It’s Sunday, 2:30 p.m., the day before Marathon Monday. Liam Grady ’15 is at the Weymouth Club, coaching the Sharks, Weymouth’s Special Olympics swim team, having just completed his night shift as a BPD, police officer. Fair to say, he’s tired. He then mentions that he’s also about to run his first marathon in less than 15 hours. “I’m hoping to come in around four hours,” which is probably the sleep deprivation talking.
Time isn’t just an incremental measure. It’s eras, periods, and history. Grady’s six years at CM helped lead him towards a career in law enforcement, and as with all things for students who’ve gone here it was influenced by the CM community. A fellow Knight by the name of Kevin Claflin ’14 had a father who was a Newton police officer and took Grady on several police ride-alongs. Grady calls him a mentor who opened his eyes. In 2020, when he’d made it through the academy, another CM phenomenon struck: the one where you never know when you’ll meet a fellow Knight. “It was an officer I worked with,” recalls Grady. “When he found out I went to CM, we just started singing the CM fight song together in the police station. It’s special. I’m going to go out on a limb and say that this isn’t the case with other high schools.”
Grady’s varsity and college swim career has led him to give some of his precious time to the Sharks. Even if he is bleary-eyed, the reward is worth it. “It’s infectious. On any given Sunday, you see the swimmers and how they just love being in the water…they love the community. To see them in the locker room, walking around talking to each other, and Greg (one of the swimmers) saying, ‘Are you ready for next week?’ and to see that happiness in them makes it all worth it.”
Grady runs hard, juggles many balls and still manages to keep alive his friendships with high-school friends who he calls the closest of all. Whether any of them will be there Marathon Monday morning, cheering him on is still TBD.
POST SCRIPT – Grady finished the marathon. As he recalls, “I received numerous text messages from CM friends throughout the day, which was great. I did see a classmate whom I graduated with around the nine-mile mark as well as my police mentor and CM dad, Mr. Claflin. We exchanged smiles and he cheered me on.” And his time? Three hours and fifty-three minutes. Yes, Grady also knows how to compress time.
