Hopkinton Middle School Teacher Reflects On "Magical" Marathon Run

HOPKINTON, MA - For Hopkinton Middle School art teacher Katharine Brummett, her second time running the Boston Marathon on Monday was "magical," with the cheers of family and friends and a cool breeze propelling her forward.

"The weather was picture perfect," said Brummett in an interview with Patch on Wednesday. "There were more people I knew personally that were watching for me, so that was such a pick-me-up. Magical is the way I would describe it."

This experience also was different from 2019, where she was the only runner from Hopkinton Middle School and there was pouring rain. This year, Brummett ran with Assistant Principal Chris Ocampo and Stacey Place, a health teacher. The trio gathered at the middle school before the race, with Ocampo playing music and all sharing words of encouragement. She tracked them during the race on the app.

"I started the course with Chris, but I didn't get to run much of the course with him," she said. "Stacey and I stayed together for about the first eight miles. She's a little faster than me, and she was inching ahead of me. At around that point, I told her, 'Just go! You're doing great.'"

Brummett became worried about Ocampo, whom she knew had a knee problem. She lost track of him when the app stopped his progress at the 18th mile.

"It turned out that he had a bib issue," she explained, confirming that he was able to finish the race despite an injury.

Brummett nearly had to skip the race because she had "a minor foot injury" earlier in the month. Her podiatist cleared her to run.

"It allowed me to ditch my initial goal, which was to come in at under four hours," she said, noting that she had to skip her last long training run.

Brummett also had a slight scare that paralleled her first experience when the shuttle bus to Hopkinton started to go down Route 495 South.

"I suddenly had a moment of panic that I got on the wrong bus and would start heading toward Providence," she laughed. "But I remembered that I thought the same thing the last time because the bus loops around."

What brought her the most joy was early in the race when she could see her students. She went up to several and surprised them with hellos and high fives.

"When you're running for four and a half hours, you have a lot of time to think about things," she said. "Every time I saw one of my students on the side of the road, I would think about them. They were our there to support me because I was running for them."

Brummett ran to support the Hopkinton Music Association, a volunteer parent group that promotes music education for Hopkinton students and provides financial support.

"At points I was overwhelmed by the screaming and the signs," she continued. "When I hit Boylston Street, I tried not to cry."

The influence of women in the race was another motivating factor for Brummett. At Wellesley College, several stretched over the barrier to touch hands with runners, screaming fervently.

"It is one of my favorite parts of the race," she said. "And they did not disappoint. It was almost deafening. I don't even know if they realize how much that helps runners."

She also thought of the women who broke the gender barrier 50 years before that had kept them from competing.

"I am so grateful to these women for being trailblazers," Brummett said. "I can't even imagine how intimidating it must have been to be the first group of women. I'm sure they were aware that there were people who didn't think that they should be there. I feel lucky to be in this generation where we have always been accepted."

The only minor complaint she had about the day was that the wind was stronger than predicted.

"There was definitely a headwind that wasn't in the forecast when I checked the day before," Brummett explained. "But that kept me cool because it was nice and sunny. I did get a little sunburn on the backs of my calves, so I probably should have been a little better applying sunscreen. But it's a small price to pay."