He just passed Heartbreak Hill.

Emotionally, he felt drained. For the past few hours, he had been constantly questioning himself: Would he make it to the finish line? Had he trained hard enough? Was the race worth it? His legs felt like lead in hot tar, and his lungs felt squeezed, like he was about to faint.

But he kept going.

For the next five to six miles, he just kept running — past the cheerers near the Scream Tunnel, past the excited kids waiting for high-fives near Kenmore Square and past his parents, who had flown all the way from California to watch him. He ran until he saw the finish line, until he sprinted past the yellow and blue paint — until he finally realized that his nine-month journey was over.

On April 21, MVHS Class of 2005 alumnus Danh Trang became one of the first two runners with dwarfism to cross the finish line at the Boston Marathon and placed fifteenth in his mobility-impaired division. Along the way, he brought closure to last year’s Boston Marathon bombing and raised over $14,000 for Little People of America, Inc.

“He showed average sized people that [little people] can do anything as long as they put their mind to it,” Little People of America District Two Chapter President Clinton Brown said. “He’s a great example to the world.”

[/blockquote]Running for the Little People

Trang was born with achondroplasia, a rare genetic disorder that leads to stunted growth and other complications. Due to this disorder, Trang is only four feet and two inches and has shorter limbs than average-sized people.

Although he now accepts his height and its limitations, Trang admits that growing up was tough. Despite his family’s efforts at home to treat him the same way they treated his brother, Trang’s classmates at school often bullied him because of his height.

When Trang was in kindergarten, the bullying became so bad that his parents invited Little People of America, Inc., a dwarfism advocacy group, to speak at his school to raise awareness of dwarfism. Trang remembered Al and Harriet Stickney, the two members of the organization who spoke at his school, as charismatic and instrumental in his path to self-confidence.

“First they asked ‘would you make fun of someone who had blonde hair’ and ‘would you make fun of me for having freckles’ and the kids [said] no. [Then] they said ‘would you make fun of someone if they were a little bit shorter, and the kids paused,” Trang recalled, “and they said ‘no.’”

Although Trang acknowledges that he still had some internal struggles during high school, he credits the positive attitude that the Stickneys taught him for instilling self-confidence in himself. This attitude, coupled with support from his parents, helped him succeed later in high school and in life. At MVHS, he was El Estoque’s co-editor-in-chief, a debate captain and ASB Vice President.

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“I think that the students really respected him for the way that he carried himself,” AP Biology teacher Pamela Chow said.

Because Little People of America, Inc. has influenced him so deeply, Trang continues to stay involved with activism in his community as a way to help students with dwarfism. During the summer of 2013, after moving to New York City, Trang joined a basketball team, NY Towers, that goes to different schools in New York City to play basketball with teachers to promote acceptance of dwarfism. So far, the team has never lost a game.

Trang also looked for ways to become more involved with Little People of America, Inc., especially through national and regional board positions. He competed in the World Dwarf Games and started attending the national Little People of America, Inc. conferences.

Recently, Trang ran the Boston Marathon to raise money for the organization, setting up a page on First Giving, a website for fundraising, and inviting his friends, family and fellow MVHS alumni to donate.

“Not only did he do something great for himself physically, but he also did something great for the organization,” Little People of America District Two Chapter President Clinton Brown said.

Boston Memories

Another event that motivated him to run the marathon was his experiences at the marathon last year during the bombing. Last year, on April 15, two pressure cooker bombs exploded near the finish line at the Boston Marathon, injuring over 264 runners and killing three people. Trang had gone to the marathon to support his cousin and his friend, who were running the marathon. Although they were not hurt during the bombings, Trang still remembers the terror that he felt not knowing where they were.

After the bombs exploded, the police put Boston on lockdown. The phone lines were shut down. The streets were closed. The train stations evacuated.

Finally, after arriving back at his friend’s apartment and thinking of a way to contact his friend and cousin for a few hours, he decided to update his Facebook status so that at least his family members would know that he was safe:

“Craziness but fortunately I wasn’t at the finish line when it happened. Thanks for all the messages and checking in. Still trying to reach out to some family and friends who were running/watching.”

A few minutes later, his cousin replied, informing him that he and Trang’s friend were safe and back at their hotel.

Although Trang, his friend and his cousin were fortunate enough to survive the bombings unscathed, Trang acknowledges that there were many others who did not, and he ran the marathon this April to honor the victims and to provide a beacon of strength to those who had been affected in some way.

“Seeing how the city came together, seeing how people who were complete strangers were offering shelter and support and just doing anything and everything to help a fellow stranger motivated me to at least come back to Boston as a way to say thank you as a sign of solidarity for the tragic events that occurred,” Trang said.

The Race

To prepare for the race, Trang trained for over nine months. He also used online running guides and enlisted the help of his cousin, a veteran marathon runner who he had gone to the Boston Marathon to support last year.

With the support of his cousin, who helped him pace himself during the run, Trang ran his first marathon on Sept. 8 the Ventura Beach Marathon in Los Angeles, five months after the Boston Marathon Bombing. Although he finished in 639th place, he considered it a feat for someone who had never run a marathon in his life, and the time qualified him for the Boston Marathon.

“The hardest miles [at the Ventura Beach Marathon were] miles 20 through 24 because when training for a marathon, you’re never supposed to run the full 26 miles,” Trang said.

After his first marathon, Trang vowed to continue training. Despite a severe back injury from a soccer game that required a hospital stay, Trang continued to train daily. He ran his second race, the New York City Half Marathon, almost a month after his injury on March 16.

Trang maintained the same determined attitude when running the Boston Marathon on April 21. After lacing up his sneakers, throwing on his University of Pennsylvania shirt and tugging up his running shorts, all he thought about was making it to the finish line.

Although he especially struggled through the Newton Hills and infamous Heartbreak Hill portions of the course, the causes that he ran for —raising money for the Little People of America, Inc. and honoring last year’s victims — kept him progressing through the race.

“[During miles 17 to 21] it became a battle of mind over matter, and so what helped me get through all if it were remembering why I was running, for whom I was running and feeding off the incredible energy from the crowds cheering you on,” Trang said.

At the end of the race, Trang remembers being hot and sweaty, yet overwhelmed with joy. He acknowledges that some of the moments he experienced during the race are unforgettable, such as making the final left turn onto Boylston Street. He has no regrets about the experience.

“The entire Boston Marathon has been an incredibly worthwhile and amazing experience. After the bombings of last year and when I had decided that I wanted to qualify for Boston, I had never previously run a marathon and never in a million years thought I’d be able to run marathon,” Trang said.

But he did.

And he did it for the little people of America.