Magruder Makes Boston Marathon Dream a Reality

By Marlana Smith

The Boston Marathon is the oldest running marathon, and like most runners, especially Kristen Magruder, it is every runner’s dream to complete.

“I felt such a sense of pride and honor to run beside some of these athletes. It was certainly an amazing box to check off on my bucket list!” expressed Magruder.

The Boston Marathon had been a goal of Kristen’s for five years or more. She didn’t find her running addiction until she was in her 30’s.

“I hated running in high school. But I do remember telling friends, “Man it would be amazing to run in the Boston Marathon” several years ago,” Magruder said.

She qualified in her first ever marathon in St. Louis on April 26, 2025.

Kristen said because Boston has a ‘buffer’ which means even though you meet the qualifying time, you may still need to run it faster based on how many people apply. She wanted to achieve a faster time, so she ran a marathon in Erie, Pennsylvania, in September 2025.

“I knew I had it when I finished that one and it was so emotional,” expressed Kristen. “I instantly booked a hotel in Boston knowing my 12+ min buffer would get me in. “Hands were shaking, breathing was hard, and I couldn’t stop replaying those final steps knowing I had achieved my goal.”

She began training for the Boston Marathon on December 1, 2025. It was about a 22-week training block. The most challenging part of training was having to do most of it on a treadmill because of the weather and time constraints with work.

“Most of my training for this race was done inside, on either my NordicTrack X24 or the treadmill that I overworked which at one time broke, at NEMO Fitness,” explained Magruder.

She had many people throughout the training phase and marathon cheering her on. Family, friends, fellow runners, coworkers, gym buddies, and social media friends.

“Most were able to track me live on the Boston Marathon app while I was running. But the days I didn’t want to run, those people pushed me and reminded me of ‘my why’. I couldn’t have done it without them,” Magruder expressed.

On Monday, April 20, 2026, Kristen’s dream became a reality as she ran her first every Boston Marathon.

“The atmosphere was unlike anything I had ever seen before,” said Magruder. “In all of the 5k’s, 10ks, and marathons I have run in, I have never experienced so much support. There were literally spectators lined the WHOLE 26.2 miles,” she expressed, “They had signs made, cheering for strangers, playing music, handing out water, bananas, and even beer! It was absolutely incredible.”

All of it was special to Kristen, but two moments stood out for her.  The first came when picking up her race bib.

“It was real then,” Magruder said. “I remember getting goosebumps and thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, I actually did this, I am actually going to do this.’”

The second moment was during the race when she saw a spectator holding a sign that said, ‘There will be a day when you cannot do this… today is NOT that day.’

“That hit home.” Magruder said. “I have had two lumbar back surgeries, and the next – hopefully there won’t be a next – will be a fusion. I was told to never run more than a mile at a time by my last surgeon, and here I am.”

She said the sign reminded her not to take the ability to run for granted.

“There may actually come a day for me that I can’t do this, that my body won’t allow me to,” she said. “Right now, I am going to run as much as I can.”

There were two-mile points that stuck out to Magruder.

Mile 16 was rough; she wanted to quit and go home. She spotted her ‘cheerleader’ on the sideline and at the perfect moment.

“I ran over to him, hugged him crying and said I couldn’t do it. He reminded me who I was and that I could and pushed me off into the race, and I kept going,” Kristen said.

Four miles later came Heartbreak Hill. It humbled her fast.

Although she trained for a hillier course, nothing could prepare her for the real thing. She admitted quitting went through her mind again, but knowing there were people who wanted to have her place and either physically couldn’t or didn’t run fast enough qualifying time, kept her going.

“I have found that there is a moment or two in every race where you can either quit or say to yourself, ‘I can do this’.” This was one of those moments,” Magruder said.

What kept her moving, she said, was thinking about her Dad.

“Knowing he was watching me and cheering me on in Heaven,” she expressed.

She also wanted to make her children, family and friends proud. More than anything, she wanted to prove to herself that she could do hard things.

“I had to trust my training and remember why I loved this sport so much,” Kristen said. “There are people who can’t walk, people who would give anything to be able to run in the Boston Marathon, and people who have tried for so many years, knowing that also kept me going.”

Seeing the finish line helped erase much of the discomfort from the previous three and a half hours.

Magruder finished her first Boston Marathon is 3 hours and 38 minutes, which is about 8:20 mile for 26.2 miles. Not her fastest, but she had been battling a calf issue since the start and knew if she pushed it, she might not finish or not be able to run.

She said she felt pure joy and happiness after completing the marathon.

“My body was screaming, but my heart was exploding with happiness. Finishing a marathon puts you in a state of mind that anything is possible,” Kristen expressed. “Being around all the other runners who were feeling the same thing was amazing as well.

“It was like we weren’t strangers at all, congratulating each other and genuinely being happy for each other for what we accomplished.”

Magruder said she would absolutely do it all again. The early mornings, tears, injuries, laughs, doubts, everything.

She plans to do just that when she runs the Chicago Marathon in October 2026.