Edward Sheehan, BAA Head Coach And Top Marathoner, 47

[DGH]

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Edward F. Sheehan Jr., who taught hundreds of runners to love and enjoy
the sport as he did, died of a heart attack Friday, May 6, 2005, while
running with his wife in Silver Spring, Maryland, at the age of 47.

Mr. Sheehan, a native and longtime resident of Weymouth, Massachusetts,
was head coach of the Boston [Massachusetts] Athletic Association,
which sponsors the Boston Marathon, from December 1994 through
September 1997. A runner since his years at Boston College High School,
he qualified for the US Olympic Marathon Trials in 1980 and 1984.

Mr. Sheehan ran about 130 miles a week while he was training for the
many marathons and races in which he competed, until he reached the age
of 35, said his brother, Daniel C. of Weymouth. Most recently, said his
sister, Kathleen Coyle of Walpole, he ran about 45 miles a week
"Running was Ed's passion," she said.

Jack Fleming, a spokesman for the BAA, which also has a running club,
said Mr. Sheehan's philosophy -- of "getting people together for a run
rather than focusing on the individual" -- built what had been a
relatively small club into an association with 300 to 350 members. "Ed
was all about team, trying to get people to excel as individuals within
the club and team context."

He said it wasn't uncommon for Mr. Sheehan to go out for a 20-mile run
at 5 in the morning, meet athletes for a coaching session at 8, work
with a single runner at MIT at noon, and meet with 40 or 50 others in
the afternoon.

"When Ed met with runners on a one-to-one basis, it didn't mean they
were necessarily exceptional," Fleming said. "All he cared about was
whether people were interested in devoting time and effort to their
running... . If someone was 50 years old and was aspiring to be a
four-hour marathoner and was ready to work toward that, then Ed gave
that person as much time as he would a person maybe on the cusp of
qualifying for the Olympics."

Mr. Sheehan met Naoko Ishibe at the BAA running club. They were married
in 1996 and moved to Silver Spring, where Mr. Sheehan worked in
merchandising management.

While he loved coaching, Mr. Sheehan was still competitive in his own
running, Fleming said.

He twice finished in the top 15 in the Boston Marathon. "Ed probably
ran the Boston Marathon seven or eight times," his brother said, "but
he was an elite runner. He would feel embarrassed if he wasn't doing
well and would pull out."

Mr. Sheehan's personal best in a marathon was 2:13:46, in the 1982
Rocket City Marathon in Huntsville, Ala. He was a two-time runner-up in
the USA Track & Field-New England Road Race Grand Prix Series in 1992
and 1993.

He set a high bar for himself in everything he did, his family said. He
was an Eagle Scout and an outstanding student at BC High, graduating in
1975. He then enrolled at Harvard University, starting out as a pre-med
student but changing his major to philosophy. At Harvard, Mr. Sheehan
was a standout in cross-country and track and field, holding several
university records. He graduated from Harvard in 1979, when he began
competing for the BAA, and stayed on to earn his master's in psychology
in 1981.

He began his collegiate coaching at Troy State, where he fielded the
college's first women's cross-country program, Fleming said. In 1984,
he returned to Harvard to coach cross-country and track and field. He
coached athletes who attained All-American status. After coaching at
Harvard, he coached at the Boston Running Club before joining the BAA
in 1994.

Mr. Sheehan, described by his sister as "a gentle and humble man, who
quietly helped many," left a legacy. "Ed understood that a coach
teaches more than athletics," Fleming said. "His no-shortcuts mentality
meant that hard work, dedication, and personal sacrifices were the
three main components to a successful running career. That was the way
Ed lived his life."

Besides his wife, his sister, and his brother, Mr. Sheehan leaves his
mother, Mary V. (Lynch) of Weymouth; and two other sisters, Karen
O'Brien, of Mansfield, Massachusetts, and Virginia Cushman of
Riverside, Florida.

Boston Globe