Zdeno Chara can’t be stopped: How the Bruins great is trying to conquer the marathon world - The Boston Globe
The former Bruins captain has run six marathons since retiring in September 2022 and has no plans to slow down. And better yet? He's running fast.
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Running a marathon with three months of training is not normal. Running five more marathons the following year — including three in the span of one month — isn’t normal either.
Zdeno Chara isn’t normal.
The former Bruins captain — who at 6 feet, 9 inches is the tallest player in NHL history — has run six marathons, a half Ironman, a 50-kilometer trail race, and a handful of road races since hanging up his skates in September 2022.
Monday’s Boston Marathon will mark his seventh marathon in the last 12 months. He plans to run No. 8 in London a mere six days after crossing the finish line on Boylston Street.
The kicker? Chara, 47, isn’t just finishing these races. He’s running fast. He dropped a time of 3 hours, 38 minutes in last year’s Marathon — impressive by any standard, but made more remarkable by the fact that it was his first marathon. Since then, he’s shaved 28 minutes off his personal best and shows no signs of slowing down.
“The feeling of crossing the finish line and having fun on the course and being fit and in good shape just gives you the confidence and excitement to sign up for another one,” Chara said.
After 24 years playing professional hockey, including 13 in Boston, Chara had no interest in taking time off. He didn’t want to enjoy a life without constant physical exertion.
He wanted to hit the road.
Chara started running right away — though “started” may be the wrong verb. He enjoyed running to stay in shape during the offseason. When he retired from hockey, the one-day contract he signed with the Bruins included a clause stating “Zdeno must agree to keep himself in good shape and physical condition at all times in his post-retirement.”
Chara’s post-retirement running, however, was different. He wasn’t chasing a goal, and he started to feel himself plateau.
He sought help from Becca Pizzi, a professional marathoner from Belmont. She took one look at the runs he logged and had an idea.
“In three months, there’s a marathon — the Boston Marathon,” Pizzi told him last February. “What do you think about running it?”
Chara was no stranger to the spectacle, but he found the idea of running 26.2 miles “unreachable,” especially with so little time to prepare.
“I wouldn’t suggest just taking three months and training to just anyone,” Pizzi said. “You risk a lot of injury, and it’s really hard to pull off for somebody normal. There was no doubt in my mind that, with his athleticism, he could do it.”
These days, Chara logs an average of 60 miles per week. From running to biking, swimming, and weight training, Chara estimates that he spends upward of 20 hours per week preparing for the next race.
Despite entering the sport with four decades’ worth of physical stress, Chara has remained mostly injury-free.
“I said to [Chara], ‘How do you think that you’re able to do this given you’ve been such an intense athlete all your life?’ ” McGillivray said. “‘You would think that by now your legs and knees and ankles and everything else would have taken such a beating that it would be hard to do this — almost impossible.’ ”
Chara takes an estimated 1,885 strides per mile, while Pizzi clocks about 2,503. That means Pizzi takes an average of 618 more steps per mile than Chara, and nearly 16,200 more strides per marathon.
With a half-dozen marathons out of the way, Chara has set his sights on competing in Ironmans, which include a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a marathon. His first foray came when he competed in a half in Daytona, Fla., in December. His first full Ironman will be Germany’s Challenge Roth this July.
“There’s something about being a professional athlete that creates an extremophile,” Tenforde said.
As much as it may seem that he’s chasing an impossible standard that he set for himself, Chara’s only goal when he crosses the start line is to reach the finish. Each personal best is merely the byproduct of a professional athlete’s unending desire to compete.
But if Chara continues his trajectory, McGillivray is convinced he’ll be among marathon royalty.
“Pretty soon he’ll be running with Meb, for God’s sake.”
