Nashua Special Olympics Athlete Cantara Shines At Chicago Marathon

NASHUA, NH — Nashua's Thomas Cantara's time of 2:36.28 at Sunday's Chicago Marathon is among the best times ever recorded by a Special Olympics athlete.

Exactly where the mark ranks still is being determined.

"We are pretty confident that it's a record for any Special Olympics athlete in America. It's certainly a world record for this year," said Mark Ericson, the senior manager of communications for Special Olympics New Hampshire (SONH).

Ericson said that a Special Olympics athlete may have run a better time in the 2015 London Marathon, though that has yet to be confirmed.

Regardless, the 32-year-old Cantara had quite a day in the Windy City.

"No way, did I go into the race thinking I could (set a record)," Cantara told SONH in an interview on YouTube. "I'm honored. My goal is to still build better times off of what I did in Chicago."

Cantara has run the Boston Marathon on four occasions, recording his best time in that event (2:42.39) earlier this year.

Chicago is a fairly flat course, with nothing like the elevation of Heartbreak Hill on the Boston course. Cantara said he entered Sunday's race hoping to run a little under 2 hours, 40 minutes.

"I felt confident I could pull it off, but if I wasn't feeling great, I'd probably say mid-2:40s," Cantara said. "But the day was good, I felt prepared, I slept better than I did for Boston, so I felt like a 2:40 was in reach."

Cantara said he didn't look at his watch much during the second half of the race until the 20-mile mark.

"I saw I was still under 2 hours at the 20-mile mark and thought 'oh, I got this in the bag.' But I didn't expect a 2:36 though."

Cantara said he did struggle at times during the latter stages of the race.

"The last 4 or 5 miles I was feeling like I was starting to hit a wall, it felt like I went out too quickly and I told myself 'push through and finish the best you can, but don't push too hard,'" Cantara said. "That was the mindset and it helped me power through the wall, and I was able to finish with better splits than I thought."

Cantara started with SONH in 1999 and participated in several different sports before moving to track and field in 2003. He began running marathons in 2012.

This past June, Cantara was part of Team New Hampshire at the 2022 Special Olympics USA Games in Orlando. There, he captured a silver medal in the 10K, running a time of 36 minutes, 28 seconds.

Cantara, who is a member of Nashua's Gate City Striders running club, said he's planning to run the Boston Marathon again in the spring. He's currently taking a little break from training but said he plans to ramp up again in late November and early December.

Cantara said he spent 16 weeks training heavily for Chicago, which included running four days a week and cross-training twice a week.

"Thomas Cantara is a great example of an athlete who participated in many sports we offer and found his passion ignited by track and field, which ultimately led him to running marathons," Ericson said. "He's a self-proclaimed 'marathon nerd' and through Special Olympics has found a sport he not only loves, but truly excels at."