We wrote about Christine L. Coffey in our April 6 issue (page five).  Chris is the Director of the Early Books Program at the South Boston Neighborhood House.  Rather than sit behind her desk and hope for grant money, she took a more direct approach – running the renowned 26.2 mile Boston Marathon to raise funds for her Early Books Program.  And she was tremendously successful.

     She received pledges for more than $10,000, but first, there was one, small step she had to complete – finishing the Boston Marathon.  Simply walking 26.2 miles is more than most of us can do.  Some of us get frustrated driving that far.  In her first Boston Marathon, Chris came in under five hours – 4 hours, fifty-two minutes, and fifty-nine seconds, to be exact. – which is an extremely good time.

     Most people don’t realize how demanding the Boston Marathon is.  It is the hilliest of the commonly-run marathons, with the killer being “Heartbreak Hill” at about the 20-mile mark.  In fact, the Boston Marathon is “grandfathered in” as an authorized race.  It is too hilly to qualify as an Olympic Marathon course under modern foot-racing rules.