A rare genetic condition hasn't slowed down Shawne Flaherty from going the distance in life.
Flaherty, 48, was born with the life-threatening Noonan Syndrome, a disorder that involves unusual facial characteristics, short stature, heart defects present at birth, bleeding problems, developmental delays and malformations of the bones of the rib cage.
Approximately one in 1,000 to 2,500 children worldwide are born with one of the most common genetic syndromes associated with congenital heart disease.
“I don’t dwell on it. It’s just life. Other people have it worse,” said the four-foot-nine Flaherty, a familiar face in the St. Albert running scene. “There was never ‘woe-is-me’. We all have challenges, just different times in our life.”
The latest in a long line of beat-the-odds accomplishments was the 121st running of the Boston Marathon, which was also the fifth marathon since 2014 for Flaherty, who has also competed in more than 28 half-marathons in the past seven years.
“Not finishing is not an option for me. I will persevere through the worst of it. Most of my life has been a struggle so to fight for something you want is nothing new,” she said. “I give everything before me an honest effort.”
Crossing the finish line was a powerful moment in Flaherty’s life.
“I started to cry. Super emotional,” she said. “It was the most surreal experience to be a part of the oldest marathon in history.”
Unseasonable heat for April 17 in Boston, a blistering plus-25 Celsius, didn’t stop Flaherty from completing the steamy course in six hours and 22 minutes.
“When you hit that finish line every muscle from the waist down hurt but I said to myself I have to get back here. This was phenomenal,” said Flaherty, who was training for a time in the 5:40 to 5:45 range.
“My goal now is to re-qualify at the Edmonton Marathon (Aug. 20) and get myself back to Boston for the time I wanted and the time I trained for and hopefully without the intense heat.”
Her third Edmonton marathon resulted in the qualification time for Boston for athletes with a disability.
“My goal for 2016 was to bring my marathon down from 6:10 to as far under six hours I could go so I worked very hard at it,” said Flaherty of last year’s time of 5:47:04 after going 6:10:48 in 2015 and 6:15:13 in 2014 at the Edmonton Marathons.
The last marathon before Boston was the Detroit race in October and Flaherty was clocked at 6:20:34.
“I had struggles in that race,” she said. “Boston was a redeeming race for me, not necessarily time-wise but how I felt out on the course.
“I just needed to fine-tune my training (at Detroit) and that’s what I worked on.”
At this stage in Flaherty’s life it’s a miracle she is alive and active.
“I’m pretty darn healthy now,” said Flaherty, who was three years old when she finally learned to walk.
Severe pulmonary stenosis, a narrowing of the pulmonary valve in the heart, left Flaherty constantly blue and she would sleep endlessly.
Without surgery Flaherty would not live and it was doubtful she would survive the operation. The best-case scenario would be for Flaherty to live into her mid-teens.
“The goal was to get me to age five or about 30 pounds thereabout but (the surgery) didn’t happen until I absolutely needed it. I was two and a half, just shy of three (years old) maybe, and I wasn’t even 20 pounds and they had to do it,” said Flaherty, who was living in Hamilton at the time. “It was supposed to be a temporary fix but I've never needed another surgery and nobody knows why. Nothing is failing.”
Flaherty would go on to live a normal life as best she could and graduated from Penticton Secondary School.
“I was bullied from day one to graduation.”
With the encouragement of Flaherty’s parents, Bob and Jill, she set goals and accomplished them while growing up.
“My parents didn’t believe in a ‘I can’t’ attitude,” said the motivational speaker at Running Room clubs.
Flaherty became interested in sports as an adult and about 17 years ago signed up for a kickboxing fitness class and was hooked in large part due to the encouragement by “a fabulous instructor” who challenged her to achieve what no one thought possible.
The next step for the dedicated walker at the time was to giving running a shot and in 2009 she did her first 10-kilmore race.
“I started running more and it was during this time that running became my outlet as my dad started entering the final stages of his Parkinson’s disease,” said Flaherty, who ran her first half-marathon in 2010 with a heavy heart. “My mom told me that she and dad wanted me to stay here (instead of coming back to Penticton) and do that half marathon no matter what. It was slated for June 4, it was the Loops for the Troops race (in Edmonton) so I promised I would stay and do the race and then we would see what would happen.
“My dad passed away on May 30 of 2010 but I stayed here and I ran that half-marathon on no sleep so I decided I couldn’t base my one experience that I was going to give myself on that one race so I signed up for another one and away I went.”
Her second half-marathon was in Penticton after her father’s death.
“When I crossed the finish line that was when I realized I might have really found something. I was addicted at that point. I was addicted at the first race, so many of my friends came out to see me finish, but the emotions surrounding everything that week just didn’t really give me the finish that I wanted.”
In 2014, Flaherty was challenged by a friend to try a full marathon and the next year “someone suggested to me I might be eligible to run the Boston Marathon as an athlete with a disability if I could bring my time down.”
To qualify “is not easy to do” but Flaherty was determined to pull it off and last year, with her friend Dawn from the Running Room beside her “to make sure I stayed on track” she met the required qualifying time for submission to the Boston Athletic Association.
“I hit the finish line with her and I started to cry.”
In the meantime, Flaherty’s friend and another main supporter of her endeavours, Colin, was battling colon cancer.
“He was waiting to hear if I made it to Boston and it became a goal of finding out,” Flaherty said. “I found out on Nov. 18, 2016 that I was accepted to the 2017 Boston Marathon and the first person I told was Colin.
“I went up to Capital Care Norwood and I told Colin all about it and he opened his eyes and looked at me and squeezed my hand and gave me the thumbs up.
“He passed away the next morning.”
Flaherty is “very blessed to have a huge support network” helping her in life.
“Running might be an individual sport on the course but really it takes a team to get us to that course to start with. It takes a team at the Running Room, it takes my team at work to help out and keep encouraging me when it’s 30 below and I’m going to run 30 K and it takes my medical support network. It also took my sisters and my mom to tell me to go for it.
“While we are alone out on the course I very much had a huge team getting me to that course. I can’t take all the credit.”
When people say they can’t so something, Flaherty asks: “Why can’t you do it? What is your barrier to not doing it?
“A lot of our barriers are mental. Yes, you might not be able to run a full marathon or an ultra marathon because you have bad knees. I didn’t start with a full marathon. I didn’t set out to do work up to a full marathon, that is just something that evolved one step at a time. I started with that 10 K and then I set out to do one half-marathon. I didn’t worry about anything past that one half-marathon. I did that and went from there,” said the participant in past years in the St. Albert Road Race and Leading Edge Physiotherapy RunWild and is also a RunWild volunteer.
“Life is not a matter of counting the years but rather making the years count and what can you do with your years, whatever they are.”
