Cradles to Crayons and sprints to marathons

Competing in the 2019 Boston Marathon wasn’t on Kat Vicino’s radar when she was running track and cross country nearly a decade ago at Old Rochester Regional High School.

The Mattapoisett native was a standout 200 runner who reached the All-State meet before she found success with the cross country team and was named the 2008 Standard-Times Cross Country Girls Athlete of the Year in the fall of her junior year.

“I never expected to run a marathon,” said Vicino, a 2010 ORR graduate. “I never focused on distance running in high school. My focus in high school and college was the 200. This was the next step for me in my life goals.”

After running at Lesley University, where she received her undergraduate degree in business management and is currently studying management in grad school, Vicino found road races as an outlet.

“I like how it makes me feel, especially after it,” said Vicino, who works as a fitness director at Healthworks Fitness Center in Cambridge. “It makes me feel strong and being able to do the things I can. It makes me feel independent. It’s a good way to cope.”

Vicino has run several shorter races — 5ks, 10ks and half-marathons — so she jumped at the opportunity to run the Boston Marathon when it presented itself, especially with being able to help raise money for Cradles to Crayons, a non-profit that supplies the children of Massachusetts living in poverty with the essentials they need.

“I did volunteer work with them when I was in college and I feel like it’s a good cause,” said Vicino, who recently reached her goal of raising $10,000. “I was definitely worried at first; I never tried to raise this much before, but I just hit my goal. But obviously the more money raised the better.”

Vicino said that just $33 provides a complete package for a child in need.

“I feel like the money raised will go a long way,” she said. “It’s a lot money so it’s helping a lot of kids.”

Vicino is hoping to make the most of her opportunity at the marathon by running a qualifying time of 3:30 (8:01 pace per mile) for next year’s event.

“I definitely want to try to qualify for next year’s at this one,” the 26-year-old Allston resident said, adding that she’s a member of The Heartbreakers running club in Boston. “I feel like the main difference I made with my training is the long runs. Also I’ve been doing a lot of training on Heartbreak Hill so that will be helpful because that will be the more challenging part.”

Vicino said that part of her training with The Heartbreakers involves running different parts of the marathon route.

“They have all these Boston runners so the goal is to get familiar with the course,” she said. “It’s going to be exciting.”

There is still time to donate to Cradles to Crayons since the deadline isn’t until May 17.

Donations can be made by visiting https://www.crowdrise.com/o/en/campaign/c2c-boston-2019/katvicino1 or by sending a check to Cradles to Crayons; Attn: Derek McVay, Boston Marathon 2019; 155 North Beacon Street, Brighton, MA 02135 and mentioning Kat Vicino in the check’s memo line.

Follow Laurie Los Lee on Twitter @LaurieLosSCT.