Newtown’s Bobkowski To Run Boston Marathon

By Andy Hutchison

Newtown’s Marissa Bobkowski has been training hard to prepare for a pretty big run — the 115th Annual Boston Marathon — on April 18.

Bobkowski, a 2008 Newtown High School graduate and student at Northeastern University, is raising money for Cops For Kids With Cancer. Bobkowski, who has never run a marathon before, chose to run for this organization, in part, because her father Thomas Bobkowski is a retired police officer in Monroe and her grandmother has been diagnosed with cancer. She needs to raise $3,500 to run the marathon and welcomes donations of any amount. Her donation page is www.firstgiving.com/marissabobkowski.

She enjoyed running cross country and track under the guidance of Newtown High Coach Doug Russell before she graduated. She kept up with running. “I just really enjoy running. It clears my mind. If I’m really stressed I go on a run,” she said.

The idea of running a grueling 26.2 miles in a marathon seems logical to Bobkowski simply since it’s possible to accomplish the feat and so few do it. “The fact you can do it is, I guess, what pushes me to run,” she said.

Bobkowski has been training mostly by herself, but also with her boyfriend, Mark Granizi. Catie Schadlick is a friend who told her about the charity and she has prepared with Lauren Remmes, a running buddy/mentor whom she met through Schadlick. The Cops For Kids With Cancer organization is run by Remmes’s great uncle, Bob Faherty, who is former superintendent-in-chief of the Boston Police Department.

The Newtown native, who has been building up her endurance with longer runs each week since Christmas, got a taste for the marathon with an organized final long run, a 22-miler, on March 27. “The course was really hilly but it was nice to try it out. People were on the sides giving water so it was pretty nice,” she said. Runners will taper down their runs slightly to prepare for the marathon, Bobkowski said.

Bobkowski is a music industry major at Northeastern and is participating in her school’s co-op program this semester. She works for the website ourstage.com and for a nonprofit concert promoter, World Music/ CRASHArts ,to learn more about the field and get some hands-on experience.

The Cops For Kids With Cancer organization is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization, and all the money raised goes to children with cancer.

Bobkowski said the money currently goes to the Pediatric Oncology Units of the Massachusetts General Hospital and the floating Hospital for Children at the New England Medical Center. The money is to be used just for the children and for what they may need while they are patients or in outpatient treatment.

For more information, visit www.copsforkidswithcancer.org/html/about.htm.