On April 21, Boston will celebrate its annual marathon, an event characterized by tradition, hard work, and enthusiasm for the runners who boldly take on the 26.2-mile course. With hundreds of volunteers offering refreshments to athletes and thousands of spectators lining the race path with encouraging signs, Marathon Monday is a highlight for many city residents, regardless of whether they are racing or watching.
The qualification process for the 2025 Boston Marathon was especially competitive, with a cutoff time of 6 minutes, 51 seconds—all accepted athletes had to have run a previous marathon at least 6:51 faster than the qualifying standard for their age group. For instance, women between the ages of 18 and 34 had to have run a 3:23:09 race to qualify. With 36,000 applicants, only 24,000 were accepted. The remainder of the 30,000 available spots were reserved for charity runners, sponsor entries, and special invitations.
Considering the high volume of participants, runners begin the marathon in waves, with the first group starting at 6 a.m. The race starts in the suburban town of Hopkinton, 25 miles west of Boston, and ends in Copley Square. Along the way, runners will move along Route 135, confront the notoriously challenging Heartbreak Hill, pass through Fenway Park and Kenmore Square, and ultimately reach the Boston Public Library.
The 30,000 participants in this year’s event are quite diverse, with representatives from 118 countries and all 50 states. This expansive group also includes a number of Harvard community members. While balancing busy academic hours with tight training schedules, these student runners have unique thoughts about their months of preparations and personal motivations in anticipation of the big day.
Bridget Kondrat ’26 is one of these students. Raised in Cohasset, Massachusetts, Kondrat is accustomed to watching the local race. “I grew up watching the Boston marathon with my whole family, because I’m from the Boston area… It’s just the most insane experience. I really think that everybody should go see it at some point in their life,” Kondrat said.
Running has also served as a way of connecting Kondrat with her mother, who has run the Boston race numerous times. “I’ve been running [with my mom] since I was in fourth grade. It was something we always did together,” Kondrat stated. “I’m just so inspired by her and everything I’ve seen in her,” she added.
Getting her feet wet during her senior year of high school, Kondrat decided to join her mom in running the Newport Marathon. Given that Kondrat only decided to participate in the Rhode Island race two weeks prior to the event, the upcoming event reflects her first marathon with what she referred to as “the full-term cycle” of training.
This year, she will run in collaboration with the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a Boston cancer center that treated her grandmother for 14 years before she passed away in 2022. Considering that Kondrat used to watch the marathon alongside her grandmother, she knew she wanted to use this very fitting chance to fundraise in her memory.
As a student and coxswain on the women’s heavyweight rowing team, Kondrat has had a lot to balance as she prepares for this month’s race. A typical day for her includes morning practice, an hour-and-a-half-long run, and then afternoon lift. Using an online training plan with the training app Runna, Kondrat is currently on week 16 of a 20-week program. Her week includes three or four 10-mile runs, two speed workout days, and one long run.
With race day quickly approaching, Kondrat reflected on this arduous yet fulfilling process. “It’s such a rewarding experience… Being able to push your body and being able to fundraise for something that I really do care about,” Kondrat commented.
Similar to Kondrat, Julia Torrey ’27 also grew up in the Boston area, participating in the excitement of this annual city event since childhood. “There is nothing like Boston on Marathon Monday… Every time I watch the marathon, I am literally in tears,” Torrey said. She has watched the event almost every year and often loses her voice from screaming so loudly.
Torrey has been running cross country since sixth grade and has considered participating in the marathon since she turned 18, the minimum age requirement for entry. This year, she was accepted to run as a member of the Stepping Strong team. The initiative is in commemoration of the life-saving treatment the Brigham and Women’s Hospital provided for Gillian Reny, a young girl who was injured during the tragic Boston Marathon bombing in 2013.
Torrey was drawn to the cause not only because of its connection to Boston but also due to her own research with the Brigham and Women’s Hospital.
As she continues with her training process, Torrey has found certain tricks to help her stay consistent. “I start really slow and then end pretty fast,” Torrey explained, in reference to her 20-mile runs. To do this, she has found it helpful to listen to a relaxing podcast for the first 10 miles and then switch to a super upbeat playlist for the remaining 10. “The first half is just getting there…the second half is the race.”
Torrey’s biggest piece of advice for others who are considering running a marathon was to “listen to your body.” Although it can be hard to give yourself a break when pushing for a specific goal, Torrey believes that one of the bravest things is to give yourself grace and rest when necessary.
Torrey strongly encourages her classmates to watch the marathon, highlighting the Boston Athletic Association Racing App as a way to keep track of all of the athletes.
Maggie Chiappetta-Uberti ’26 will also be running her first marathon in a few weeks. Similar to Kondrat, Chiappetta-Uberti’s motivation for participating in the event comes largely from her mother’s history of running. Inspired by her mom’s high school records, Chiappetta-Uberti decided to join the track team in middle school. Although she initially struggled with the sport, she stuck it out because of her mom. “She really pushed me and motivated me to continue in the sport,” Chiappetta-Uberti said. “I found some of my lifelong friends through sport, and it’s just…an incredible experience.”
When Chiappetta-Uberti was a freshman in high school, her mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. With this difficult news, exercise gained a new layer of importance, as her mother has started walking four miles every morning since her diagnosis. Her mother’s resilience and positivity in the face of battling a debilitating disease has served as an inspiration for her. “I don’t know how she does it, and she does it with a smile on her face,” Chiappetta-Uberti reflected.
Chiappetta-Uberti will be running as part of Team End ALZ alongside 25 other runners selected to represent the Alzheimer’s Association. Upon learning she would be running for the organization this year, she was elated to be able to connect with a group of people with similar experiences.
“It’s really awesome being able to connect with a room of people who can relate in this way,” she noted.
As she nears the end of the demanding training process, she continues to find inspiration from her mother. “She can’t choose how her body is changing, but I can choose to get up and run,” Chiappetta-Uberti said.
For many of the 2025 Boston Marathon runners, the event serves as more than a race, but as an opportunity for philanthropy and activism. As Chiappetta-Uberti shared: “There’s something very sad and beautiful about the fact that everyone is running for a cause that matters to them.”
Sophie Dauer ’27 (sophiedauer@college.harvard.edu) encourages everyone to check out the race in a few weeks to cheer on classmates as they reach the end of this demanding period in pursuit of powerful causes.