Ronald Wat, a veteran of the Chicago Marathon, will run his first Boston this month.

Ronald Wat has a sage piece of advice for anyone thinking about running a marathon.

“If you want to run a marathon, sign up early and you will run a marathon,” he said.

Wat’s wisdom comes from years of running experience. Now 70 years old, the Chicago-based runner has been participating in marathons for about two decades. A regular entrant into the Chicago Marathon, Wat also has run races around the globe.

The Boston Marathon, which Wat has not run before, will be a special notch in his belt.

A crown prize of the marathon world is the Abbott World Marathon Majors, which awards the Six Star medal to runners who run the six major world marathons: New York, Boston, Chicago, London, Berlin and Tokyo. Wat is close to closing the loop and earning his medal.

“I have five stars, and I do not have the Boston Marathon one,” said Wat.

To earn his medal, Wat needs to complete the Boston course before the finish line closes for his race time to appear in the official results. Noting he has not run a four-hour marathon since COVID, Wat still appeared confident in his ability to finish the race in time.

Wat, who is running this year to benefit the Hopkinton Scout Leaders Association, still hopes to qualify for the Boston Marathon in the future.

“My qualifying time now for Boston is 4 hours and 20 minutes,” he said. “I have an idea how to [do it].”

Wat’s history with marathon running began when he turned 50. Though always interested in marathons, he had not been a lifelong runner. It was exposure to the Chicago Marathon that began to pique his interest.

“I used to live in Lincoln Park in Chicago,” Wat explained. When his family first moved to the area, he noticed that the Chicago Marathon cut right through his neighborhood.

“When I saw that marathon come through, I thought, ‘Maybe I should be running in that,’ ” he said.

Wat decided in 2004, around his 50th birthday, that it was time to enter a race and start training. However, due to errors with registration, he was forced to wait until 2006 to run his first race.

He has run the Chicago Marathon every year since.

Support for Scouts

Wat will be running this year for the Hopkinton Scout Leaders Association, a cause for which he has personal ties. Both of his sons are Eagle Scouts, and Wat himself was active in Scouting as a leader. He served as a Webelos leader and an assistant scoutmaster in Chicago for 11 years.

“Scouting has really raised [my sons] with me, helping them to be really good citizens,” Wat said.

Wat linked up with the HSLA after having trouble qualifying for the Boston Marathon. “Since COVID, my speeds in the marathon have dropped so far down that it’s been hard for me to qualify,” he explained. 

In order to get into Boston, Wat knew he’d have to run for charity. He’d heard that the HSLA had charity bibs last year, so he reached out to the Hopkinton Scout troops in order to learn more.

Things came together in the end. “I picked them, and they picked me,” Wat said.

In honor of his 70th birthday, Wat has set a goal of raising $7,070 for the HSLA. As of April 2, he was at 60% of his target goal. According to his fundraising page, the money he raises will help the HSLA purchase a six-canoe trailer for the Hopkinton Scout troops.

The motto of Wat’s troop in Chicago is “We do stuff,” and he hopes the money he raises for the HSLA will help Hopkinton scouts do stuff, too.

Wat noted that his fundraising experience for the Boston Marathon has been different than his experience elsewhere. Since 2008, he has run the Chicago Marathon to benefit the Ronald McDonald House Charities. He says the fundraising amounts are lower because so many more runners raise funds for the charity.

“We have a thousand runners,” he said. “Our field is much larger.”

Even though he is the sole runner for the HSLA this year, Wat hopes he can still make a meaningful impact with his fundraising.

Some of that fundraising may come out of his own pocket. Now retired from a long career in IT, Wat said he can tip the scales on his fundraising efforts if need be.

“I realized that if I have to self-fund this thing, there’s no problem,” he said.