Frigid temperatures, rain, wind and physical exhaustion couldn’t stop Mary Shertenlieb from finishing what she started.
The determined 2018 Boston Marathon runner crossed the finish line early Tuesday morning, 13 hours after she started running it in Hopkinton, Mass., according to Boston 25.
Shertenlieb, a leukemia survivor who was running to raise funds for The Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, had to stop running around 4 p.m. ET near the 15.5 mile mark in order to seek medical attention amid fears of hypothermia, her husband, Rich Shertenlieb of The Sports Hub’s “Toucher and Rich” show, revealed on Instagram.
“At that point, her body began to shiver uncontrollably, her lips turned purple, and because of her compromised immune system, her doctors instructed her to stop running in the rain should this happen,” he wrote.
Mary and Rich went home, where she recuperated and eventually decided to return to the point she exited the race and complete the course. They began running around 8:30 p.m. and crossed the finish line together just after midnight with friends and family on hand to greet them.
Mary raised over $30,000 for Dan Farber, according to WBZ’s Dan Roche.
“Oh my goodness, that was crazy,” she said, per Boston 25. “You can do anything. It may not be how you imagined it playing out, but you can still get it done.”
