Limestone County resident Mike Pepper poses at the finish line of the Boston Marathon the night before the April 16 race.

When retired Limestone County science teacher Mike Pepper, 56, crossed the finish line at the Boston Marathon on April 16, all he could think of was how thankful he was to be able to conquer one of the best-known races in the world.

Pepper’s “running addiction” began when he was a 13-year-old student at Athens Bible School and discovered he had a knack for running fast and far. During his time at ABS, the school’s track and field team twice won state, with Pepper taking second place in the 2-mile event and his team winning first in the 5K cross country event.

Moving forward in life, he never lost his passion for the sport. He ran all through college, throughout his long career as a Tanner High School science teacher, and into his time as a teacher trainer at Athens State University. Retirement didn’t slow Pepper down a bit. He kept running and took a job as a technology repairman for Athens City Schools.

Although he estimates he has run nearly 50,000 miles in his lifetime, taking on the world’s oldest annual marathon in Boston had never really crossed his mind until his training partner suggested he try to qualify.

“Not just anyone can run the Boston Marathon,” Pepper said. “You have to complete a BQ (Boston Qualifier). “If you get to Boston, you’ve earned it. The qualifier for that year in my age group was 3:40.”

Pepper beat that time handily, completing the Peak to Creek Race, a Boston Qualifier in North Carolina, in 3 hours and 31 minutes.

Starting on Jan. 1, he ramped up his already brutal schedule, running seven miles a day during the week and 20 on the weekends. In the four months leading up to the race, he logged 800 miles training mostly at local spots like the Rails to Trails and Athens High School track.

Two weeks before the big road race in Boston, he said he was “feeling it” and ran 25 miles easily.

At that point, he said he was pretty confident he could run the race without embarrassing himself.

When he and his family flew into Boston the night before the Marathon, they were met with snow and freezing temperatures. The next day, the snow had turned to rain, leaving Pepper and 30,000 other runners to compete in some of the worst weather in the race’s 122-year history.

“I had done rainy runs here at 40-50 degrees,” he said. “I had run on ridiculously cold days where it was 11 degrees. But doing it together and for 4 hours is a different story. “But hey, it was Boston. What are you going to do? You’re going to push through it.”

Running directly into a headwind pretty much the whole time, Pepper took courage from the tens of thousands of fans who lined the road along the way.

“I was high-fiving everyone,” he said. “It was great seeing all those people who took the time to come out and cheer us on.”

Given the uncooperative weather, Pepper decided to back off of his race goal a bit, adjusting his finish time to just under 4 hours.

“I was coming up along people who were shuddering,” he said. “Some people were cramping. “But I made it fine. The good Lord was looking out for me.”

Heartbreak Hill — an infamous incline about 20 miles into the race — slowed a lot of runners in his wave down, but Pepper said he ran the entire hill and, at that point, caught his second wind.

At mile marker 24, Pepper’s family finally caught sight of him. They snapped pictures and screamed wildly to get his attention.

“I didn’t even hear them,” he said. “I guess I was in the zone. You are sitting there going ‘no cramps, no cramps, no cramps’ and just trying to get done.”

He crossed the finish line at 3 hours and 56 minutes, easily meeting his personal goal to finish one of the world’s most famous races in under four hours.

“It was an unbelievable feeling” he said. “You think, I’m so glad I didn’t embarrass myself or my running buddies. The best part of it was having my family there.”

Instead of taking a well-deserved nap at their rented AirBed and Breakfast after the grueling race, Pepper and his family set out to find Maria’s Bakery, an Italian pastry shop rumored to have the best cannoli in Boston.

“I burned about 5,000 calories that day, I think I earned that cannoli,” he said.

Making the race even more memorable, his daughter Katie’s boyfriend, Trevor Lee, proposed to her at the finish line the night before the Marathon.

Pepper has been sharing his race experiences in local classrooms since he got back. He plans on running the Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville this December.

As for running the Boston Marathon again? He’s all for it.