Although she tackled the Boson Marathon in 2003, Maria Badaracco said Sunday she was nervous before running in this year’s race with “Team BMC.”
“Today has been a little scary for me because the weather forecasts are warning about how hot and dry it’s supposed to be,” Badaracco, a third-year Boston University School of Medicine student, said. “They’re warning people about heat stroke and heat exhaustion.”
Thirty-one students, physicians and businessmen from Boston Medical Center were among the tens of thousands of runners battling the heat in the 2012 Boston Marathon on Monday. Team BMC ran to raise funds to improve patient care at the teaching hospital.
After training for the last four months, Badaracco said she was looking forward to the race.
“When you’ve trained for something and prepared for several months, it’s great to actually be doing it and crossing the finish line,” she said. “It’s all about trying to stay loose and relax and enjoy it.”
Alice Binns, a Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences graduate student, said she was so excited that she could not sleep the night before her run. A Dorchester native, Binns said she grew up loving the marathon and hoped to race in it one day.
“It is hard watching it year after year from the sidelines,” Binns said in an email interview. “Whenever I watched it, I always wanted to be right there running with everyone.”
Chrissy LeBedis, a radiologist at BMC and assistant professor at BUSM, said she signed up to run with Team BMC without ever having run a marathon.
“When I first signed up for it, I was really intimidated, but every aspect of it has been really wonderful,” LeBedis said. “I’ve met wonderful people, and then the fact that I’ve been able to fundraise for a hospital that I love has been really motivating.”
Team BMC, which participates in several athletic fundraisers throughout the year, aims to raise more than $270,000 by June 30, said Joanna MacDonald, director of Cause and Event Marketing at BMC.
“We’ve set some aggressive goals, but we’ve already raised over $200,000, and we still have two more months to raise money,” MacDonald said.
Each participant set a fundraising goal of $5,000, which LeBedis said was daunting at first. Despite the anticipated challenge, she said she surprised herself and reached twice her original goal.
“People were really supportive and really giving,” LeBedis said. “It’s been really inspiring as I’ve been training to have so many people behind me.”
LeBedis said she was excited to see the hordes of Bostonians along with route.
“I have a couple of friends who have done many marathons, and they say that the energy in Boston is unparalleled,” she said.
The support runners receive from fans from Hopkinton to the finish line in Copley Square is “amazing,” Binns said.
In the long run, LeBedis said participating and training for the marathon has made her rethink her future plans.
“As the training has been coming to a close, I find myself looking into the future and what else is going to be on my horizon,” she said. “There’s nothing yet, but although I had thought this would be a once-in-a-lifetime experience, I have a feeling I’ll be signing up for another marathon in the fall.”
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