LYNNFIELD — Lynnfield resident Jennifer Lucich has always wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon.
The 55-year old mother of four finally achieved that dream when she ran last May’s Providence Marathon in 3:58:00, beating her qualifying time by 12 minutes.
“I was lucky to have qualified and even more fortunate to have gotten a bib considering last year alone the BAA turned away more than 7,800 qualifiers,” said Lucich. “But I decided anyway to apply as running as a qualified runner has been on my ‘bucket list’ for many years, so I was thrilled.”
After learning that she was one of the lucky qualifiers who would receive a bib, her dream took on an added mission when she decided to take the marathon to a higher level.
“Since I was given such a wonderful opportunity, I wanted to share the experience and run for a charity,” said Lucich. “So I reached out to a few and Boston Children’s Hospital was the most responsive. They invited me to be on their ‘Miles for Miracles’ marathon team and through their Patient Partner Program they matched me with a little girl named Corissa, so I will be running this marathon for her.”
Corissa “Cori” Belanger is a 14-year old who lives in Peabody with her mom, Amy, and dad, Mark. She was born with Chromosome 18q Deletion Syndrome, a rare condition in which, due to a missing portion of a chromosomal arm, affected persons suffer a wide variety of signs and symptoms, including physical abnormalities as well as impairments of the heart, kidneys, hearing and nervous systems.
A student at the Beverly School for the Deaf, Corissa has faced a myriad of medical issues in her young life, including seizures, gastrointestinal disorders, hypothyroidism, adrenal insufficiency and hypoglycemia. She was born with three kidneys and no ear canals, leaving her deaf. Her immune system is non-functioning and she has needed weekly infusions since the age of two, and has spent much of her young life, sometimes up to a month at a time, hospitalized at Children’s.
But none of that has slowed Cori down, who’ll be at the 20th marker on Marathon Monday (April 15) with the Children’s Hospital Patient Partners group.
“This is our 10th year with the Partners program and Cori has gone to every marathon except last year when the weather was so bad and we couldn’t risk it,” said Cori’s mom, Amy. “She loves going to the marathon and always has a blast with so many high-fives from all the runners, so she’s really looking forward to cheering Jennifer on this year. We have loved being able to stay in touch with Cori’s runners over the years, so it’s just a very special day for Cori and we really want to be able to help give Jennifer a boost as she gets through Heartbreak Hill.”
Lucich said she had a chance to meet Cori and her family last Christmas and on her birthday Feb. 27.
“She is such a happy, funny girl who keeps everyone laughing even though she has a limited vocabulary,” Lucich said. “She loves her teddy bear, loves coloring and absolutely loves watching Sesame Street. Elmo is her favorite.”
After meeting her original fundraising goal of $2,000, Lucich recently upped the ante to $2,750.
Lucich has run 15 marathons, three of them at Boston. But she had never run Boston as a ‘BQ’ (Boston qualifier), that is until this year.
For non-qualifying runners, the most popular way to run the Boston Marathon is to run for charity. But there other ways to gain entry.
Lucich ran her first BAA marathon when a Lynnfield running friend, Jennifer Ventre Monkiewicz, secured a number for her.
“Jennifer and I had run together and she was working for one of the race vendors,” said Lucich. “She called me one day and told me she had an extra number and asked if I wanted it. So I grabbed it on the spot.”
Lucich said she played soccer in high school, but also ran in high school and college for exercise. She started running road races in her 20’s.
One of her favorite road races is the annual Lynnfield Athletic Association Fourth of July 5K.
“I’ve run many LAA races while pushing my kids in a double stroller,” Lucich said. “It was hard, but so much fun, then later I ran with my daughter Abby (LHS Class of 2020).”
Lucich, who works as an occupational therapist at Ledgewood Skilled Rehab in Beverly, said she hopes to complete the race in under four hours.
“I know the course, so my goal is to come in around 3:50:00-3:55:00,” she said. “I’m just so happy to be running for such a great little girl like Cori. I’ll be able to spend some more time with her at the big Children’s pre-race event next week, so I am really looking forward to that.”
Lucich said donations will be accepted through April 15. To donate, go to her Children’s webpage, https://secure.childrenshospital.org/site/TR/ActiveEvents/ActiveEvents?px=1680971&pg=personal&fr_id=1810
