By Douglas McCulloch
Hometown Weekly Staff
Walpole resident Erin Collins will be running for the second time in the Boston Marathon on April 18 to support the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team.
With less than a week away before the big day, she is busy preparing for the marathon. After losing a lot of training time due to respiratory problems, she is now spending the last few days ensuring she is at the top of her health.
Although she does not think she will beat last year's record due to the time she lost from training, she is hopeful to complete the marathon this year as well. She noted the biggest challenge she will face in addition to the lost training time is the unpredictable weather.
“There are so many elements you can’t control about a marathon, including and primarily the weather,” Collins said. “The biggest challenge is preparing yourself mentally to accept that anything can and will happen, but that you have a choice to embrace it or let it control you.”
Collins' road to the Boston Marathon did not happen overnight. After letting her running career lag behind, she decided to continue running to get in shape in January 2014.
Around the same time, she talked to a woman who sings in the same choir at St. Timothy's. The woman revealed that her cancer had returned. Collins also learned that several of her friends had family members who were battling cancer as well.
“It was one of those moments where I realized just how precious our health is, and I was mad that I had been taking my own health and youth for granted while these three individuals were battling with their life changing diagnoses,” Collins said.
As Collins began training for the Falmouth Road Race, she decided to race in honor of the mother of a friend who was battling cancer. But when she lost her battle with cancer a month before the race, Collins became determined to do more to help those battling cancer.
Just a day after running the Falmouth Road Race, she signed up to race in the Boston Marathon with the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge. She also signed up to Dana-Farber's patient partner program, and was paired with Darla Holloway, a now six-year-old who was treated for lymphoblastic leukemia at Dana-Farber, whom she ran in honor of in 2015.
Collins finished the 2015 Boston Marathon with a time of 4:55.12. She had not set a high expectation for herself, only that she was determined to complete the marathon.
She had originally only planned to run the Boston Marathon once, but when Holloway asked if she would run again, she couldn't say no.
“I had planned to do a 'one and done' with the DFMC team, but when Darla asked me if I would be running for her again – how could I say no,” Collins said.
This year, the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge hopes to raise $5.4 million to support the hospital's cancer research efforts. Click here to donate to Collins' team.
