Marathon Runner Fernando Cabada

After running his fastest time yet (2:11:36) in the Berlin Marathon last fall, he ramped up his training for Boston.

“I didn’t always win growing up, and I don’t even always win now,” he said. “But I have perseverance, and I won’t give up. And I’m still getting better.”

Cabada has had no contact with his father in eight years, a vestige of the past that he says both haunts and drives him.

“Running has been my outlet to escape,” he said. “But maybe it makes me run too much away from things. Until a year ago, I secluded myself from everyone and used running as my excuse.

“I wonder if maybe it’s like someone who’s training to be a doctor or something. You just focus, and that’s how you get great. Except then I would see, like, on the movies that normal people go do things together, and I started to think, ‘Maybe I want to try that.’ ”

[...]

“He’s a different Fernando now,” Hudson said. “I think he’s really mature. But he’s always been different. He reminds me of a fighter, like a Mexican boxer. They’re very tough, they wear their heart on their sleeve, and they say what they mean. He’s not afraid to speak his mind. And this sport needs people with his passion. We need fire.”

Cabada said he had found a new freedom in returning to his roots.

“I felt that I ran away from Fresno and my past,” he said. “I thought with my ability, I could run away, but now I’m not trying to. People from poor neighborhoods need heroes, not just people who are respected because they can beat people up. If kids need advice about leaving Fresno, now they can say, ‘You know, Fernando did that.’ Maybe I can be that hero for them.”


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