Blackwood Man to Run in 116th Boston Marathon

A longtime Gloucester Township resident will run in the 116th Boston Marathon on Monday.

While it will mark Bill Scargill's 44th marathon, it will be the Blackwood man's first Boston Marathon, and he's very excited to finally have a spot in the 26.2-mile Patriots' Day run.

"It's the Super Bowl of marathons because it's the oldest marathon," the 46-year-old said. "It's very hard to get in. There are time standards you have to meet. You either have meet those time standards or you have to raise a bunch of money for charity."

Scargill, a graduate of Highland Regional High School, will be part of a 16-member team running the storied marathon in support of the New England Chapter-Bay State Branch of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF), which focuses its efforts on supporting research for a cure of type 1, or juvenile, diabetes.

As of Thursday night, Scargill has raised $4,229, surpassing his mandatory goal of $4,000, and the team has raised $100,140, exceeding its $95,000 goal.

Scargill's mother, Barbara, has been fighting diabetes for about 30 years now, so the cause is near and dear to him. Although, he acknowledges, the cause means much more to some of his JDRF teammates.

"I've learned a lot about type 1 diabetes. Really, the fact that there's no cure and you don't get it from eating bad food. It's just something that happens to you," he said. "A couple of the people I'm running with actually have type 1 diabetes, and they'll be running with insulin tubles and insulin pumps. I can't imagine running a marathon with all of that stuff on."

An employee in the regional leasing and sales department at Canon Financial Services, of Mount Laurel, Scargill thanked his co-workers for helping the cause.

"I really appreciate how my co-workers especially have stepped up, because that's really where most of the fundraising came from," he said.

Scargill has averaged roughly two marathons per year since 1988, when he ran his first. He said he currently takes about four-and-a-half hours to complete the 26.2-mile run.

The Hilltop native has been training for the Boston Marathon along the old Blackwood railroad bike path, near Blackwood Lake, since the beginning of the year, so maybe some of you have seen him running.

To make a donation to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation in Scargill's name, click here or send a check made out to "JDRF" to:

Bill Scargill
21 Baptist Lane
Blackwood, NJ 08012