Marathoner’s victory includes an impromptu stop to collect his thoughts

Chris Bailey spent last Tuesday and Wednesday at home with the stomach flu. It wasn’t until midday Friday that he decided to make the drive down for the Publix Hilton Head Island Marathon.

Then about two-thirds of the way through Saturday’s race, he stopped. Plunked himself down a concrete barrier just before the Cross Island Parkway. And his thoughts turned to a close friend getting ready for a bone marrow transplant.

“I just thought, ‘I can’t stop,’ ” Bailey said.

Not only did the Charleston runner finish, he won. In a course record.

Bailey had enough in the tank to outlast Bluffton’s David Adams to the finish at Jarvis Creek Park, knocking a full 10 minutes off the previous record with a time of 2:45.12. Adams, running his first marathon, was less than three minutes behind as each of Saturday’s top three broke the old mark.

The women’s division found a slower pace, with North Carolina’s Emily Potter capturing the title in a time of 3:17:04.

“I think it’s my slowest ever marathon,” Potter said. “But it’s OK.”

Potter, by the way, was running her first marathon since giving birth to her third child in October. Her last race came exactly 52 weekends ago — at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

Saturday’s event, which also featured a half-marathon and an 8K race, drew a total of 1,147 runners in all to Jarvis Creek Park. That’s a slight downturn from last year’s edition, even with cool temperatures and the designation as South Carolina’s state championship.

Bailey, a recruiter at the College of Charleston Honors College, is more of a half-marathon specialist and won the Kiawah Island Half Marathon two months ago. Saturday marked just his fourth competitive marathon, though one of them was the 2015 Boston Marathon.

He entered the Hilton Head Island event primarily in hopes of recording a qualifying time that would get him back to Boston in 2018.

“Hopefully I can run next year with some guys I coach and some of my friends,” he said. “I needed to do one before September and ... I figured I’d just try to get it done during the cooler weather as opposed to trying in May.”

On Tuesday, though, Bailey wasn’t sure he’d make the starting line when the flu knocked him down. Even on Friday, he was consulting friends and his coach to decide whether to even make the trip.

“They said go for it and see what happens,” Bailey said.

Still zapped of his usual energy, he never really felt comfortable. He admitted the temptation was strong to slow down or stop, but he pressed forward. Until a little more than 18 miles into the race, on the approach to the Cross Island.

That’s when his thoughts turned to Brian Johnson, a prominent name in the Charleston running community as a competitor, booster and coach. The 41-year-old teacher was diagnosed last year with acute myeloid leukemia; he’ll undergo a bone marrow transplant next week.

“He’s going through some hard stuff, so I knew I wasn’t going to give up,” Bailey said. “He’s going to get through it. He’s got a lot of people behind him, and he’s tough as nails.”

Bailey’s winning time easily broke the race record of 2:55:47 set last year by Bryan Kelpe.

Adams, son of Hilton Head Prep football coach Dave Adams, was seeking a fourth consecutive Hilton Head victory in a third division. He captured 5K overall titles in 2014 and ’15, stepped up to the half-marathon last year and on Saturday kept the pressure on Bailey.

“David’s a tough runner,” Bailey said, “but I also know this was his first marathon, so he was a wild card.”

Potter’s entry came almost as something of a lark, noticing the marathon on the calendar at the same time as her family’s getaway plans on the island. The Potters live outside Fort Bragg, N.C., where husband Mark is soon to deploy to Iraq.

“I thought I couldn’t not run a marathon when the opportunity was so close,” said Potter, herself a retired U.S. Army major. “I certainly didn’t train for it. I just was trying to get back in shape after having my baby. I didn’t wear a watch, didn’t pay attention to time at all.”

It’s an approach that’s worked before. Also an entrant at the 2008 and ’12 Olympic Trials, she qualified for last year’s edition during their 2015 family vacation in Canada.

Ten months after having their second child, Potter’s time of 2:42:56 at the Edmonton Marathon beat the qualifying standard by four seconds.

This story was originally published February 11, 2017 at 6:25 PM with the headline "Marathoner’s victory includes an impromptu stop to collect his thoughts."