Running the Boston Marathon for Restorative Justice

Rev. John de Vries, a retired Christian Reformed Church pastor and chaplain, ran his first marathon in Port Huron, Mich., in 1994.

At that time, he was 49 years old and had just started jogging as a way to stay fit. He ran the marathon at the request of a friend.

“My Port Huron Marathon companion and inspiration was a friend, principal of the London Christian School, and member of the London CRC," said de Vries.

The friend, said de Vries, had his eye on qualifying in Port Huron to participate in the Boston Marathon in 1995. While his friend didn’t qualify that year, de Vries finished in time to earn a spot in the Boston event.

Since then, de Vries has been in nearly every Boston Marathon, except for a year he was injured and except for the race on April 15, 2013, when two bombs went off near the finish line, killing three spectators and wounding more than 260 other people.

“I was with a group biking in Japan that year,” he said. “My wife, Elly, emailed to tell me what had happened. She would have been standing right in the area where the bombs went off. But, normally, I would have already finished by a half hour or so by then.”

That bombing, he said, was tragic and took away the innocence of the yearly event. Even so, people keep returning, drawn back by its history and the aura of running in Boston, said de Vries, 71, who will be there to participate when the marathon takes place for the 120th time on Monday, April 18.

“I’m going to be among the 32,000 people from all over the world who are running. There will probably be a crowd of over one million people watching,” he said.

“Running in that marathon is always a lot of sweat, but it is a real phenomenon. You can’t appreciate it unless you are part of it.”

This year, he said, he will be running the 43-kilometer race on behalf of the Church Council on Justice and Corrections, an organization that the CRC helped to found and of which DeVries is a board member.

Specifically, he will be running to raise awareness of and funds for the cause of restorative justice, a process of seeking to bring about reconciliation between victims of crime and perpetrators.

“There is a place for punishment in the criminal justice system,” said de Vries, who served various churches and worked for many years in a range of criminal justice settings in Canada.

“But restorative justice has a place as well,” he said. “It is about people coming together and talking things out.”

De Vries said that running makes him feel healthier physically and that restorative justice promises to make communities healthier through reconciliation.

Now that he is retired, de Vries spends time on restorative justice initiatives and devotes energy to working with a group promoting multifaith efforts in Canada.

But he also makes sure to get up early, often before dawn, to run the streets and paths near his London, Ont,. home. Right now, he is putting in long runs during the weekends to train for Boston, which he normally finishes in under four hours. Over the years, he has also participated in many other marathons across Canada and the U.S.

“My kids say I started running to overcome my midlife crisis,” he said with a laugh.

Although he enjoys being outside and getting the exercise, de Vries said, “I’ve always made sure to get it out of the way early in the day so it doesn’t influence my work or family life.”