Trish Ratcliffe felt like she was pulling herself along with her arms, and her legs couldn’t help but follow.

She was nearing the last stretch of the Boston Marathon – 42.2 kilometres in total – and desperately wanted it to be over. Then she thought of Ross and how he had given so much of his time to others.

“You don’t feel so good,” she told herself. “Imagine how he felt. He felt so awful, so much of the time, but yet he was so selfless.”

Ross, Trish’s husband of 24 years, had died less than two years earlier from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Running had become her salvation, an escape from the burdens of work, family duties and a disease that had progressed slowly but then loudly proclaimed its presence.

Ross was diagnosed with the condition in 1991 at the age of 39, when he was being operated on for what was thought to be appendicitis. Instead, a tumour was found in his colon.

The couple’s sons – Jesse and Christian – were ages nine and 11 at the time.

The disease didn’t begin taking its toll until 1999. Ross, always a go-getter who coached his sons’ hockey teams and took them to baseball, needed frequent naps.

He was often weak, but he kept showing up for work as a scheduler at a paper box company. He was adamant that things go on as normal.

Ross and Trish had been avid mountain bikers with a regular group. When he could no longer ride, Trish didn’t feel right going without him.

Ross encouraged her to join a running group that his boss, Dave Skinner, had formed.

Trish was hesitant. She had never been much of an athlete. She was the kid who would let somebody else run for the ball during a gym-class basketball game. She preferred to read a book.

But she was yearning for some social connections, so she showed up for one of the Sunday morning runs. It was a winter day, and she sported hiking boots.

Dave later handed her a pair of his old Saucony running shoes. They were a size or two too big, but Trish wore them anyway.

She kept showing up every Sunday, not for the exercise but for the company. They bonded over coffee. It was a place Trish, 46 at the time, could share her worries without feeling like she was burdening anyone.

They invited her to join a group marathon, an event in which a team of four each ran 10 kilometres. Trish dutifully ran her stretch, but was perplexed when she got to the meeting point for the next runner and couldn’t find anyone from her team.

They showed up a few minutes later.

“We had no idea you’d finish your section so fast,” one of them said.

Ross was proud of her accomplishment. It was the only one of Trish’s races that he was around for. He died at home two months later – on July 5, 2001 at the age of 49.

Trish coped with the grief by keeping herself busy, accepting whatever social invitations came her way and working as a library technician. But it was tough to go home to the emptiness.

She needed a focus. She told Dave that she wanted to run a marathon. He passed on one of his running books, which included a marathon training program.

Trish followed it religiously, training six days a week. The sound of her feet on the pavement and the rhythm of her breathing were meditative.

She tested her abilities with a half-marathon that winter before taking on the bigger challenge – the Toronto International Marathon – in October 2002.

Trish didn’t tell anybody that before the marathon she had researched what time she would need to qualify for one of the most prestigious events of its kind – the Boston Marathon.

The Toronto run was grueling, but Trish was elated as she crossed the finish line with a time of 3:41 – fast enough to qualify for Boston.

Soon after, she visited a childhood friend on Vancouver Island. The woman’s brother, Phil Davies, was visiting from Abbotsford. Trish and Phil had an instant rapport. He too, was an avid runner. They kept in touch, and he encouraged her to take on Boston.

Trish took a leave of absence from her job, and moved to Abbotsford to be with Phil in November 2002. Then, she focused on Boston. By April 2003, she was ready for race day. Phil and both of her sons were there to cheer her on.

At the start line, Trish was so excited that she was almost hyperventilating. She was overwhelmed at the crowds of spectators, five rows deep on either side of the road.

She felt a deep sense of pride – that she was now an athlete.

She got through each mile thinking about the people in her life. She thought a lot about Ross and all that he had endured.

It got her through to the finish line. She cried as a volunteer approached her and wrapped her in a space blanket. Phil and her sons soon joined her.

Her time was longer than she had hoped – around the four-hour mark – but it didn’t matter. She had done it. She had run the Boston Marathon.

She knew Ross would be proud.

* * * *

Trish has continued to run over the years, and has completed numerous half and full marathons, mostly to raise money for other causes, including through the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society’s Team in Training program (see teamintraining.org.). She also serves as a mentor for the program, and helps others train.

Her son, Christian, 29, is the society’s campaign manager in B.C. Her other son, Jesse, 27, is an architect.

Trish and Phil were married in two ceremonies in 2007 – on Nov. 9 in Maui and Dec. 22 back home.

On a recent trip to Ontario, Trish told Phil she was going to take a break from running.

It didn’t happen. She brought her running shoes along.

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