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While most Boston Marathon runners are making their way to Hopkinton, Dr. Kathryn Zioto runs there. The Calumet Road psychiatrist has been running the “Boston Double,” an ultra-marathon for several years.
Zioto says she first started running when she was at Tufts University School of Medicine.
“I needed a free activity, so I started and continued when I was a medical resident in Pennsylvania. Originally, I wasn’t a runner,” she says. “I was a figure skater.”
But then she got too busy to run until her father became ill.
“Watching him decline, it gave me an appreciation for if your body works, you really want to use it,” she says. “I just love it, and the ultra-marathon community is a wonderful group of people.”
As if regular long-distance running isn’t enough, Zioto does trail running, too, often in the Middlesex Fells and she points out there’ll be a trail race at Wright-Locke Farm in November.
She visited a friend in Oregon and on the flight a passenger needed CPR.
“Alaska Airlines have me a pass good for a year,” she says. “I really wanted to race so I went back to Oregon because the only thing that worked was a trail run on Orca’s Island.
“It was like a karma thing,” she adds. “I loved it more than road running.”
Zioto ran 200 miles in the Pacific Northwest, and she’s run in Europe, including a race in Berlin.
“The first day we do in-line skating, and the second day we run,” she explains.
Zioto and her husband Fred Borges both run the Boston Marathon, and they start in different waves, in Hopkinton.
“I belong to the Trail Animals Running Club and this year, the Mount to Coast shoe company gave the TARC runners shoes,” she says. “They supported us on the way to Hopkinton from a van, and rented a house there where we could shower and eat breakfast before the marathon started.
“The shoes were so comfortable, for the first time, I kept them on after the race was over,” she adds.
“We raised more than $20,000 for Stepping Stone, an organization that prepares Boston kids to attend college,” she continues. “We didn’t have to fundraise, but we wanted to get a bib for one of the organization’s people.”
Zioto points out at there are other Winchester marathon runners.
“It’s so special to share with them,” she says. “They’re so open to what the day will bring.”
Winchester resident Joyce Westner is one of the founders of Winchester News. She holds a degree in English and journalism from Northeastern University.
