WESTBOROUGH – While thousands participated in the 128th Boston Marathon, the 2nd Willows Marathon concluded in Westborough.
On April 15, dozens of residents at The Willows at Westborough, a SALMON Health and Retirement facility, gathered outside to celebrate the end of the senior-living facility’s monthlong initiative to get residents moving. Residents added up their movement over the last four weeks, culminating in an awards ceremony on Marathon Monday.
This was The Willow’s second annual event, but this year’s celebration was “bigger and better,” according to SALMON Health and Fitness Director Kerry Paulhus, who organized the event.
“This is a community. Everyone put this together. It was my idea, yes, but I couldn’t have done this by myself. The thing I noticed with the residents is they were kind of competing with each other for fun, but they were cheering each other on. Today, I really wanted them to feel like they were all together as a community. For themselves and for each other,” she told the Community Advocate.
The event started with a “victory lap.” The participants took a lap around the courtyard to celebrate their achievements; the lap ended under a blue-and-yellow balloon arch, and medals were passed out to the racers. Some of the participants tallied over 100 miles in the event, with most eclipsing the 26.2-mile marathon mark.
“It makes me really proud because that’s why I do what I do. I really want to make sure that I am encouraging people – motivating people – to see that health and fitness are so important. To see that they reacted this way and really were motivated – it meant so much to me,” said Paulhus.
