Source: Walla Walla Union Bulletin
A Walla Walla native will run the Boston Marathon on April 15 — her second marathon within two weeks on opposite coasts.
Kate Keaney, a 1993 Walla Walla High School graduate and now-Boston resident, is racing in the well-known Boston event and, at her husband’s urging, the Big Sur International Marathon on April 28 in California.
“When I moved to Boston, I started researching how I could run the Boston Marathon,” Keaney, 44, said in a statement. “Knowing I wouldn’t be able to qualify, I started looking at nonprofits. A colleague of Paul’s (her husband) at TripAdvisor told him that applications were being accepted at Metro Housing Boston.”
The organization helps prevent people in Boston from being homeless and to transition from homelessness to having a home and being stable. So far, she has raised more than $6,300 of her $6,500 goal on Crowdrise.
“What really sealed the deal for me was that Metro Housing is a wonderful organization doing amazing work,” Keaney said. “I am proud to support their mission.”
Keaney started running in 2008 with the Couch to 5K at the YMCA and discovered she loved running. Since then, she’s run 5Ks, marathons and ultramarathons — which are any footraces longer than the traditional marathon length of 26 miles 385 yards.
She enjoyed the sport so much, she said she watched the Boston race a year ago, after she and her husband relocated to the area.
“… We made sure to get out watching the marathon and cheering everyone on,” she said. “I was hooked. I couldn’t move all the way out here and not somehow participate in this race!”