BOSTON — Every marathon South Hadley native Zach Hine runs ends in the medical tent.
The 28-year-old needed an IV at the Olympic Trials in February in Los Angeles. He visited the tent after running the Boston Marathon for the first time in 2011, the Olympics Marathon Trials in 2012 and New York City Marathon in 2014.
Marathon No. 5 was the 120th Boston Marathon on Monday and his post-race routine didn’t change.
Hine crossed the line in 2 hours, 21 minutes, 37 seconds in 10th place.
The top American male finisher then vomited three times and needed a wheelchair to transport him to the medical tent.
He called his mother, Karen Hine, a seven-time Boston Marathon finisher herself, to let her know he was in the medical tent.
She told him he was the top American.
“I didn’t assume too much. During the race people yell things, but you never know. I knew I was running pretty well in terms of place. People were slowing down and dropping out, so I just held on,” Zach Hine said. “I wasn’t moving too quickly. Luckily no one passed me. As bad as it was, it was a sense of relief that it was worth it.”
Hine started the marathon with consistent mile splits ranging from 5:10 to 5:14 for the first 40 kilometers of the race.
He backed off his pace once he hit the Newton Hills in an attempt to conserve energy for the finish.
“My coach, we talked about run your own race, don’t worry about anyone else, run consistent and close hard,” Hine said.
The finish surprised Hine and his coach, Steve Magness, who also coaches the University of Houston cross country team.
“We never talked about being top American or being top-10. It was always let’s go in and have a good, solid race,” Magness said. “We were kind of shocked, but it was a nice surprise.”
Hine started working with Magness last year.
After not finishing the Olympic Trials course, Hine turned his attention to potential redemption at Boston.
“It’s a race that I think holds a lot to him. It’s kind of his hometown race,” Magness said. “When we started talking after the Olympic Trials about what to do, all that was on his mind was Boston.”
They planned a consistent race up to Heartbreak Hill around the 20-mile mark. Then Hine would speed up and take advantage of the downhill.
He didn’t make it quite that long.
“It was hotter and windier than we had anticipated, or at least I had anticipated,” Hine said. “It was supposed to be a perfect 57, 60 (degrees), but when you get on the course with the sun beating down it felt a lot hotter. I think I lost more fluids than I anticipated.”
Hine backed off his pace when he hit the hills and the wind picked up. The aim was to have enough left in the tank for a finishing kick and to get to the finish line.
He made it, if barely.
Mile “23 to the finish, I was really struggling. The combination of the wind and the heat really got to me,” Hine said. “When I knew I wasn’t going to close as fast as I wanted it was hold on, just hold on.”
Zach wasn’t the only Hine to finish the 26.2-mile course.
He was in the medical tent when he found out that his sister, Melissa, had set a marathon personal record by finishing in 3:16:35.
It was her third marathon overall but first time in Boston.
“This training cycle I put in a ton of effort, multiple long runs. Before I followed an unstructured training plan,” Melissa Hine said. “I was hoping to certainly PR based on my training, but like all marathons it’s an amazing accomplishment (to finish).”
With it being his sister’s third marathon, Zach didn’t feel the need to give Melissa, 26, too much advice. He only responded to questions she had about nutrition and fueling.
“I’m always willing to answer that, but I don’t want to be the overbearing, know-it-all brother,” he said.
As the top American, Zach Hine went to the post-race press conference after he finished in the medical tent.
He sat two chairs away from the top-three finishers before fielding two questions to close the session.
Then he went from the main ballroom of the Fairmont Copley Plaza Hotel to the western exit to meet his parents on Dartmouth Street.
Zach Hine hugged his parents and sister, who was draped in a marathon-issued thermal blanket, on the sidewalk.
“He worked so hard, and it’s so important to him. The first American at Boston, that’s an achievement that’ll be with him for his life,” his father John said.
Now that Melissa has finished the Boston Marathon, John is the only member of the family who hasn’t.
“So I’m the slacker, I guess,” John said.
Kyle Grabowski can be reached at kgrabowski@gazettenet.com.