Running News Daily

Here’s the Story Behind the New Wooden Sculpture of a Runner on Heartbreak Hill

Heartbreak Hill is one of the most iconic marathon sections in the world, challenging runners on a long, steady uphill around mile 20 of the Boston Marathon. Now, runners will have something new to greet them after they get through that rough part of the race.

A new wooden sculpture of a runner has been built out of what used to be a large maple tree situated at the top of the hill.

Mark Proctor and Charlotte McKee have owned a house on Heartbreak Hill, at the corner of Commonwealth and Grant Avenues, since the late 1990s. They’ve spent many Patriots’ Days hosting marathon watch parties in their front yard, next to that large maple tree that could be seen from a ways down the hill.

But in 2013, they found out the tree was dying. For seven years, Proctor and McKee did their best to keep it alive, even putting steel cables on it to keep it up. Unfortunately, in 2020, the tree became diseased; it killed vegetation around it, and chunks of the tree fell off. Instead of removing the tree entirely, Proctor had an idea to give the tree a second life.

“We had seven years to think about it, and we love the marathon,” Proctor told Runner’s World. “I can’t say where the spark was, but we have a house in New Hampshire, and people make tree carvings up there, so I had the idea of possibly making a runner out of the tree. Not an identifiable runner. Just a runner.”

They considered a few other ideas, such as the Greek god Hermes and a puma, like the brand logo. However, they ended up going with a generic runner.

“It was Mark’s vision from the beginning,” McKee told Runner’s World. “He had the have the courage of his convictions because I was originally not on board. But I’m glad he persisted.”

Proctor and McKee searched the internet for a wood sculptor, and they found Ken Packie, who lives in Otis, Massachusetts, in the Berkshires. When the tree came down in September, leaving only an eight-foot-tall section, the owners told Packie he had total creative control. In November, Packie made the two-hour trek to Boston with his tools and began to chainsaw the runner to life.

“The pose was dictated by the tree,” Packie told Runner’s World. “I had to knock everything peripheral off and see what meat I had left. Like most of my carvings, I wing it, and I knew I had to fit this into what the tree allowed me to do.”

While shaping, he also had to think of structural integrity, which meant the ankles had to be thicker to support the sculpture above—the back leg was especially tough, until an idea came to him from the wood.

“I had a huge chunk of wood under the back leg that I was going to cut off,” Packie said. “I looked at it, and it looked like a heart, and I thought, that should be a broken heart for Heartbreak Hill. It makes sense, and it’ll give the back leg structural integrity.”

As Packie worked with chainsaws, chisels, and blowtorches, people passing by started to show appreciation for the project as it took shape. Cars beeped all day and neighbors McKee and Proctor had never met started giving them positive feedback about the sculpture.

These are such crazy times and people are so stressed, and from hearing from people who are coming by is that people are so happy,” McKee said. “They’re looking for something to make them smile and this can be one of those things.”

In total, Packie estimates the carving took about 25 to 30 hours. On November 20, the final wood seal was put on, which will have to be replaced every year to keep the sculpture from wearing away.

The final product is a male runner with a singlet and shorts with a broken heart under the back leg.

“I hope this will become an inspiration for people to keep pushing,” Packie said. “Twenty miles into a race going up hill is a tough spot, and if this can help them push forward, I want them to see it. This is not a super lean runner. He’s the every man’s runner, and if he can do it, you can. Hopefully Heartbreak Hill won’t be a heartbreak for them.”

McKee and Proctor initially only planned to keep it around for one iteration of the Boston Marathon. But after seeing the positive reaction and watching people come to their neighborhood just to see or run past the new landmark, they think they’ll make it a permanent part of their yard and something for Boston Marathon runners to look forward to for years to come.

“It was so tough after the bombings and there was uncertainty about if it would return,” McKee said. “It gave people hope, and people were so happy when the marathon came back. Now, not having the marathon because of the pandemic, people are want to look forward to something. Hopefully, this will be a symbol of how we all got through this.”