My name is Kelly Flowers. I contact not really so much to spotlight, I suppose, as much as to encourage those who may benefit from realizing that it's never too late to start running, being healthier, and maybe doing some good in helping others along the journey. I plan to do more of the races River City Races sponsors in the future. I ran the Downtown Doubler 30K, in 2019.
I decided to run my first half marathon in 2007 at 51. Then as a bucket-list item I wanted to try to accomplish a full marathon the next year. I was so new to running I didn't even know anything about Boston Marathon qualifying. Someone told me that day I'd only missed it by 6 minutes, running a 3:41 on a 3:35 for my age group.
I couldn't walk away from that challenge. At 55 and 56 I ran 11, and 7 minutes under my qualifying time in my 3rd and 5th marathons, in Carmel Indiana and Chicago.
Unfortunately my first year to experience the Holy Grail Marathon in Boston had me ready to turn onto Boylston for the final home-stretch sprint in 2013. The 2nd bomb explosion happened right then and I was in the middle of a horrific nightmare.
I returned to run the next year and fundraised for the Martin Richard Foundation, raising $23,800. He was the 8-yr-old boy who was one of 3 killed that day, and near the 2nd, of 2, of the backpack bombs. That was a very emotional day, to say the least.
I went on to complete the 6 world major marathons after that. New York (2011, 2017, and 2019) Chicago (2012), Boston (2013, 2014, 2017, and 2019), London and Berlin (2015) and Tokyo (2016). The day I crossed the finish line in Tokyo, I was one of only 138 in the US to have run the 6 World Majors.
I returned to run, and fundraise, for the Martin Richard Foundation's MR8 Team in Boston and New York in 2017 and 2019. I was training and fundraising for the 2020 Team when it was canceled. Between the 4 Boston and 2 New York MR8 Teams I raised over $100,000.
I've now run 16 marathons, and begin my first of 16 weeks, next week, training for this year's Boston Marathon on Oct 11th.