By Alexandra Riccardi
BU News Service
She wants to give up. Cold, blistering wind hits her throat as she runs through her Westford neighborhood. It’s December 2014 and Lauren Parks just finished her first mile. She can hardly breathe. Her ears are red and burning as upbeat music blasts through her headphones. Both feet are cramping and she can’t feel her hands. All Parks can think about is her couch and dinner, but she is determined to reach three miles. For her, running is a mind game. She envisions the Boston Marathon finish line and keeps running.
The Boston Marathon is one of the hardest marathons because of its hills, narrow roads and sometimes extreme New England weather. But Parks is determined to finish. Since mid-December, she has been training daily as part of a team of Massachusetts General Hospital doctors, nurses and staff raising money for the hospital’s pediatric cancer division.
“If you don’t qualify for the marathon, meaning if you don’t run it in under three and a half hours, you must be a charity runner,” she said. With just days left before the marathon, Lauren has reached her fundraising goal and has raised more than $5,000 towards combatting pediatric cancer.
Parks said she never believed she could run a full marathon. “I’ve always liked to run. I ran a few half marathons before in Boston and Providence,” she said. But the Boston Marathon was always an uphill battle for Parks. She’s had a stress fracture in her foot since high school, and with only days left of training, she worried this might be an issue during the race.
“I’ve heard horror stories about people breaking their feet or much worse. I’m just praying that nothing too bad happens,” she said.
Throughout the winter Parks ran an average of 9 miles on weekends and about 4 miles each week day. “We have a schedule our team must follow,” she said. “Sometimes we will stagger our runs up, running eight miles on Friday, nine on Saturday, and 10 on Sunday. Or sometimes we will stagger them down,” she said.
By the end of the winter, Parks finally got used to running in the cold. The feeling in her chest that made her want to keel over a few months ago is gone. But getting motivated is the hardest part about her training, she said.
“Drinking extra water while I was at work or at home was the easy part. Actually getting outside to run in this weather was definitely difficult,” she said. Parks hopes that the weather will be cool on marathon day. High 40s or low 50s is her ideal temperature.
“I want to run the marathon in under four and a half hours on race day,” she said. In mid-March, she and her teammates ran 20 miles in 3.5 hours. “After I ran the 20 miles in under four, I know I’m on track for that time,” she said excitedly.
As a first time marathon runner, Parks does have some fears and anxieties. Her decision to run in 2015 was inspired in part by the Boston Marathon bombings of 2013.
“I remember being at work and hearing about the bombs. My mom and my family were there near the finish line, but luckily no one I knew was hurt,” she said. Sitting at her desk on marathon day in 2013, Parks said she knew that she wanted to run the Boston marathon one day. She couldn’t help but sit there and think about the people down on Boylston street: the injured, the terrified bystanders, the runners and the heroes.
As marathon day draws near, Parks said she is ready and hardly thinks about the bombings because she knows it could have happened anywhere. Rather, she focuses on herself.
“The tight security makes me feel more comfortable, I know I will be OK,” she said.
“I have made it my mission to finish the marathon to represent myself, my family and many others that were injured two years ago. Fortunately, I do have both of my legs,” she said.