After Boston Marathon, shoes go in the garbage

PALM BAY – Mike Donovan hates to run. He loathes, despises and detests it; says all the things dedicated and well-meaning runners tell him — "You'll get used to it" and "After a while, the adrenaline will kick in, and you'll love it" — are lost on him.

For the 40-year-old Palm Bay resident, moving fast afoot simply is a chore. And yet he will race the Boston Marathon today, one of 33 Brevard residents registered for one of the nation's most prestigious races.

Donovan is running for the charity Neurofibromatosis, Inc. Northeast to raise donations on behalf of his 8-year-old sister, Riley Donovan, who was diagnosed with NF about four years ago.

"Running is uncomfortable for me but she will be that way her whole life," the Quincy, Mass. native said.

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Donovan, a former goalkeeper at Salem State College and current player in the East Coast Soccer League ("You know keepers. We hate to run," he joked), said he actually decided to race in his home city 18 years ago to emulate and pay tribute to his father, Michael P. Donovan, Sr.

"In 1996, my father ran the 100th Boston Marathon for his 40th birthday. My 40th birthday (was) five days before this year's Boston Marathon," he said. "My father isn't a big fan of running, either, but our family always would go to the marathon to support the runners, and he finally decided he would run ... Since that day, I've always said that when I turn 40, I will run."

Having been permitted to run in Boston because of his charitable work rather than his qualifying times, Donovan sought out hints and instructions from running coach Bill Archer of the North Shore YMCA in Quincy.

It started as a painful experience.

"I've broken both knees, my ankles, my wrists and my shoulders playing sports, and then I got roped into playing in the men's league for Palm Bay Prime," he said. "I took (the past season off) and started training for the Boston Marathon Oct. 1."

His training regimen has made him familiar in South Brevard, where his wife, Tracy, teaches at Christa McAuliffe Elementary School and his daughters, 14-year-old Kailyn and 9-year-old Bree Ann, are students.

"Their friends and the other teachers would see me running in Palm Bay and Melbourne, so once a week, I ran in a 'Where's Waldo?' outfit ... And the kids and teachers try to be the first to spot me when I run. Whoever spots Waldo first gets a donation on their behalf from me to NF. I wore the Waldo outfit in the Melbourne Music Half Marathon, too. That was the first race I've ever run," he said.

Donovan has booked more than 700 miles training for Boston, where he will not wear the Waldo outfit because costumes are prohibited following last year's bombing.

That event resonated with the Donovan family, too, because Mike's younger sister Kelly was a close friend of Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier, who was killed by the bombing suspects.

NF is a relatively common genetic disorder that affects about 100,000 Americans by disturbing cell growth in the nervous system, causing tumors to form on nerve tissue. Riley has tumors behind her nose and part of her face has begun to droop.

"She's only 8 years old, a baby," he said. "Doctors don't usually do surgery on tumors caused by NF because it's too (risky)."

That leads back to why he runs: "My sister will have to do something she doesn't like — live with NF — every day of her life," he said. "I can deal with doing something I don't like to do for a few months."

His goal is to raise $6,000 and he said the hardest part of the undertaking is not running, but asking for donations. Still, "I'd pay that much for the chance to participate in this once-in-a-lifetime event," he said.

So Riley's oldest brother — there are six Donovan siblings plus a stepchild, the products of blended families — runs on her behalf and that of other NF patients.

And he runs because it is, after all, Boston.

"Running through the city will give me the opportunity to honor such a great place," he said. "It's funny, but all those towns to the west of Boston are towns I really never have been through, so it will be good to see them. This is my tribute to a great city. It's also a tribute to my sister and to my dad ... And after I finish, I think I'll throw my running shoes in the first garbage can I see."

Want to help?

• For more information about Mike Donovan's efforts to fight neurofibromatosis, go to http://www.facebook.com/RunningForRiley

• For more information about neurofibromatosis, go to http://www.nfincne.org