Published in the April 12, 2017 edition
LYNNFIELD RESIDENT Kristan Murphy will be running in the 121st Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17 as a part of Dana-Farber’s Marathon Challenge team. (Courtesy Photo)
By DAVID McCOUBREY
LYNNFIELD —Lynnfield resident Kristan Murphy is preparing to run in the 121st Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17 as a part of Dana-Farber’s Marathon Challenge team.
This will be Murphy’s eighth time running Boston as a part of Dana-Farber’s team, and she has run marathons in four other cities and is also gearing up to run in Chicago this fall.
Murphy runs in memory of her Uncle Paul who passed away in 2010 due to complications from cancer. She is also a part of Dana-Farber’s In-Memory Partner Program, which pairs DFMC runners with children currently or previously treated at Dana-Farber’s Jimmy Fund Clinic. Murphy was partnered with Lia, who lost a battle with leukemia when she was just 8 years old in 2008.
Murphy grew up in Belmont, and started running in high school in the early mornings with her dad. She has continued to run throughout her life. So when she became a member of Dana-Farber’s team, the 26.2 grueling miles of a marathon wasn’t the main concern; it was the fundraising that gave her pause.
“The fundraising terrified me,” she said in an email. “The thought of asking people for money was hard, until it wasn’t. I reminded myself that the money wasn’t for me, it was (for) groundbreaking research that was happening at Dana-Farber. What I soon learned is that people wanted to give, and they needed to give. They shared their personal connection with cancer with me and even though the stories were different, they all ended the same way, with a desperate desire to find a cure.”
She added, “I was overwhelmed by the generosity of friends, family, and especially strangers that wanted to support this cause and wanted to support me.”
Murphy is certainly not alone in this effort. This year, the DFMC team is made up of 500 runners with a collective goal of raising $5.4 million for the Claudia Adams Barr Program in Innovative Cancer Research. Murphy alone hopes to raise $13,000 this year, and has raised nearly $80,000 over the course of her racing career.
At 48, Murphy admits that these marathons are getting harder and harder.
“It seems like every year the miles get longer, the winter gets colder, the hills get steeper, and my hamstrings get tighter,” she said.
But team-oriented as ever, Murphy has surrounded herself with a group of volunteers who have made training a relatively pain-free experience.
“Team members that are local train together with amazing volunteers that support the runners with hydration and snacks in any kind of weather,” she said.
But of course, for Murphy, her motivation all comes back to battling cancer.
“Every year I run for DFMC, there are people who have told me that I am amazing, that I am an inspiration for running a marathon,” she said. “I have even been called a superhero. But really I am none of those things. I’m just someone who likes to run who shares a dream (with fellow DFMC runners) for a world without cancer.”
Superhero or not, Murphy is part of a huge group of selfless individuals who are putting their bodies through pain so that someday they might alleviate the pain of others.
For donations, please visit: www.rundfmc.org/2017/kristanm.
