WESTBOROUGH – In the spirit of the 127th Boston Marathon, the residents of The Willows at Westborough have been doing their own marathon.
On March 24, the seniors kicked off their event with a presentation on the history of the Boston Marathon, fun facts and ways that the residents at the Willows could participate and add up their miles to make it to the finish line themselves.
The seniors used the walking path around the Willows, the entire campus, and the floors of the building to log their miles.
Kerry Paulhus, the director of health and fitness at The Willows, gave a half mile for each group class a resident took, and for each resident who worked out with her in the gym for the supervised exercise program. Paulhus had a huge map of the marathon made and would move their names on the map each week after they handed in their logged miles.
“It has been so fun and exciting to have them see what they are actually already doing on a weekly basis,” said Paulhus. “That is really what this was all about, not a race to see who would win, but rather tracking their weekly activities to see what they actually do to help give them purpose to what they do.”
On Marathon Monday April 17 at 10 a.m., they had their closing event, showing the marathon live on a projector in the community room, serving healthy snacks and giving out metals with their names and how many miles they did.
In all, 40 residents participated. For more information on The Willows, visit https://salmonhealth.com/community/senior-independent-living-westborough/#tab-overviewutm_source=gmb&utm_medium=Yext
