He's still in the running
For Emilio Rotondi, life's journey has been a marathon
WELLESLEY -- Owning a beauty salon in Wellesley gave Emilio Rotondi an up-close view of the Boston Marathon each year. He remembers looking out his window in the early 1960s and wondering, How do the runners do it?
He couldn't understand why someone would run 26 miles from Hopkinton to Boston. He also marveled at the quick pace of many runners.
''I'd be watching them going by and it was amazing to me, incomprehensible," he said. ''Before I knew it, I'd be joining them."
Today, the 68-year-old Rotondi is a member of an elite marathon fraternity. He's participated in 37 straight races, completing 36. The lone miss came in 1977 when a runner stepped on the back of his shoe in Framingham, resulting in a hairline fracture of his lower left leg.
Race organizers say Rotondi, a longtime Wellesley resident, is one of only 39 runners to finish 25 or more consecutive Boston Marathons.
On this day he's reflecting on his first, sitting in the dimly lit dining room of his home and pointing his finger at a picture from the 1969 race, taken when he was passing through Wellesley. As he looks at the picture through his rimless glasses, a warm smile lights his face.
''We didn't know much about running back then," he said, recalling how his brother handed him a hot cup of tea for hydration. Tea, with its diuretic qualities, would be forbidden today for runners hoping to hydrate.
The picture captures a 31-year-old Rotondi running down the street with a smile on his face. He spent his early years in Italy playing pickup soccer before moving to Boston's North End in 1956 -- 50 years ago this month. He worked in a factory for four years, learned English on the side, attended school to become a hair stylist. A few years later, he opened his own salon, called Emilio.
But it wasn't the view from his salon that led him to the marathon starting line. Instead, it was a car accident. In 1967, Rotondi was driving to work on a June morning when his vehicle was blindsided.
''It was a beautiful summer day, I remember I was almost dreaming, and suddenly I'm in a mess," he said. ''A lady hit the back of my car, I lost control and went into the other lane. It was a total wreck."
Rotondi had acute back pain from the accident and was limited at work. Doctors suggested surgery, but he refused. One of Rotondi's customers then made a suggestion, telling him exercise might be his best medicine.
''I took the suggestion," he recalled. ''I started running two minutes. Then three minutes. That was in September of '68. By April '69, I ran the Boston Marathon, and that's the way it started."
The marathon has since become an important part of Rotondi's life. He relishes the challenge of running 26 miles, the nice people he's met through the years, and the structure it brings to his life in the early months of every year. He also said the race helped him attain something that has helped him in everyday life -- confidence.
After finishing his first marathon in 1969, clocking 3:08, Rotondi said he felt better about himself. That ultimately led him to seek higher goals in other areas of his life, such as education.
When Rotondi left Italy in 1956, he had an eighth-grade education. Shortly after finishing his first marathon, at the age of 31, a newly confident Rotondi took a test to earn his high school degree.
He passed but felt ''the diploma was one thing and knowledge was something entirely different."
So he enrolled in classes at Newman Prep in Boston, loaded up on science and math courses, and then was accepted to Northeastern University. Five years later, he had a degree in biochemistry.
In addition to earning his degrees, Rotondi was working full time in the beauty salon as well as training for the marathon in the early months of each year. He said between the salon, studying, and training, he was working 120-hour weeks.
''It was all brand-new stuff to me," he said of the college courses. ''What might take two hours for one person took me six. But that's when I did my best marathoning, when I had no time at all."
Rotondi's life journey also helps explain his approach to the Boston Marathon.
''My concept is always to finish; the first idea when you get to the starting line is to get your mind straight that you're going to finish," he said. ''Then you do it."
He finds the early part of the course, the primarily downhill section from Hopkinton to Framingham, the most challenging.
''Because I only run one marathon a year, it takes my body a while to get used to the pace of the other runners," he said. ''It takes me five or six miles to really get comfortable. I hear my mind saying 'What are you doing this for?' It's hard to be a marathon runner when you only run one marathon a year."
Like many runners, his favorite part of the course is toward the finish line.
''When I reach Boston College, that's it, because you know you're coming in," he said. ''You see that Citgo sign and you say, 'I made it.' There is pain, but psychologically there is no pain. The mind is happy."
Rotondi, who retired seven years ago, receives encouragement from his wife, Christina.
''I'm very proud of all he's accomplished," she said. ''I know how much the marathon means to him, that it's an important part of his life."
The 5-foot-10, 145-pound Rotondi usually starts training each January. In his younger years, he would cover long distances by running through Dover, Sherborn, and Medfield, often joining his best friend and life mentor, Julian Siegel, on Sunday mornings.
In recent years he's stayed around the neighborhood, often circling the track at nearby Babson College.
His best time ever was 2:39, which he achieved in 1972 and 1976. Last year he clocked 4:06.
Because of what the marathon means to him and the sense of accomplishment he feels from finishing each year, Rotondi has no plans to stop running.
''As long as my body will let me do it, I will keep going," he said. ''If I'm well, I'd like to run until 80 if I can." 