LEOMINSTER — It’s only a matter of days now until city resident Kacey Morin will once again be running the Boston Marathon, this time for a cause near and dear to her heart.
The 34-year-old is pounding the pavement on April 20 raising funds for Runway for Recovery, a Newburyport-based nonprofit whose mission is to provide families with a continuum of support along their journeys with breast cancer.
“I specifically applied to run this year for Runway for Recovery because it is an amazing organization that provides support and funding for families either navigating a breast cancer diagnosis or families who have lost someone to breast cancer,” Morin said. “We lost my fiancé’s mom in February of 2025 to breast cancer. We are getting married this summer and I wanted to do something to honor Cheryl as we are really missing her and feeling the void of not having her here for our wedding planning and celebrations.”
As of press time the first-grade teacher has surpassed her fundraising goal, with just over $14,600 in generous donations gathered so far and more coming in each day. Morin said she greatly appreciates all the people backing her efforts by visiting givengain.com/project/kacey-raising-funds-for-runway-for-recovery-inc-112575 and in tangible ways, including her tight knit family, circle of friends, and the strangers who have opened their hearts and wallets.
“I would not be able to do this without the people around me and their love and support. I have the most incredible family and friends who are my support team,” the avid runner expressed. “My mom and fiancé follow me on my long runs to make sure I have water, fuel, and stay safe. I have family members and friends who call and text to check in on how training is going and beep and wave when they see me running all over the Leominster and Fitchburg area on my long runs. Anyone who has donated or donates to my fundraising page will be providing support for amazing families who need it, and you can check out runwayforrecovery.org for videos and more specific information on where your donations are going and the good you are doing.”
Morin was raised in Leominster and attended St. Leo School through 8th grade and then St. Bernard’s High School in Fitchburg. She graduated from Springfield College in 2013 magna cum laude with a degree in early childhood education and psychology and then earned a master’s in special education from Fitchburg State University.
She lives in the city with her fiancé Akhiel Willis and their two black lab mix rescues, Mowgli and Baloo, and has been teaching first grade at Frances Drake Elementary School for 11 years. Thinking back to her childhood Morin said when she was growing up, she was “always involved with sports.”
“I played soccer, basketball, field hockey, lacrosse, ran track, cheerleading, and tried dance, figure skating, and gymnastics,” she said. “My mom has always been a big runner and athlete, and my dad was also an athlete, so my brother and I grew up running a lot. We did family 5Ks and then I got more invested in running after college.”
Morin is literally following in her mom’s footsteps. Her mom qualified for the Boston Marathon twice in the 90s and Morin said she is her “running inspiration.”
“My mom ran my first half marathon with me in 2013, and I have been hooked since,” she shared.
This will be Morin’s fifth marathon, having run the Boston Marathon before as well as the Providence Marathon in Rhode Island and Baystate Marathon in Lowell. In addition, she has completed Stu’s 30 Road Race in Clinton and done “countless” half marathons, 5Ks, and 10Ks.
When asked how training has been going, especially in light of the extremely cold temps and high snowfall over the winter, Morin relayed that “marathon training is not for the weak!”
“This winter has been particularly challenging, but New Englanders are used to preparing for the worst and expecting the best. There have been a lot of headlamp runs and lots of people yelling at me to get onto nonexistent sidewalks in the snow, ice, and rain, but we are getting there. Marathon training is way more mental for me than physical. My dad always says ‘the mind quits long before the body.’ I try to keep positive mantras in my head for the moments of weakness and just keep moving forward.”
There’s one person always on Morin’s mind every time she is running – Cheryl.
“Not only would she have loved the organization Runway for Recovery and what they are all about, but she was a fierce woman,” Morin said of her beloved late mother-in-law who is missed by many.
She went on to say that she is “so proud to be a part of the Runway team.”
“Thirty people applied to run on the team, and I was chosen with three other amazing runners to represent this incredible organization,” Morin imparted. “Two of my teammates are breast cancer survivors and one is running in memory of his mom who he lost to breast cancer 10 years ago. I have a close connection to a family who is funded by Runway, and I have seen how wonderful the funding can be for the families that are directly impacted by the fundraising and donations.”
She mentioned two of her friends who are also running the Boston Marathon “for amazing causes” – Amanda for her daughter Mazi and Boston Children’s Hospital and Zach for his mom and Mass Eye and Ear.
“Also, a huge shoutout to Siobhan Donovan, who is battling breast cancer currently and running the Boston Marathon,” Morin said of the fellow educator who teaches at Memorial Middle School in Fitchburg. “She is a mom of three, a teacher, and an inspirational person in so many ways.”
Her entire immediate family and other members of her fan club will be there at the marathon, the people who have seen her through thick and thin.
“I cry just thinking of seeing them when I finish,” Morin revealed, adding that she has “countless family members and friends who have told me the different spots they plan to be stationed to cheer me on and I cannot wait to see them.”
In addition, there will be many friends and family tracking her marathon in live time on the Boston Athletic Association app.
“I have the best team behind me,” Morin said.
She is really looking forward to Marathon Monday and the incredible, positive energy that blankets the city, a unique feeling she is familiar with that never gets old.
“There is nothing in the world like the feeling of running the Boston Marathon and there is no way to accurately describe the feeling of running [it],” Morin said. “It may be one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but it is also so rewarding. When you feel like you need to walk or stop strangers will cheer you on, yell your name, and tell you to keep going.
“From Hopkinton to the scream tunnel in Wellesley to the Newton hills and Heartbreak Hill, getting into Boston that right on Hereford and left on Boylston is legendary. In 2019 I cried the entire way down Boylston to the finish, and I get chills just thinking about being able to do that again in a couple of weeks. I’ll have Cheryl with me the whole way and family and friends cheering for me on the course, at home, and finally at the finish.”
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