68-Year-Old Finishes His 48th Boston Marathon — and Has His Eye on Number 50 (Exclusive)

• Michael Beeman ran his first Boston Marathon in 1977
• Since then, the 68-year-old has run the marathon 48 times. He tells PEOPLE that two of the years he ran the marathon he was sick. Other years, he was pushing through countless minor injuries
• For Beeman, running the Boston Marathon annually helps him stay focused on his fitness all year long

Not everyone will accomplish running the Boston Marathon in their lifetime — and very few can say they’ve run it 48 times. Now, Michael Beeman can.

The 68-year-old from Easley, S.C., ran his first Boston Marathon in 1977. At the time, he was a student at Merrimack College and a teammate of Dave McGillivray, who is now the race director of the Boston Marathon. Inspired after watching the race the year before, Beeman made himself a promise: next time, he wouldn’t just be a spectator — he’d be a runner.

“I qualified in the fall of my senior year before basketball season,” Beeman, a retired teacher, tells PEOPLE exclusively. “Then I ran it in the spring, after the season ended.”

“I really had no idea I’d be running it this many times,” he continues. “Once I started, it became a rite of spring. When I hit 10, I thought, ‘This is a lot of fun.’ At 20, I said, ‘I really have to keep this going.’ When I reached 30, I didn’t need to qualify anymore, so now, I just keep going.”

For Beeman, running the Boston Marathon annually helps him stay focused on his fitness all year long. But over the decades, he’s had to adapt his training around travel, health challenges and the realities of aging.

“Training is way harder than running the race,” he admits. “Because you’re by yourself, and you have to do hard things without the crowd or the finish line.”

He recalls running while sick for two years and pushing through countless minor injuries. In 2012, he suffered a devastating injury, snapping both quadricep tendons on Labor Day. Doctors told him he’d never run again. But after months of intense rehab, he beat the odds and returned to run the marathon in 2013 — the year of the Boston Marathon bombing.

“Nowadays, I do more of a run-walk,” he says. “Time isn’t the target — finishing is. Back in the day, I used to try to re-qualify every year, which I did for about 30 years, so speed was part of it. Now I just enjoy it.”

“At 68, your body changes, your shoulders hunch, your joints and tendons tighten, so I have to stretch and warm up more before I run,” he adds. “It’s a lot more work, but being retired, I have more time. I’m truly blessed.”

Although his first marathon will always hold a special place in his heart, this year’s race felt particularly meaningful. A couple of years ago, Beeman began posting about his running journey on TikTok and this year, many fans, along with his family, knew he was running and came out to cheer him on.

He realized just how much of an impact his online presence had while walking the streets of Boston before the race, when people started approaching him for selfies and videos.

“That’s when it hit me,” he says. “I was recognizable on the street because of my TikTok presence. If there’s one thing I’ll say about myself, it’s that I’m approachable. That’s really what it’s all about: smile, be kind, and make people feel good. I want to go to my grave believing I did that.

After the marathon, Beeman posted a video of himself crossing the finish line, and it quickly went viral, garnering more than 1 million views and 3,000 comments.

“I learned last year that my finish line video got a lot of attention, so this year, I leaned into it and used TikTok to inspire others leading up to the race and I think I succeeded,” he says. “I made a TikTok before the race at Boston College, and I knew the impact was real when I saw a sign that said, ‘Slay the day and rep the steps.’ The fans were incredible.

“The comments brought me to tears,” he adds. “So many people said they’ve never been so invested in a stranger before. Some call me their uncle, grandfather, even father. That means so much to me. I think it’s because they see someone wholesome, someone they can trust, and that’s the greatest compliment I could ever get. It makes me so happy. I try to respond to every single comment because they’re so heartfelt and humbling.”