When Marlborough resident John Tanner, 47, was preparing to run a marathon, he often got a phone call from his young friend Nicholas Dainiak. “Go John,” Nicholas would say, according to his grandmother, Dorothy Noyes. “My hero.” That was back when 9-year-old Nicholas could still speak, before a degenerative condition called Batten disease took his … Continue reading After marathoner’s death, friends vow to keep his promise to Nicholas