Our chat with the Rock Hill police officers who finished almost dead last in the marathon
There were some showy, memorable finishes in the final few minutes of the Charlotte Marathon, as the clock ticked up and away from the six-hour mark and event staffers began breaking down equipment at the finish line.
Emily Lupsor, a 29-year-old Charlotte social worker, was reduced to tears after members of her running group jumped off the sidelines to run her across the finish; she was the last of more than 300 women to complete the 26.2-mile distance on Saturday afternoon. Then came the final runner — Bee Khang, a 28-year-old warehouse selector from Hickory, who trotted cheerily across the line dressed head to toe as the Japanese anime superhero One Punch Man.
But just minutes earlier, a pair of men almost slipped by unnoticed, quietly accepting bottles of water and collecting their medals from volunteers.
That would be Kenyatta Tripp, 49, of York, S.C., and Tim Carr, 25, of Rock Hill, S.C., who both work in the Patrol Services Division of the Rock Hill Police Department — and who both had matching times of 6 hours, 7 minutes and 58 seconds that made them, unofficially, 893rd and 894th out of 897 total finishers.
These two first-time marathoners weren’t drawing attention to themselves, but after a post-race conversation with them, we felt they deserved some.
Q: Do you mind if we talk to you guys for a minute?
Tripp: No, I don’t mind at all.
Carr: Sure.
Q: On camera?
Tripp: Um, I don’t have snot coming out of my nose, do I?
Carr: Do I have snot in my nose?
Q: You’re good, Kenyatta. You’re good, Tim. OK, so what’d you think?
Carr: Uhhhh, it’s really hard.
(Both start laughing.)
Tripp: Especially here, it’s a real challenge, because of all the hills. ... It’s a one-time deal for me. I don’t think I’ll ever do it again. (Laughing.)
Carr: Yeah, ask me tomorrow if I want to do it again.
Q: So why’d you guys do it in the first place?
Carr: The challenge. I don’t know, we did a half together in April. Then we signed up, and then we were just like, “Now we’ve gotta do it. We signed up, so we’re gonna do it.”
Tripp: For me it was more of a bucket list thing. I’ve done a lot of half marathons. A lot meaning six or seven. I wanted to do a full just to say that I did it. And so I checked it off. That’s all it was about for me really. (Laughing.)
Q: What did your buddies at work have to say about you guys doing the marathon?
Tripp: Oh, they thought we were lunatics.
Carr: Oh yeah, that we’re crazy. For sure. I was like, “Yeah, I’m gonna be doing the marathon.” They’re like, “The whole thing?”
Q: What was the hardest part about the race?
Carr: Running.
Tripp: Yeah. (Laughing.)
Carr: The hills. And the wind. The wind was bad in some parts. ... And my music died on Mile 11. So I was just kind of listening to the wind most of the time.
Q: So Tim, had you run half marathons before, too?
Carr: I’ve done one half marathon. I mean, I love running. Usually not this much. But still, it was a good time. I’m glad we did it.
Q: Did you guys do training plans where you got up to 20 miles?
Tripp: I only did 18 ... and I was like, “That’s enough.” I just didn’t want to do any more — which is probably a mistake. But I finished. That’s all I really wanted to do is finish. It didn’t matter to me what time it was that I finished in; I just wanted to finish.
Carr: I think the last time I ran, I ran five miles. That was like last week. And I wasn’t doing anything consistent really. Mistakes! But I was like, “Well, I’m not a quitter. I’m gonna do it. I said I would.” So here we are.
Q: Wait, so in training the longest run you did was what?
Carr: Like five miles.
Q: Do you regret that decision?
Carr: I mean, stuff came up, so I didn’t get to stick to as much training as I wanted to do. But like I said, we were gonna do it no matter what.
Q: But do you regret that decision?
Carr: Yes. To answer your question: Yes. I wish I did more running prior to. But here we are.
Q: So what was the experience of doing it together like?
Tripp: I probably would have died without him, to be honest with you. When I needed a little push towards the end, he would make me run when I didn’t really want to. So that was needed. Otherwise, I would have probably walked more. So yeah, having him with me was pretty much a lifesaver.
Carr: Oh, it was huge. I wouldn’t have been able to do it — because there’s a point where you start mentally being like, “I don’t need to do this. If I quit, whatever.” But when you’re running together, we’re keeping each other accountable. It’s like, “We’re not gonna quit.”
Tripp: It was finish or die.
Q: Finishing last ... do you care?
Carr: Nope!
Tripp: Nope.
Carr: ’Cause I got this (he holds up his medal), and I finished, and we did all 26.2, and that’s all we wanted to do. ... I think I came into your office last week and I was like, “I don’t care. Like, if the six-hour mark goes past us, we’re gonna finish.” And even if this (the finish line) was packed up by the time we got here, we (would know) that we had done it.
Q: Did you guys have any other motivation for doing this?
Carr: I wore this shirt for Hungry Heroes. [Peels back his jacket.] They feed firefighters and EMS and police for free. It’s huge. They come and support us a lot. I was gonna wear this so people could see it, but it was really cold. Other than that ... I mean, like he said, bucket list for sure. I’ve always wanted to do one. I don’t know, that’s pretty much it.
Tripp: Well, my wife ran the half. So I didn’t want to die and ... make it so she couldn’t see me finish. So I had her in my mind. And my kids knew I was running it. They said, “Oh yeah, you can do it!” I’m like, “I don’t know.” (Laughing.) But yeah, I thought about family and some other friends of mine that showed up to see me finish.
Q: Do you have kids, Tim?
Carr: Nope.
Q: Are you married?
Carr: I’m married. I don’t know where my wife is. Probably gave up. I don’t blame her at all.
Q: Did you see her on the course anywhere?
Carr: Nope. I mean, granted, she might have been there and I maybe was just zoned out. I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out when I get home.
Q: So what are you gonna do with the medals?
Carr: Oh, this is going up on my desk, so I can be like, “Yeah, I did it. That’s right.”
Tripp: I have a medal rack. ... I’ll hang this one in the middle. And the rest of the half marathon medals I’ll hang around it. ... It’ll be the only one of these I’ll ever have. Like I said, I’m not doing another full again. (Laughing.)
Carr: When I do a little bit more preparation, maybe I’ll do another one. We’ll see.
Q: OK, be honest: Would you rather have been one of the officers directing traffic for the race instead of running it?
Tripp: Yes!
Carr: At points, absolutely. Making overtime money? Oh yeah, absolutely. That would be cake overtime. You just stand there!
Tripp: Yeah — (laughing) — instead of paying all we paid to get tortured!
Théoden Janes: 704-358-5897, @theodenjanes
This story was originally published November 16, 2019 at 5:07 PM.
