Vinacco (left) on the first day ran with former teammate Joe Santo '17 (right) for 28.1 miles |
SCITUATE – Kenny Vinacco '18 wasn't going to let all those months of training go to waste.
Sure, the news of this spring's postponement of the Boston Marathon, which he had diligently been training for since late last fall, was a bit disappointing. So was word that a few other regional marathons, such as this month's race in Providence, got canceled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
"At that point, I was like, 'What do I even do now with all this training?'" he recalled. "Boston isn't going to be until September. I developed a pretty good base over the past three or four months, and I still had something left in the tank that I could use."
What Vinacco did was empty that tank by running an astounding 56.6 miles over the course of two days (April 24 and 25) from the R.I./Mass. border in North Smithfield to The Towers in Narragansett. And in the process, he raised more than $6,000 for two worthy causes, the R.I. Community Food Bank and the MS Dream Center.
Vinacco, who graduated from Scituate High in 2014 and Stonehill College in 2018 and is a student physical therapist at the University of Rhode Island, wrote on his GoFundMe page that "with the current difficulties that many are facing, I wanted to give back and help the community now more than ever," and that led to him creating his "Run Rhody" campaign and helping his two charities.
While he elected to help the Food Bank "keep pace with the pressures many local families face," he chose to help the MS Dream Center "on a more personal level" because his mother was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2005 and "has benefited greatly from the resources and support that the MS Dream Center is able to provide her, as have many other individuals who are living with the disease."
"I kind of wanted to do something big, something that I knew was definitely going to catch people's attention and maybe raise a decent amount of money for these two organizations," Vinacco added, "and since I had been training for Boston ..."
Vinacco mapped out his 56.6 mile journey through Rhode Island |
Vinacco, who turned 24 on April 26, had enjoyed marvelous careers with the Spartans' and Skyhawks' cross country and track and field teams, but never ran a full marathon until five months after his final track and field meet for Stonehill. Vinacco took part in his first 26.2-mile race, the Amica Newport Marathon, on Oct. 7, 2018, and clocked a time of 3:30:12 that would have easily been in the 3:10s had he not taken a wrong turn on the second half of the course and toured an extra two miles.
Six months later, Vinacco was back in Newport, this time to compete in the Newport Rhode Races Marathon and get a bit of "redemption on that course," and he succeeded by turning in a time of 2:52:53 that was not only good for ninth place out of 341 runners, but also allowed him to qualify for this year's Boston Marathon by more than seven minutes.
After that race, Vinacco stayed active on the regional scene. He finished last July's Blessing of the Fleet 10-Miler in Narragansett in a time of 59:43 and competed in a handful of short-distance races, such as last December's Amica Downtown Jingle 5K in Providence, which he won in 16:03.
When 2019 turned into 2020, Vinacco counted down the days until his first venture from Hopkinton to Boston, but when the Boston Athletic Association postponed the marathon, Vinacco shifted gears and put his focus on his 56.6-mile excursion.
"Initially, I had set out to do it in four days," he admitted. "But I decided that if we raised over $1,000, I'd do it in three days. And then I kind of jokingly said to my friends that if I get over $2,000, I'd do it in two days. When we got that mark, I was like, 'Well, we're doing this now.'"
Vinacco's first day took place in cold, steady rain and saw him run 28.1 miles in a time of 3:24. Most of the mileage took place on Route 116 in Smithfield and Scituate, and Vinacco eventually called it a day at Cumberland Farms in Coventry.
As for the second day, which consisted of 28.5 miles and saw Vinacco finish that in 3:48, "I wasn't all too bad," he said. "I was definitely a little beat up that second day, so I took it a little bit easier (and ran) more than a victory lap if anything, just to take the day in. And it ended up being a very nice day on Saturday because Friday was brutal."
Along the way, Vinacco received a little help from his friends. On the first day, Joe Santo, Vinacco's former teammate at Stonehill, ran the whole 28.1 miles with him, and Nick Russo, a former Scituate High teammate and classmate of Vinacco's, hopped on board for the final 14.
Vinacco (left) was accompanied by brother Matt, who is a distance runner at URI, on day two |
The second day saw Vinacco's brother, Matt, a 2017 Scituate High graduate who is a distance runner on the URI men's track and field team, bike the first four miles and run the final 24.5. Two friends from Vinacco's PT program also biked with him that entire day, Hannah Scanlon and Analissa Mandile. And Bert Reid, a physical therapist at OPT Physical Therapy & Sports Medicine, donated a pair of running shoes to Vinacco, who had to change his shoes four times, "especially after the first day, when they were soaked," and Reid also jumped in to run six miles with him.
"The second part of the first day was brutal," Vinacco said. "And the second day was probably the worst of all. I came down with some IT band pain midway through, but I just took some Advil and kind of chugged my way through."
And when Vinacco finally finished underneath The Towers sometime around 1:30 p.m., "I actually got surprised by a decent amount of my family and friends, socially distanced of course," he said with a laugh. "They all showed up and supported me as I got to the finish, which was pretty cool."
One of the first things Vinacco did after finishing his run was rest his legs in the icy water next to Narragansett Town Beach, "which was actually really nice, and we also had a bottle of champagne that we popped."
As of Tuesday morning, Vinacco's GoFundMe page had raised $5,765, "and I've had some family and friends donate outside that as well," he added. "I'm just above the $6,000 mark altogether, which is way more than I ever anticipated making from this."
Vinacco is still accepting donations for his cause, and anyone interested in making one can visit https://lnkd.in/e7uarFF for more information.
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