Her Race Fell Apart. Her Family Put it Back Together

Kendra Campbell almost gave up. Her family talked her out of it.

By Chris Greenberg with video produced by Guruamar Khalsa and Ryan Breslin

April 22, 2015

3 minutes to read

Giving up is always an option.

As her months of training for the 2015 Boston Marathon unraveled along the early stages of the 26.2-mile course, Kendra Campbell knew she could stop, she wondered if she should. At one point, she decided she would.

But then she kept going. Her family showed that marathons are a team sport, cheering her on for every arduous step.

And they allowed Boston.com to follow the entire run.

Campbell, who had never even taken part in a 5K before the summer of 2014, ran for the Martin W. Richard Charitable Foundation’s Team MR8. Eight-year-old Martin was one of three killed in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings. Formerly a teacher at the Neighborhood House Charter School in Dorchester where Martin was a student, and where his mother, Denise, was a librarian, Kendra carried a picture of him with her during training runs and along the course on Monday. Before arriving at Hopkinton for the start she was closing in on $13,000 raised for the foundation.

“The picture was in my pocket and every time I went to get a snack out, I could feel that it was there,’’ Kendra said. “I just kept going. I was glad when I got to the finish that at the site the telephone pole was wrapped in flowers and there were flowers on the ground. I was glad I was able to pay my respects and give myself a moment to honor Martin.’’

Feeling under the weather leading up to the 119th Boston Marathon, Kendra and a running partner left the starting line with the Wave 4 runners at 11:15 a.m. Running through wind and rain on cool day, their pace was slower than expected. Before they even reached the midpoint of the race in Wellesley, a Boston Athletic Association van pulled up with bad news: The course was being closed, meaning no more water or first-aid stations ahead.

Initially undaunted, Kendra and her partner opted to push on. But both were experiencing pain and maintaining a steady pace amid the wind and rain proved problematic. When the pair, who had agreed to run together, reached her friend’s husband, they decided it was over.

“They were going to take me to my family,’’ Kendra said. “I was feeling pretty defeated and I was like, ‘No. No, you guys go. They’re only just down the road. I ‘m going to do this alone.’ I sort of needed a minute to kind of get myself together, feeling really disappointed. So I ran down and found my family, my sister and my brother-in-law and my husband.’’

Cold and dispirited, Kendra was prepared to surrender when she met her family. Pangs of guilt over letting down Team MR8 competed with the pain in her hip for her attention.

“My sister and I are very, very close,’’ Kendra said. “She was like, ‘You look good to me.’ I don’t remember the exact words, but the gist of them was, ‘You’re not stopping. She was like get in the car, we’ll put on some dry clothes.’ She had a couple extra shirts for me. She gave me her winter hat. I had been running in just a shirt. I had my Team MR8 singlet and my bib. It was just so cold and wet. I was soaked, freezing.’’

After getting Kendra into some dry gear, her sister told her, “Just go.’’

Kendra went.

She wasn’t surprised that her family and friends stuck with her as rainy day gave way to frigid evening. But she was struck by the wind-whipped acts of kindness from strangers along the route.

“I feel like I got to experience the best part of humanity. Nobody was out there doing anything negative,’’ Kendra said. “People were driving by at one point and this woman was like, ‘Do you want my gloves, do you want some Gatorade?’ People that I don’t know but who could figure out what was happening were just stopping to offer to help in any way.’’