JOINT BASE LANGLEY-EUSTIS, Va.-- –
If not for suffering a broken collar bone and concussion, from a bad landing on his dirt bike at age-14, 2nd Lt. Sean O’Hollearn may not have discovered his love for running. That passion empowered him to finish in 13th place, overall, at the Armed Forces Championship, in the 41st Marine Corps Marathon, Oct. 30 in Washington D.C. His 2:35:58 clocking, at a 5:56 per mile clip, was his first marathon. The registered nurse, at Langley AFB’s 633d medical group, won September’s half-marathon at Wright-Patterson AFB with a time of 1:14:37.
"I am very pleased with my finish," said O’Hollearn. "This being my first marathon, I just wanted to execute my game plan. I did not want to be the guy getting passed, in a hurry, at the end of the race.
"I felt very uncomfortable the last six miles. I was definitely hurting. But, at that point, in a marathon, everyone is hurting. I just stayed focused on catching the next guy in front of me, and keeping my legs moving."
O’Hollearn’s performance in D.C. was truly a personal highlight, for someone with humble beginnings.
"Just before my freshman year [in high school]," Lt. O’Hollearn explains. "I was dirt-biking in Astoria, Oregon, on the coast. I went over a jump and didn’t land. It’s funny how things work out. It was a blessing in disguise, because I probably would have never started running. I don’t remember what happened. I remember going up, and I didn’t come down."
He did eventually come down in a hospital bed. The injuries laid him up six weeks.
As a freshman at LaSalle Catholic College Prep in Milwaukie, Oregon, the school administration would not allow him to play football that season. Then, a three-sport athlete, with baseball as his first love, his father encouraged him to go out for cross country and get into shape for basketball.
"I was the worst kid, at cross country, my freshman year of high school," he laughs. "I was really bad at cross country! I was really bad."
He did improve and pushed baseball aside for track, as a junior. After high school, he walked-on to the University of Portland’s cross country team. Though he never made the varsity squad there, it did not diminish his desires. As a collegiate junior and senior, he earned all-academic honorable mention status on the 2013-14 West Coast Conference list.
"I remind myself, on a frequent basis, of the times [as a freshman in high school] when I couldn’t run a mile without stopping; from being so out of shape. My parents and my coaches were so into my development, and constantly encouraging me. My coach encouraged me to not set limits on myself."
The avid distance runner still refuses to place those limits, as he never ran a full 26 miles before the Armed Forces Championship.
This past summer his wife Lauren encouraged him, by biking alongside him, during his 20-mile runs.
"She is the best," he said. "It was so hot this summer. She would get up super early or stay up super late, and ride her bike beside me."
For someone who never competed on his university’s varsity cross country team, 13th place out of 24,965 entries in the Armed Forces Marathon, makes for a prime landing spot – and springboard for this competitor.