Running Boston Marathon Part of Her 'Sanity'

Patty Sharp often says to her husband, "You can be on Prozac, you can drink or you can run."

For her, it's running, which she started doing in college ("to fight off the Freshman 15") almost 20 years ago. Now, she says, between working and raising two kids, "it's my sanity."

And her finish in the 2010 Philadelphia Marathon qualified her to run in today's Boston Marathon. According to the race's website, she's one of three Huntingdon Valley runners and you can see all of the race entrants here.

Sharp loves the solitude—"It's my quiet time"—but she has a comeptitive edge, too, and has been studying the course, in addition to adjusting her training regiment to include lots of hills and tempo work across our area.

"I don't go a day without seeing someone at the grocery store or somewhere saying, 'Oh, I saw you running,' " she said.

All that running can tax the body and Sharp said that, like most of the runners in today's race, she's had her setbacks, including a recent bout with tendinitis.

But she recently read an article about Kathryn Switzer, the first woman to run the Boston Marathon as a numbered entrant back in 1967. Race officials tried to remove her and her boyfriend literally had to shove some of them aside so she could run.

"I realized that it was just 40 years ago, right around the time I was born, that the first woman was really allowed to run in this race," she said. "I realized what a privilege it is. That's my motivation. That'll get me across the finish line."