CHARLTON, Mass. - Karen Henry is excited to join the thousands of runners who will be running the Boston Marathon on Monday.

What You Need To Know

  • The 128th Boston Marathon will be Karen Henry's first time running the historic Boston race, but her ninth marathon since 2016

  • She's running for Cops for Kids with Cancer which has given more than $5 million to 1,000 families with children battling cancer, according to their website

  • Henry is a member of Central Mass Striders, a non-profit organization based in Worcester dedicated to the sport of long-distance running

"Everyone talks about marathons, different marathons," Henry said. "But if you're here in Massachusetts, people say, ‘the marathon’ and we all know what ‘the marathon’ is, which ‘the marathon’ is Boston. So, I'm excited to finally run the Boston Marathon."

This will be Henry’s first time running the Boston Marathon. She’s run eight marathons since 2016 and qualified for Boston at the 2022 Chicago Marathon, but ended up having to raise funds due to "cut off times."

Henry is a civilian employee of the Massachusetts State Police and is raising money for Cops for Kids with Cancer.

As much as she’s looking forward to the 26.2-mile run into Boston, with a sunny forecast on Monday, Henry said the possible heat could become a factor.

"I'm a little anxious about the weather. My roughest marathon today was 70 degrees at the start," Henry said. "And so, this is giving me a little bit of reflection of what that was like, which was really tough. But I think the fact that I'm planning to go out there and enjoy the day. Hopefully I'll be in the right mindset to just take it easy and not try to push through the weather, which I know you can't fight the weather, so I'm not going to do I'm just going to prep as much as I can and enjoy the day."

Cops for Kids with Cancer provides $5,000 to five families every month to support expenses beyond medical bills. Henry said thanks to her family, friends and community, she raised the minimum fundraising goal of $1,300 in less than 12 hours. She’s now exceeded her personal goal of $5,000 and has raised about $5,500.