MONTPELIER, Vt. (WCAX) – From piano to poetry to long-distance running, Newton Baker finds fun with everything he takes on.
“People are yelling, ‘You’re almost there.’ They had no idea how much I don’t care. Just give me a gurney or a wheelchair,” Baker said, reading from his latest poem, “Marathon Blues.” It’s a glimpse into his 45 years of running.
Hitting his stride in his Montpelier neighborhood, Baker’s voice shakes from a neurological condition. But his running career hasn’t wavered. In 2015, a stage race took him running across the country. It was a marathon plus every day. Twelve started and seven finished.
Reporter Joe Carroll: How old are you?
Newton Baker: 82… and a half… They all count now.
He counts every day as a blessing. He is in a race with time. “I had a third cancer diagnosed,” Baker said. From prostate to kidney, now, he’s dealing with chronic lymphocytic leukemia.
“I don’t think most people would continue to do what he does,” said Diane, Baker’s wife of 30 years. “I have tremendous high regard for what he’s doing.”
WCAX first met Baker and his family seven years ago before the Vermont City Marathon. His teenage daughter, Devin, admired her dad’s grit. “That’s what he always likes to do and it’s something he has a super strong passion for,” she said.
But Devin found no fun in a run. “I said to her from the kitchen, ‘Come run around the neighborhood.’ And she goes, ‘Dad, I don’t run!’” Baker said.
But now in her 20s, Baker says she Devin recently asked him a question. “‘I need to find out why you do this crazy stuff,’” he recalled.
Lately, she has laced up her sneakers and hit the road herself. At first, it was baby steps — a leg of a race, a half-marathon. But last week, she ran the Boston Marathon.
“It was hilarious because she was so adamant as a young person, that she wasn’t going to be a runner,” Diane said.
“It was extremely exciting. Tear-jerking,” Baker observed. He has run Boston eight times but says those days are over. “It would take me eight hours,” he said.
Now. he challenges himself to multi-day races. “You have six days to do as much as you can,” Baker said. A total of 144 hours to walk or run a one-mile route. “I can still do six and 10 days forever because you go as you please.”
Back in the neighborhood, Baker’s pace has slowed, but not his determination. “Perhaps long-distance running is the best metaphor, you have to solve, take what it gives you, and keep moving,” Baker said.
