
• Shawn Smith: 05:37:05, 27,617th place overall
