Kathleen Callaghan of Medicine Hat waves to the crowd lining the streets while running in the 127th Boston Marathon on April 17, her first time taking on the world famous race.--SUBMITTED PHOTO
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
Kathleen Callaghan is more than happy with placing 20,292nd in a race.
The Hatter was the 20,292nd person to cross the finish line and complete the 127th Boston Marathon on April 17, doing so in a time of four hours, seven minutes and 11 seconds.
The 56-year-old wasn’t looking to set records or make any news, she just wanted to finish the race. She accomplished her goal the second the starter’s gun went off and she was declared a Boston Marathon runner.
When Callaghan was undergoing breast cancer treatments in 2018 she told herself if she ever felt strong enough again to qualify for the marathon she would run in it. After qualifying in 2022, she earned her spot in the infamous marathon and completed that milestone.
“The times when I got emotional it was because of that,” Callaghan said. “I told my kids, the marathon wasn’t really on my bucket list, it was on my life list, which I just made up because it focuses on living, not like your bucket list, which people think before you kick the bucket. It was on my life list to do the marathon and I actually don’t have anything else on the list.”
The 127th Boston Marathon was the third time she had qualified to run, as she previously qualified in 2013 and 2014 but did not run in those races because her qualifiers were 10 months before and it just didn’t work out. This year’s marathon lined up with the 10-year anniversary of her first qualification but also the Boston Marathon bombing that killed three and injured hundreds.
She says there’s nothing else on her life list because she has the whole world in front of her with her cancer behind her and is grateful to be healthy enough to run marathons or even take on Scholten Hill.
“My mum just finished her own breast cancer treatment within the last few months, she had a really aggressive one as well,” Callaghan said. “I was helping her through it and that was my focus last year, my mom. I’m just so grateful to be so healthy and put that in my rearview mirror.
“But the times when I did think about it, when I settled in and went, ‘oh my god I’m actually doing this,’ that flashed through my mind too, that I’m just so happy to be so healthy and able to do it.”
She wasn’t alone in Boston as Callaghan’s husband Gord, her brother and his wife were in Natick, Mass., one of the cities on the path of the marathon, 15 km from the starting line. Callaghan says seeing them, even for a split second, gave her energy in the run.
“Being able to see them, I absolutely would have run over and probably given them all a high five or something except I was on the other side of the road and almost passed them,” Callaghan said. “But it was still huge and they have a video of a big, big, big wave and a big smile. It carried me a good few miles while I was looking for them … And then after I saw them it carried me again.”
While she was battling the rain and the road in Boston, Callaghan says her three daughters and her mom were tracking her online and were texting in their family group chat.
“The family chat was so funny when I read it after because they’re tracking and saying things like, ‘Mom’s really flowing down I hope her calf isn’t cramping, oh look at her go, now she’s slowing down,’ it was just a play by play and it was so funny.”
Her time of 4:07:11 was just two minutes short of re-qualifying for the 2024 Boston Marathon, which is OK for Callaghan. She doesn’t plan on doing a marathon for a while and sees her next one coming in 2024, eying up either the Calgary marathon or one in London, England that she wouldn’t have to qualify for.
Until then she’ll continue to battle the hills of Medicine Hat and enjoy every step.
