Photo Captures the Heart of Runners Across New England

by Ryan Goebel

Photo by Joe Viger.

Despite the miserable weather at this year's Mount Washington Road race, a moment was captured by the official race photographer that warmed the hearts of many runners across New England.  In the days following the race, the photo shown above from Joe Viger seemed to go viral across various social media and traditional media channels.

Although Joe originally didn't know who the runners in the photo were, Laura Chadwick (wife of Chris Chadwick and mother to John McGinty) recognized the photo as being her son helping Ron Paquette up the mountain.

From Joe Viger's Facebook post:

The photo was shared by many media outlets, including this segment on WMUR in Manchester, NH.

Even the Boston Globe ran an article about the photo that included an interview with John and Ron.

Unfortunately, the Boston Globe article is behind a paywall and due to copyright laws, we can't reproduce the story here.  However, here's an excerpt:​

When McGinty and Paquette saw that Viger had captured the moment on the mountain, they were astounded. The response to the photo has been overwhelming, with many people reaching out in recent days.

“The picture shows that you don’t have to do hard things alone,” McGinty said. “There’s a team around you, and people willing to lend a hand.”
​
Paquette wonders what would have happened to him had McGinty not run to his aid. The photo, he said, will forever serve as a reminder of how McGinty helped him “accomplish something that made it special for both of us.”
“This means so much to me,” he said.

The Central Maine Striders are proud to have had Ron Paquette representing us in the Mount Washington Road Race for so many years, and for John McGinty to run for us for the last five years.  We hope they both make several more trips up the "one hill".

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For some bonus content, check out this video interview (recently unearthed by Julie Millard) that Central Maine Strider Erzsie Nagy did with Ron Paquette when they were a Lawrence High School student back in 2012: