There’s nothing extraordinary about the random block in Oakland Beach that runs up Suburban Parkway, around a corner near the bay and then down Strand Avenue.
Unless you run around it about 100 times.
“Aloha” Joe Sullivan, who picked up the nickname for frequently wearing Hawaiian shirts, did just that.
The 26 miles was nothing new for Sullivan since he’s run the Boston Marathon eight years in a row, and a total of 24 marathons over the past decade.
“Running around in circles by myself was a different mental game than Boston where there’s 30-thousand other people and a million fans cheering you on, trying to push you along,” Sullivan said.
Back in 2013, Sullivan was a sprint from the finish line at Copley Square – at the wrong time.
“I was about a quarter of a mile away,” Sullivan said. “And we heard the two explosions go off and police stopped the race.”