Watertown Police Chief Edward Deveau will be exchanging his boots for running shoes this April.
Deveau, along with a dozen Watertown police officers, are training to run the marathon to pay homage to those who were injured or killed in last year’s Boston Marathon bombings.
“It almost became like that’s what we need to do,” Deveau said via FOXSports. “We want to make Boston a better place, and (this) year’s marathon is going to be the best ever. We want to be a part of it.”
Deveau was selected to run in the race based on his 250-word essay submission to the Boston Athletic Association that recounted the courage of the Watertown Police Department during the aftermath of the attack. Deveau and his team worked tirelessly with the FBI, National Guard and Massachusetts State Police for 24 hours to capture the bombing suspects.
“A couple of the decisions that my officers made down on Laurel Street, to save their lives, to save the lives of those people in the neighborhood, to make sure they didn’t get away and kill more people were just incredible,” Deveau said.
The 57-year-old Boston native cheered on marathon runners as a child and ran the race in 1999, 2000 and 2007.
“It’s only the Boston Marathon — it’s the only marathon I would run,” Deveau said. “There’s nothing like Boston.”
Photo via Twitter/@WaterTownPatch
