Erin Connolly
A local college student is turning tragedy into triumph.
Caitlin Eaton-Robb is set to run the Boston Marathon in just a few days, but it’s her personal struggles and commitment to help others that will no doubt set her apart from the rest of the pack.
Boston will be her fourth marathon, and while she eventually hopes to complete a 26.2-mile race in every state, it’s about much more than that.
She wants to make a difference and prove adversity just makes you stronger.
When the Sandy Hook massacre happened, Eaton-Robb was in high school in Columbia.
Her father Pat, the Associated Press reporter for Connecticut was busy sharing the heartbreaking story.
”My dad would have to drive out to Newtown and do reporting and come back. It was a really hard time in Newtown for everyone the families but everyone affected by it,” she said.
That’s just one of the reasons the UConn engineering student decided to run the Boston Marathon in honor of the CMAK Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to Chase Michael Anthony Kowalski.
“He was one of the victims of Sandy Hook when he was only 7 years old,” Eaton-Robb said.
The road to run a marathon for charity has not been an easy one for Eaton-Robb.
That’s because when she was just 9 years old, she was diagnosed with a brain malformation causing pockets of fluid to sit on her spinal cord.
“I had four surgeries between the ages of 10 and 15 and it was hard to go through that but I was able to recover really quickly,” she said.
Inspired by the Boston Marathon bombing and the tragedy at Sandy Hook, Eaton-Robb is ready for race day and all that lies ahead.
“I think it’s a dream for almost every runner to run Boston and to go run Boston for a good charity is a pretty good way to do it,” she said.
In Boston, they’re getting ready for Eaton-Robb and the thousands of other runners.
The marathon start line was painted on Wednesday, just a couple days ahead of the race on Monday.
