PEABODY — Peabody resident Jenna Hartling was the kind of kid who tried to get out of running the mile in gym class. Now, she’s found the joy in running and is gearing up for this spring’s Boston Marathon, which will be her fifth marathon but her first in Boston.
Hartling’s running journey began about 10 years ago, when she began running races at Disneyland and Disney World. She was excited to share that she has earned the Coast to Coast medal, for completing Disney races in both California and Florida, and has tackled two Disney World Dopey Challenges, where runners must complete a 5K, a 10K, a half marathon, and a marathon in four straight days. Hartling has collected more than 35 medals thus far, many of which were from half marathons.
“Finding that joy in running was actually surprising even to me because I really thought it would be a one and done type of experience, but what I found — and especially in the Disney community, and I think the running community as a whole is getting a lot better at it — is that there’s a place in running for everybody,” Hartling shared.
She added, “If you have the drive and the passion for it, anybody can take up this sport. I am proof of that.”
Hartling reflected on why running Boston has been a meaningful goal of hers.
“My family owned a business on Boylston Street for many, many years. It has now closed… I was actually working for my family’s business at the time of the bombing. I was not in Boston at all, but that day was actually really kind of crazy. My uncle’s car was parked in the alley behind the store. For perspective, the store was on, not the block of the finish line, but the next block up, directly across from Copley Square,” Hartling explained.
She continued, “When they found shrapnel all the way down Boylston Street, all those businesses were part of an active crime scene. No one could go in that area for over a week, so my uncle who parked his car in the alley behind couldn’t get his car for over a week.”
Hartling noted that it was the days after the bombing that really left an impact on her.
“I remember going into work with my dad and seeing the huge memorial across the street and all of the people who left their running shoes or some of the items that they carried with them on race day,” she said. “It just shows that, even though running is an individual sport, there is this big mindset that everybody’s in it together… When I saw that outpouring of community, I thought to myself, ‘Maybe running isn’t this big, evil thing that I always thought it was when I was younger. Maybe this is something that I should push myself to try.’”
Hartling will be running on Team BMC, which is a group of nurses and health care professionals who work at Boston Medical Center. Hartling, as a child life specialist in the Pediatric Emergency Department, works to “lessen the traumatic impacts of hospitalization on children and families, and I do that with preparation, education, and distraction.”
“Pouring myself into my love of running, but then also helping the place that I work (get) these funds for the population that we’re serving is so important,” Hartling said.
She joked that she’s not nervous about the miles; she’s nervous about meeting her fundraising goals.
“It’s a big chunk of change, but I’m doing it because I’m passionate about it. But $10,000 is quite a hill to climb, arguably bigger than Heartbreak Hill, in my mind at least,” Hartling said. “But it’s going to a worthwhile cause.”
To contribute to Hartling’s fundraising goal, visit tinyurl.com/jenna-runs-boston.
