LYNN — The resumption of the Boston Marathon isn’t just a way for elite runners to get back on the course — it sets in motion a crucial piece of fundraising for the many nonprofit agencies dependent on donations for their survival.
One such agency is the American Liver Foundation (ALF), and one of the women who has been training to run under its banner when the starting gun finally sounds on Monday, Oct. 11 is Lynn’s Marysa Duffy.
Ordinarily, the marathon is run on Patriot’s Day. However, the COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 race entirely and forced postponement of this year’s 26-mile, 385-yard run until the fall.
That gave Duffy, 32 — a St. Mary’s High School and St. Anselm’s College graduate — enough time to decide for sure whether she’d even run. But then again, Duffy’s story might provide a glimpse into her reason why.
When she was 13, Duffy, who had always been a competitive dancer, began having pain in her upper right quadrant that she and most everyone else attributed to a pulled muscle. But then other things began happening.
There was fatigue so severe that she could barely make it up a flight of stairs. That’s when she visited her pediatrician, who ran tests and found her liver function was extremely elevated. Later that summer, she was diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis, and was immediately put on high doses of steroids and immunosuppression drugs.
“It’s been so long, now. You just kind of adapt to it,” says Duffy. “I’ll be on medication for the rest of my life. The drugs lower my immune system so that my body doesn’t attack my liver. The goal is to keep the immune system quiet.”
Often, though, the cure can be as bad as the disease.
“Even the common cold can be hard for me,” says Duffy.
So… guess what she does. And guess where she works.
If you guessed “nurse,” you would be correct. And if you guessed “Massachusetts General Hospital” you’d also be correct. Now … guess where she works within MGH?
If you said “in the COVID-19 unit,” you’d hit the trifecta. And you’d be 4-for-4 if you ever guessed that this woman with an autoimmune illness worked in a COVID ward while she was pregnant. Because that’s exactly what Duffy did last year (Graham Duffy is now 10 months old).
Well, what about this business of running the marathon? Why would anyone with such an affliction be ready to run 26 miles and 385 yards?
“I wouldn’t even call myself a runner, to be honest,” Duffy said. “It used to be one of those things to do every now and then. You know, it’s the healthy thing to do.”
Seven years ago, Duffy and her husband, Brendon, ran their first half marathon (“He was not a runner either.”)
“It was something we just decided to do together,” she said. “We would do a couple of half marathons a year, but I still wouldn’t call myself a runner. I guess I didn’t think I was good enough to call myself a runner.”
Whatever she did, though, “I did as a hobby. No pressure.”
That’ll change. When you enter the Boston Marathon under the banner of a nonprofit, you don’t just train to run. That’s hard enough, Duffy says. On top of that, you have to raise money. For the ALF, she has to raise $8,500 — and she’s about halfway there.
“That’s a bit more daunting than a 10-mile run,” she said. So far, it’s gone well. People read my story online, and I’ve been fortunate to have received the support I’ve received already.”
There were a few events that spurred her on, however. First, and in general, she’d watch the race on TV every year and feel inspired by some of the things she saw — among them Dick and Rick Hoyt, the father who ran the race pushing his son in a wheelchair.
Later, when she was hooked up with the ALF, she was paired with a sponsor who raised money and ran the race under her name.
“His name is Chris Eld, and I’ll never forget it,” said Duffy, who still gets emotional recounting the day. “I was standing on the bottom of Heartbreak Hill and I got choked up watching him run toward me, with my name on a sign across his chest.”
That is when she decided the only way to respond to a gesture like that was to pay it forward.
“One hundred percent,” she said. “With all the support I’ve received from the ALF, that is one thing I’m keeping in mind.”
Duffy admits the marathon is a major goal, and “I always thought I’d like to do it.
“I kept getting the same email, over and over, to apply. I think, about a half hour before the deadline, like 11:30 at night, I filled out the application and sent it.”
From there, things happened quickly.
“I had a phone interview and talked to someone from the foundation, and they offered me a spot right then and there.”
At the present, there are 42 runners on the ALF team, and they have their own coach — “Coach Kate” — who offers weekly Zoom sessions about training and nutrition. Each runner also has an individualized plan as well. In Duffy’s case, she is building up to 20 miles in September, at which time she will run the actual course through the notorious Heartbreak Hill and then call it a day.
“That’s all we’ll do,” she said. “(Kate) says miles 21-26 are going to be uncomfortable, and that we just have to know it and prepare for it. So I run wearing a weighted vest, and I run and walk a lot of hills around my neighborhood (off Lynnfield Street).”
As for her goals, “I just want to finish. Right now, at the pace I’m going, it’ll take me 5 ½ hours. That would be OK.”
She hopes that between now and October, she, too, will be paired with someone who suffers from a liver disease.
“When I was accepted, Chris was the first person I called,” she said.
To donate to Marysa Duffy’s fund, go to https://liverlifechallenge.org/boston/support/?fbclid=IwAR0uU6soVe4Ox7KAi5Zm3cQpB5PCkevVJTw8R1H5B21mkpU05vegqtEdwv4#mduffy and hit the “donate now” button.
