The marathon he’d been waiting for was canceled. He made a Happy Valley finish line instead

While group events around the country are canceled due to COVID-19 precautions, some attendees aren’t allowing this to stand in their way of having a good time while making a difference. This is the case with State College runner Michael Gerver, who was set to participate in the Pittsburgh Marathon in May.

Gerver started running about a year ago, and set a marathon as a goal.

“I remember having trouble getting even to four miles, but it was a cool, long-term thing to work toward for me, just because it’s so many miles,” he said. “I wanted to give myself enough training time. The Pittsburgh Marathon was in May, so I thought a year would be good, and I wanted to do it someplace special. Me and my wife have been to Pittsburgh several times; it’s a cool city and would be fun to run around.”

When the Pittsburgh Marathon was canceled and the event moved to a virtual run, allowing participants to run on their own time between now and May and then upload their run times to a virtual leaderboard, Gerver decided to run the 26.2-mile marathon length in Happy Valley.

On March 29, Gerver started his marathon run at the Pine Grove Mills Post Office, making his way down Shingletown Road to South Atherton Street, around Beaver Stadium and the Penn State Arboretum, up and down Blue Course Drive before finally finishing at Orchard Park.

“I think the hardest part was managing how many hills there are,” Gerver said. “I picked the starting point I picked because I had three or four miles of downhill (running) to start and if you start uphill, which I usually do on my normal, shorter routes, it takes a lot out of you right at the beginning. The thing I didn’t count on was that I was hitting the hills at miles 18, 19, 20, when I was just wiped out. But honestly when you’re running around here there’s no place you can avoid them completely.”

Throughout his run, Gerver said, the other individuals he saw along his route were cognizant to practice social distancing.

“(It) was nice to see. We were all waving at each other, but everyone understood the gravity of the situation,” he said.

Participants of the Pittsburgh Marathon, though, typically don’t run just for the fun of it. They often choose a charity to benefit from their participation. For Gerver, his chosen charity, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, hits close to home.

“In fifth grade, my homeroom teacher, who was my all-time favorite teacher, one of my favorite people I’ve ever met, had to leave about two-thirds of the way through the year because she had cystic fibrosis. Even though I was in fifth grade, we all kind of got it and we all loved her. She eventually died about six or seven years ago from it; she was only 37,” he said. “That was really my main motivation.”

Gerver hopes to raise $500 for the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation through his participation in the now-virtual Pittsburgh Marathon. Donations can be made to the foundation through Gerver’s marathon participant profile at https://tinyurl.com/cffmarathon.

Other runners looking for a virtual race can participate in the Paterno Family Beaver Stadium Run, which is usually held over Blue-White weekend. This year, runners and walkers can sign up as virtual participants, raising money for Special Olympics Pennsylvania.