District Attorney ruling the road Almy is one of 152 Mainers ready to compete in Boston Marathon

About four years ago, Chris Almy found that several of the things he was involved in revolved around running.

His son was competing in cross country at Foxcroft Academy. Almy was serving on the steering committee for a local road race.

And he wasn’t a runner.

Almy said while pitching in on the race, he made a decision.

“I said, ‘If I’m gonna help organize this, I ought to run it,” he said.

The 53-year-old Almy, who serves as the district attorney for Penobscot and Piscataquis counties, has been running ever since.

On Monday, Almy will take a big step in his running career: He’ll be one of 152 Mainers who toe the starting line in Hopkinton, Mass., for the 106th edition of the Boston Marathon. A total of 16,638 athletes have registered for the noon race.

Runners qualify for Boston in a variety of ways. Some are allowed to enter due to their affiliation with key sponsors. Others are granted a race number because they’re raising funds for charity.

Others simply race their way in. And that’s what Almy did.

Almy earned his berth in the selective field by running the 26.2-mile distance in 3 hours, 27 minutes at last year’s Sugarloaf Marathon in Kingfield.

Almy said the progression from road-racer to marathoner was a natural.

“Last year when I had done all the other races, I said, ‘I ought to do this marathon. I think I can do it pretty well,'” Almy said.

Fellow runners told him what to expect in the marathon, and he said that advice, along with reading plenty of books, taught him well.

He said it paid off at Sugarloaf.

“I had a great time,” he said.

Now, with Boston approaching, Almy admits he’s getting a bit concerned.

“I’m excited. Nervous. Scared. All of that,” Almy said. “But this is gonna be fun.”

Almy said he has a goal in mind, but isn’t willing to make that public.

“I don’t like to put my time goals out there,” he said. “I keep those to myself. But I just want to run well and finish strongly.”

Almy figures he’s done the training necessary for that to happen. His weekly mileage topped out at 73 miles, and he typically ran 50 to 60 miles per week.

And he has a lot of running friends who are Boston veterans.

“I’ve been given a lot of advice,” he said. “[Like] go with the flow for the first few miles and try to maintain a steady pace. [And] recognize that the hills are at a very difficult part of the race, but that the training that I’ve done will get me through that.”

Almy said training sessions with fellow marathoner Kevin Dow should prepare him well.

“He taught me how to do hills,” Almy said. “We’ve run from Main Street to Fifth Street, on Cedar Street. We did those repetitions for six weeks.”

Almy said his family and a co-worker are going down to support him, though he admits that with thousands of runners clogging the course, there might be a problem with that plan.

“I don’t know how they’re ever gonna see me,” he said.