Friends remember marathoner who died

By Jennifer Rosinski
Friday, April 19, 2002

The night after the Boston Marathon, her teammates attended a victory party in Cambridge where they were handed pins that read 26.2 miles.

That same night, Cynthia Lucero, who ran as part of a team for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was taken off life support at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, after collapsing four miles from the race's finish.

"She was still living and we were all hopeful. I can't describe the feeling in the room. It was just shock," said Karin Bryan of Westborough. "They handed out the pins and it was just a formality. I mean, who cares? Who cares what we just did? I didn't. It didn't mean anything."

Lucero's teammates spent Wednesday, the following day, at a private memorial service for her at Sacred Heart Church in Roslindale. Later that night, team members attended a celebration of her life at Lucero's school, where professors presented her family with the doctoral diploma she would have soon received.

Lucero, a native of Ecuador who lived in Waltham, was 28 years old. "The tributes to her just spoke so much to the beauty of this young woman, both inner and outer," said Iris Gleason, the president of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. "She was very special to us. Cynthia was just like a light in everybody's life. Gleason saw Lucero 15 miles into the race and said she saw no problems. "She had that smile and she looked fine," Gleason said. "She did all the things that someone needs to do," Gleason said. "She did it the right way." That means training with a coach and team of more than 150 others for five months, and drinking plenty of water and Gatorade along the route. Friends and teammates said Lucero, a petite woman who barely reached five feet, was in great shape. The only thing she was worried about was an aching knee.

"If the story of her running in San Diego is true she sounded like she was a really good runner. That's a hot race," said Dr. Marvin Adner, medical director of the Boston Marathon and director of hematology at MetroWest Medical Center in Framingham. "It wasn't like she was a wacko and didn't know what she was doing." Adner said Lucero seemed to drink the proper amount of liquids. That, coupled with the cooler-than-expected weather on race day, make it unlikely her death was caused by heat stroke or dehydration, he said.

A friend said Lucero complained of feeling dehydrated before her legs gave out and she fell.

"Right now we don't understand anything, so we're at a loss," Adner said.

The race's first fatality came eight years ago when Swedish runner Humphrey Siesage died of a heart attack at the finish line. Lucero's family has told members of the Boston Athletic Association they will not share the cause of her death, a decision Adner and many of Lucero's teammates hope will someday be reversed. "Why is it that 20,000 people can run and only one person dies?" Adner said. "It would be useful to us if there's something the physicians or family knows that we could do next year to make it a safer race."

Steven Cohen of Holliston said he wants to know what happened to the friendly woman who was so eager to run with him and other members of Team in Training. "The running public needs to know what it was so we can close things," said the 50-year-old, who has run 30 marathons. "We need to know, so what caused Cynthia to die doesn't happen to others who run the Marathon. If it was something that could have been prevented, we need to know."

On the morning of the Marathon, Lucero sat with Renee Kennedy of Franklin and several other teammates in Athletes Village. As always, Lucero was caring and giving, prepared with extra safety pins for those who needed them and markers for those who wanted to write their names on their arms or legs. "She was just the nicest person," said Kennedy, 29. "It was a complete shock to all of us."

Lucero had a passion for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, so much so that she wrote her doctoral dissertation on how running marathons helps family members of cancer patients cope with their loved ones' illness. That thesis was filled with the personal stories of several of Lucero's teammates, who watched her present it last Thursday at the Massachusetts School of Professional Psychology in West Roxbury, where she was a student. Lucero's parents were in town from Ecuador to attend the presentation and were waiting for her at the race's finish line.

One of the teammates Lucero interviewed was Michael Bonadio of Waltham, whose son was diagnosed with leukemia at age 2. "She was so fearful, she said it several times, that she wasn't able to capture what the Team in Training program means to everyone," said Bonadio, who completed his sixth marathon on Monday in a little over five hours. "But she really captured it."

He said Lucero, who told him she became involved in the society after a life-threatening car accident changed her outlook on life, was sweet and genuine.

Lucero was also a volunteer at the Shelter for Battered Women, the Cambridge Health Alliance, the South End Community Health Alliance and the Big Sister program. She traveled to Logan International Airport to counsel families who lost loved ones in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

To repay Lucero for her kindness, Bonadio said he and the rest of his teammates are thinking about getting together and running along the last four miles of the race route that Lucero never got to finish.

"She came out to Westborough and interviewed me after she had dinner with our family. She was just so kind and respectful," said Karin Bryan, who was interviewed by Lucero shortly after her mother died from cancer four months ago. "I felt a connection with her because she was concerned. Each week she would ask me, 'how are you doing?' The fact that she died running a marathon for a charity epitomizes her life of selfless giving."