Many Marathoners take to the streets to support local causes

MetroWest Daily News, April 16, 2009
By David Riley/ Daily News Staff

For many Marathoners, it will be something more than sheer force of will that carries them over Heartbreak Hill to the finish line Monday.

For Kami Martin Guthrie of Northborough, it will be the memory of her son, Connor, whose image she will fix to her shirt with an iron-on picture.

For two Ashland women, it will be the goal of putting books on the shelves at their local library.

And for Michael Zack of Newton, it will be his disabled son, who hopes to go all 26.2 miles in a modified wheelchair.

Marathon organizers at the Boston Athletic Association say of about 26,400 people who usually join the race route, at least 2,500 are running to raise money and awareness for a charity or nonprofit.

For many, it's an emotional challenge with a connection that's close to home - a friend, a relative or a major commitment.

Running the Boston Marathon was at first a personal goal for Peter Binkewicz of Marlborough, who runs with his wife, Julie. But after joining the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute team five years ago, his perspective changed.

"Dana-Farber is about cancer and ridding cancer from the face of the earth," Binkewicz said. "It is so not about me."

About 1,000 runners are part of teams for 24 charities that officially partner with the Boston Athletic Association, said Jack Fleming, a spokesman for Marathon organizers. Groups are big, like Dana-Farber, and smaller, such as the Michael Carter Lisnow Respite Center in Hopkinton.

Guthrie is running for one of the selected charities, the Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown. She became a runner after her son, Connor, who was born with a brain injury, died the weekend before the 1999 Boston Marathon. He was almost 3.

Guthrie had been involved with the Lisnow Center, which provides emotional and physical support to people with disabilities and their families. Connor's wake was Marathon Monday, and Respite Center co-founders Sharon Lisnow and Mary McQueeney came by after running the race, Guthrie said.

Inspired, she vowed to run the Marathon herself the following year. Training was difficult - she couldn't run a mile when she began - but therapeutic.

"I remember the morning of the Marathon, I slept at the Respite Center that night. It was like waking up Christmas morning, but I was also really nervous," she said. "Crossing the finish line, it was probably the most amazing feeling I've ever had."

This will be 31-year-old Guthrie's seventh marathon. Raising money for charities that are important for her, "I feel like it helps me memorialize Connor," she said.

Guthrie ran for the Respite Center for four years, then for muscular dystrophy for two years. She became a nurse after Connor's death, and now works as a program nurse for the Perkins School.

The institution has another personal connection - Connor was blind.

"He's touched a lot of lives without even being here," Guthrie said.

Paula Lupien of Franklin is running for her late father, Paul, who died at 58 after a battle with lymphoma. She is running for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Team in Training, and began the year before his death.

"I couldn't do anything for him, so I felt raising money and awareness for his cause would be most beneficial," Lupien said.

A 32-year-old mother of two, Lupien said she has raised over $15,000 in three marathons she's run for charity. Her father had wanted her to run the Boston Marathon, and this will be her first time in this race, she said.

"I felt like this could be a way to memorialize him, but also follow through on what I said I'd do for him," Lupien said.

Other charity runners are in the race for a gamut of causes beyond the official roster. Newton's Michael Zack is raising money for Noah's Ark Foundation, a nonprofit he and his ex-wife started and named after their son, who has cerebral palsy. The group is dedicated to helping fund homes for people with severe disabilities.

Inspired by Dick and Rick Hoyt, a father and wheelchair-bound son who compete in races and triathlons, Zack plans to run Boston for the first time with his son, who will be 31 this month.

"Tears come to my eyes every time I see the Hoyts go by," Zack said. "I've always wanted to do it, but I'm a 60-year-old man and a little overweight. I'm not much of a runner."

So Zack sought volunteers to help relay Noah along the route. "We've had a remarkable turnout," he said. "We've had people we don't even know."

In Ashland, neighbors Leslie Marci and Maribeth Morrissey have been running three to four days a week, through snow and sub-zero weather, to prepare for their cause - the Friends of the Ashland Public Library. The women hope to raise $100 per mile and donate proceeds for the local group to buy books.

"We both love to read and take our children there often - it is one activity that anyone young or old can use at no cost," Morrissey said in a recent e-mail. "By choosing the library, we are showing our kids how to give back to the community."

Binkewicz, who is running his fifth Boston Marathon in memory of a Hudson girl who died of cancer, said he and his wife are committed to run as long as it takes until a cure is found.

"It's just doing our part," he said. "That's what it's about."

(David Riley can be reached at 508-626-3919 or driley@cnc.com.)

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