Karen's Journey

That's Karen on the right, the tiny runner with the turnover of a  turbine engine.

I didn't physically become a runner until I was 40 years old, but mentally I've been a runner since age 10. That's the year I made a personal goal to someday run the Boston Marathon.

I remember it as if it was yesterday. I was watching a made-for-TV movie about a woman from Boston who was going through a rough patch in her life. 

Joanne Woodward starred in the movie in 1977

She decided to regain control of it by training for and running the Boston Marathon. This was before one had to quality to enter. The story was inspiring for me and running the Boston Marathon was immediately added to my non-written bucket list.

Thirty years later, my friends in the neighborhood were talking about running the St. George Marathon. I was in! We trained, ran and I was hooked. What a rush! I had never felt so liberated. My old dream of Boston soared to the surface of my memory.

It took 5 more years and two more marathons to finally realize my dream, but there I was on April 18th, 2011 in Hopkinton, Mass. with 26,000 runners, among them my handsome husband of 25 year that week. I cried twice that day: Once as I crossed the start line when our friend Mike yelled, "Look around, you're running the Boston Marathon!" And again as a yellow and blue ribboned medal was placed around my neck. 

Boston Marathon: check.