Marathon team prepares for 26.2-mile challenge

For the second year in a row, Tufts President Lawrence S. Bacow has organized a team of Tufts students, faculty, staff, alumni and friends to run the Boston Marathon and raise funds to support fitness, nutrition and medical research at Tufts.

More than 200 Tufts runners—from first-timers to experienced marathoners—will tackle the 26.2-mile course from Hopkinton to Boston on April 19, with the goal of raising more than $500,000. The team has been running together since last fall, and for the past three months, has participated in a series of training and seminar programs taught by Tufts experts and led by Miriam Nelson, director of the John Hancock Center for Physical Fitness and associate professor at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. The series includes programs on basic nutrition, stretching and flexibility, mental preparation and final preparation.

Besides Bacow, the team includes his son, Ken, Nelson, William Oliver, professor and chair of physics, and Peter Walker, director of the Feinstein International Famine Center.

For more information about the Marathon Challenge, go to http://marathon.president.tufts.edu/home or contact Chris Grugan at christopher.grugan@tufts.edu or Eric Johnson at eric.johnson @tufts.edu.