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Murphy accepts the challenge

Cancer survivor finishes Boston Marathon in hand-cycle

Devann Murphy crosses the finish line Monday to finish second in the women’s hand cycle division in the 122nd Boston Marathon. (Photo provided)

SARANAC LAKE — Give Devann Murphy a challenge, and she’ll take it on and then some.

On Monday, the Keeseville resident was enduring a very wet, brutally cold day, just like the nearly 30,000 people who were all in the same boat she was in.

Murphy was among the thousands of participants in the 122nd Boston Marathon, and like the rest of the field, the 39-year-old found herself soaked well before the race even started. But Murphy tackled her first attempt at the iconic marathon in a different manner than all but a few of the race’s participants.

A survivor of childhood cancer, Murphy hand-cycled her way along the course instead of covering the route in a pair of running shoes like the 99-plus percent of the rest of the field. And had it not been for another amazing female athlete, Murphy most likely would have emerged from Monday’s miserable weather and the 26.2-mile trek as this year’s champion in the women’s hand-cycle division.

As an 11-year-old, Murphy was diagnosed with bone cancer. Although she beat the disease, the treatments, including replacing her diseased femur with a cadaver bone and removing a hip joint, left her walking on crutches, which she will be using for the rest of her life

Keeseville’s Devann Murphy and her husband Tom stand at Fenway Park in Boston last weekend. (Photo provided)

Unable to run, Murphy discovered hand cycling, thanks to a Google search that led her to the I Am Able Foundation, an organization created by disabled Marine Chris Kaag that helps individuals affected by disabilities to lead more active lives. Murphy received her first hand-cycle through the I Am Able Foundation in March 2015, and from there, her marathon career took off quickly.

On Monday, she battled the cold and wet to finish as the women’s hand-cycle runner-up with a time of 2 hours, 55 minutes and 54 seconds. Murphy knew she wasn’t going to come close to winning in her first appearance in the Boston Marathon, even though she also claimed second place in November in the New York City Marathon. Monday’s first place honor went to 2016 Rio Paralympic silver medalist Alicia Dana, a Vermonter who finished well over an hour before Murphy reached the line.

Non-stop wind-driven rain made it difficult enough for the regular runners on Monday, but even tougher for the hand-cyclists.

“The weather was horrible. It was brutal,” said Murphy, a legal assistant who works in Elizabethtown at the Essex County district attorney’s office. “It was 26.2 miles of rain, water and dirt flying off your front tire. My biggest problem is my hands got so cold I couldn’t feel them. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t drink, I could barely hold onto my cranks. My hands got so cold, I couldn’t even shift.”

After finishing the race, Murphy said she spent about an hour in the medical tent dealing with hypothermic symptoms and a body temperature of 96 degrees.

Devann Murphy (Photo provided)

“Up until Monday morning, I was hoping to finish under 2:30,” she said. “Once I got to the start line, I was already soaked, so I was just happy to finish.”

Although Murphy was making her first trip to compete in the Boston Marathon, she was somewhat familiar with the course. Along with her husband Tom, Murphy walked the course in 2014 while raising funds for the V Foundation, named after legendary North Carolina State basketball coach Jim Valvano. As a child, Murphy spent much of her time in Boston being treated for cancer, which was part of the inspiration that brought her back to the same city to compete in the marathon.

“I thought it (the Jimmy V Walk) was the only way I would be able to do the course,” Murphy recalled of her fund-raising effort in 2014. “I hadn’t ever heard of hand-cycling back then. Once I found out about the I Am Able Foundation, the rest has been history.”

Murphy described her hand-cycle as an entry level model that costs about $2,500-$3,000 and said the I Am Able Foundation can help people acquire adaptive equipment like that through grants.

“It gets the job done,” she said, adding a high-end hand-cycle similar to Dana’s costs up to $15,000.

Less than two months after getting her hand-cycle, Murphy entered the 2015 Vermont City Marathon in Burlington and finished fourth in the division.

“I had no clue what I was doing,” she said. “I knew it was something different, I liked it, and I wanted to get good at it.”

Since then, Murphy has knocked off two more Vermont City Marathons, she’s appeared in the Marine Corp Marathon, the New York City Marathon and now Boston. She said it’s often tough finding suitable pavement to train on and added that roads around Plattsburgh, Burlington and Lake George are among her favorite places to train.

Hand-cycling and marathons are just a part of Murphy’s active lifestyle. She’s an avid hiker and kayaker and also enjoys taking on indoor climbing walls. A graduate of AuSable Valley High School, Murphy said she sometimes trains up to seven days a week and works out at Eclipse Fitness in Plattsburgh, a gym that has recently added a crank cycle to its equipment.

In less than 40 days, Murphy will be back racing on the road again when she competes for the fourth time in the Vermont City Marathon, and hopes conditions will be nothing like they were on Monday in Massachusetts.

“Honestly, it was brutal for everyone,” she said. “And really, I was one of the lucky ones. Most of the runners were out there considerably longer than I was. I find it kind of ironic that I had to overcome to do this. On Monday, everybody had to overcome.”

Murphy said there was never a moment on Monday when she thought about dropping out of the race.

“Sure, I could have been warm,” Murphy said. “I could have been warm, and I would have been a quitter.”

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