Tears, Smiles For Verona, Jersey City Running Buddies At Marathon

VERONA, NJ — Marathon runners are a close-knit crowd. They sweat together. They suffer together. And above all else, they understand what it’s like to power through adversity.

When Jersey City native and construction worker Eric Serrano and Verona resident Jacqueline Murphy crossed the end line of the New York City Marathon earlier this month – staggering to a very respectable finish at 4:58:32 – there was only one logical response, Murphy recalled.

“We both cried,” she told Patch.

The race represented a huge milestone for Serrano, a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, who struggled with PTSD and substance addiction after his military service ended, according to Murphy.

• See related article: Watch Verona's 2018 Veterans Day Tribute At Town Hall

After entering treatment at Samaritan Village in NYC in July 2017, Serrano became involved with equine therapy and Back on My Feet, a New York-based nonprofit that combats homelessness with the power and camaraderie of running.

It didn’t take long for the love of running to take seed in the veteran’s heart; Serrano has now logged more than 500 miles with Back on My Feet. More importantly, he’s been clean for more than 15 months and continues to work hard in his recovery, Murphy said.

That last statement rings especially poignant for Murphy, who became involved with Back on My Feet in May 2017, when she was working as a coordinator of services at Covenant House in Newark.

“I ran the NYC Half Marathon for Covenant House in 2016, and was inspired by how running seemed to literally help change [clients’] outlooks on life,” she remembered. “I thought there had to be more groups like this, so I did some research.”

After finding Back on My Feet, Murphy became active with the group, at times waking up at 4 a.m. for a drive and run in NYC before heading back to work in New Jersey at 8 a.m. Her involvement with the group got deeper when she ran the NYC Marathon for Back on My Feet in November 2017. And that’s where she met Serrano, the former Marine-turned running fanatic.

“Eric had just joined the group and I remember seeing him in the crowd at mile 18,” Murphy said. “He vowed that he was going to run it in 2018.”

Not only did he want to finish, he vowed to do it under five hours. It was a quest that rung true for the Verona resident, who found herself a running companion.

“Since we met, we’ve run hundreds of miles together in [temperatures from] zero to 100 degrees,” Murphy said. “We have crossed the start and finish lines of countless races… we have shared smiles and tears.”

But nothing – not even Serrano’s inspiring finish in the NYC Half Marathon in March – compared to the feeling of completing the full race on Nov. 4, Murphy said.

“This race was 100% his victory lap,” she said of Serrano. “He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I’m here!’ Watching him celebrate his hard work was beautiful. This was not my pace at all – my body was definitely starting to feel pain – but at mile 22, I told Eric that we could still break five hours but it was not going to be easy.”

For Serrano – who toughed his way through a tour in the infantry from 1979 to 1983 and another as a sea-duty Marine on the USS Saratoga – there was only one reply, she recalled… push forward.

Murphy said that even as Serrano battled a bad shoulder and “lock up” in his legs, he never lost his upbeat attitude, stopping “about 50 times” to high-five little kids and dance at live entertainment along the route.

“I wondered if I had ever pushed myself that hard,” she recalled with admiration. “I don’t think I ever have.”

With just 800 meters left – just as Serrano was hitting his personal wall – he decided to make it an all-or-nothing effort. “I’m giving this everything I have!” he told Murphy. “This is all I got!”

But as it turned out, it was just enough to cross the finish line, Murphy said.

“He never stopped smiling,” she told Patch. “Semper Fi.”

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Photos courtesy of Jacqueline Murphy