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After winning an international week-long marathon earlier this year, Deirdre Keane still says that her favorite city to run in is Boston for many reasons.
“I am a massive Boston fan. I think it's the most beautiful city,” she said in an interview with Daily Voice. “You have so many different types of...views of the city and wonderful running routes that you don't really get in many metropolitans.”
Keane, who went to nursing school at Northeastern University, wanted to run a marathon to honor her father John, who died from Melanoma in 2003 when Keane was 13.
Keane used to start her runs on Northeastern’s campus, go down Huntington or Massachusetts Avenue, cross into Cambridge over the Charles River and loop back. It was during this time that Keane developed a true passion for running.
"I had a certain level of fitness when I started running, but it was really just pushing to the goal of trying to do one marathon," she said. "I thought I would absolutely fall apart after doing it and that would be the first and only, but it turns out that I found this love for running in the process."
That love would push Keane to complete the World Marathon Challenge – a 183.4-mile race that took place in seven cities across all seven continents in seven days. The marathon began in Novo, Antarctica on January 31 and ended in Miami, FL, on February 6.
Keane, who won the marathon with an impressive 26-minute lead, said the victory served as a “confidence booster” to all areas of her life including her recent career change.
However, winning the race truly helped the runner dig into her "spiritual side" as she would often think of her father to help her get through the times she thought about giving up.
“You start reaching to areas outside of yourself and for me that was my spirituality, like talking to my dad,” Keane said. “I feel like he's around more during those tougher times when I'm pushing myself, particularly when I'm running.”
Keane also rose $18,000 for Vibrant Emotional Health – a nonprofit organization in New York City that offers free mental health programs to people in need – ahead of the race. She will also have a partnership with the organization in the future.
Meanwhile, Keane's upcoming races include the Bryce Canyon Ultra in Utah and the Eiger Ultra Trail in the Swiss Alps. Keane will also be back in Boston to run her ninth Boston Marathon on Monday, April 17. Not only does the race bring her back to her college days, but Keane also said the event serves as a “nice reminder” to everything she has accomplished in her career.
“Every Marathon Monday, we had the day off, so we would go out there cheering on the elite runners and I used to think like, ‘I could never do this. This will never be me,’” she said. “So, every time when I show up, I'm like, ‘I can't believe how far I've come.’”
No matter which continent she runs on or which city streets she weaves through, Keane knows that her family, especially her father, are always cheering her on.
"They know I can push myself to the extreme," she said. “If I didn't have their emotional support and their love, I wouldn't be able to give my everything to running."
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