Local Boston Marathon runners come in strong

Apr 16, 2019

A handful of Dartmouth residents managed to make it out to the start of this year’s Boston Marathon in spite of the horrible weather on Monday morning.

Patricia Baptiste, 40, of North Dartmouth ran her 18th Boston Marathon on Monday. She made it in just 3 hours and 28 minutes.

“Everybody was pretty anxious all week because of the weather,” she said. “But the day ended up actually beautiful. It was even a little too warm for me.”

Baptiste said that the heat and humidity caused her to become a little dehydrated around mile 18 — but she still made it in good time. “It went well,” she said with restraint.

For Baptiste, marathon running is a social occasion. “I started running marathons in college, and it became a huge part of my life,” she explained. “All my friends run — we run it together.”

Third grade teacher at DeMello Elementary Kathy Farias ran her first full marathon on the day.

She raised just over $5,000 for the charity Cradles to Crayons, which helps kids in poverty across the state buy school supplies and other necessities — and she still has a month of fundraising left.

Farias hopes to raise $10,000 for Cradles to Crayons by that time. But for now, she’s just happy she finished.

Although her time of 6 hours and 31 minutes may have been outside the official finishing time, she doesn’t care: “I crossed the finish line, which is what matters to me!”

Other Dartmouth-based marathon runners this year included David Hawkins, Molly Rouillard, and Julie Furtado. They all managed to finish the race in under four hours.

But no matter how long it took, for each participant running a marathon is a huge achievement.

“Until you run a marathon you don’t realize what you’re capable of,” Baptiste said. “It really does help you in life. It helps you realize what you can accomplish if you put your mind to it.”