Paulo Arruda, General Manager at Elasto Proxy, will run in the world’s oldest and most historic long-distance race. On Monday, April 20th, 2026, Paulo will participate in the 130th Boston Marathon, a 26.2 mile (42.195 km) journey that begins in Hopkinton, Massachusetts, winds through eight towns, forces runners to climb “Heartbreak Hill,” and ends on Boston’s Boylston Street.
Each year, tens of thousands of athletes from around the world apply to run in this annual event. Many are rejected because the time it took them to finish a qualifying marathon wasn’t fast enough. It’s not just about hours and minutes, however. Cut-off times are based on age group, which can help or hurt runners depending on their years.
The Power of Persistence
In his first qualifying attempt, Paulo missed the cut-off time for his age group by 40 seconds. Then he turned 46, changed age groups, and beat the cut-off by almost 3 minutes. The qualifying marathon that he ran was just north of Montreal, where winters are long and cold. But that’s not a problem for Paulo. Since January, he’s has run 750 miles (1207 km), mostly outdoors.
“When you run in winter, breathing in the cold is hard on your lungs,” he says. It poses other challenges as well. On a frigid Sunday morning, Paulo set out for a 32-km (20-mile) run in -30°C (-22°F) temperatures. All the water bottles that he carried froze, except for one. As he ran across the flat, windy countryside, he’d seek occasional shelter behind a snowbank just to take a sip.
That persistence has served him well. When the ex-soccer player joined Elasto Proxy in 2003, he wasn’t running long distances. Then in 2013 Elasto Proxy sponsored the Course de la Famille Deux-Montagnes (Two-Mountains Family Race) in the town of Deux-Montagnes, Quebec. That’s where he ran his first 10K, a 10-kilometer run that’s about 6.2 miles long. From there, he kept going.
The next step was a half-marathon, approximately 13 miles or 21 km. Then in 2014, Paulo completed his first full marathon, an experience he describes as “so painful”. His finish time of 4:23 was well over an hour longer than his qualifying time for the 2026 Boston Marathon. “You don’t know how your body reacts”, he explains, until you put it through such an extreme experience.
The Science of Success
Today, runs that Paulo once considered long distances are now “recovery runs”. With all that road work, he has three pairs of running shoes: one for slower runs, one for fast-paced interval work, and one for races. The foams have improved, he says, and there are now running shoes that have a carbon fiber plate embedded within lightweight foam that helps reduce muscle fatigue.
Thanks to material science, running shoe technology promotes performance. Yet that’s not the only science that Paulo applies. Several years ago, he took a VO2 Max Test to learn how his body consumes carbohydrates and at what rate. Based on this data, he knows how many energy gels he’ll need to consume during the Boston Marathon, where there are periodic gel stations for runners.
Race-day energy is essential, but it’s just not enough. A week before the marathon, Paulo will avoid carbohydrates and spend 2 to 3 days eating only protein and vegetables. Then, 3 to 4 days before the race, he’ll enter “carb load mode” and eat lots of fruit, rice, and potatoes. These carb-heavy foods provide what he calls a “soft reset” to the body.
“You have to go heavy on nutrition and hydration,” Paulo explains, “and you have to do it far enough in advance so the body can absorb it”. That’s a bit different than a typical training day, when he’ll run just before supper on an empty stomach. The physical aspect of marathoning is indisputable, but it takes mental toughness to make it past the 30K mark in a 42+ km race.
Just Keep Going
As Paulo explains, marathoners must ignore “signals” that tell them to stop. Yet they still need to stay in tune with their bodies. He monitors his heart rate, breathing, and energy levels. He also reminds himself that he’s ran long distances before and can do it again. Mentally, he separates a marathon into blocks of approximately 7 to 10 km (about 11 to 16 miles) to keep it manageable.
Elasto Proxy congratulates Paulo Arruda on qualifying for the Boston Marathon and wishes him a successful race day. We’ll miss him here at our Montreal-area headquarters on Monday, April 20th, but that’s when the rubber meets the road for the opportunity of a lifetime.
