Going into her senior year at Boston College, Alex Walsh said she wanted to push herself to do something she had never done before.
“I guess for senior year I wanted to, especially for second semester… to set a kind of goal and a challenge for myself,” Walsh, MCAS ’22, said. “Especially something that was out of my comfort zone.”
Walsh ran the 2022 Boston Marathon for MetroWest YMCA, which serves the Ashland, Framingham, Hopkinton, Holliston, Natick, Sudbury, and Wayland communities. She helped raise money for its Safety Around Water (SAW) division, a program that Walsh worked with closely in her hometown of Houston, Texas.
“Growing up I volunteered at the [YMCA] and then last summer I worked with their aquatics,” Walsh said. “So, I raised funds for their swimming programs that allow kids to get free swim lessons to learn … preventative drowning strategies.”
Walsh said in January, she faced an obstacle that fueled her desire to run the marathon even more—she had a stress fracture in her foot that left her in a boot and unable to run for five weeks.
“I had to swim and bike and do other forms and not run completely for five weeks,” Walsh said. “And that, I don’t know, I kind of reignited my passion knowing that I definitely wanted to do it and just get my body to 100 percent shape to be able to run it in April.”
When she saw her friends and family at Mile 21, Walsh said she was grateful for all of their support before and during the marathon.
“I knew that going into the race that all I need to do is get to Mile 21, and I knew that the last five miles would just be a blur,” Walsh said. “I’m just so grateful for all my friends and family who supported me in the process and seeing them on the sidelines cheering … it’s like an [indescribable] feeling.”
