‘Tears of Joy’: Harvard Students Race For Charity in 129th Boston Marathon

As Paton D. Roberts ’25 ran past mile 11 along the Boston Marathon Route on Monday, she was greeted enthusiastically by multiple friends cheering, hollering and holding huge signs of her face.

“It was huge because I knew they’d been kind of plotting and making signs, but I didn’t know exactly what was gonna happen,” Roberts said. “But they had custom T-shirts that said ‘Run Paton Run’ with a picture from one of my training runs on it.”

“It meant so much,” she added. “I’ve never felt so surrounded by so much love.”

Roberts was one of several Harvard students who participated in the 129th edition of the Boston Marathon — joining more than 30,000 people hailing from across the globe to race in the world’s oldest annual marathon.

Starting in the town of Hopkinton, Mass., the runners passed through 26.2 miles of rolling hills and iconic city landmarks like Fenway Park, the famous “right on Hereford, left on Boylston,” before finishing in Copley Square.

“I cried multiple times because I just felt so supported by people and so cheered on,” Thor N. Reimann ’25 said. “Seeing people from the broader Harvard community come out and support really meant everything.”

“I think I cried tears of joy, like, five different times,” Roberts, a former Crimson News editor, said.

To participate in the marathon, applicants had to either meet a qualification standard or partner with a non-profit through the official Boston Marathon charity program. Most charities required their runners to raise at least $10,000 each for entry into the race.

Reimann ran for the Cathleen Stone Island Outward Bound School — an organization dedicated to enriching young people with outdoor scientific education.

“It has been really nice to feel like I'm giving back to the broader Boston community through fundraising.” Reimann said.

Justin R. Shaw ’27 joined the Dana-Farber Marathon Challenge team to raise money for cancer research.

“I thought about the strength of all my inspiring teammates who battled, or are still battling, cancer themselves and the many Jimmy Fund patients,” he wrote in a statement.

Through the Harvard College Marathon Challenge, Zachary G. Buller ’25, a former Crimson Editorial editor, raised $3,000 for the Phillips Brooks House Association. Buller organized group runs through the Marathon Challenge twice a week during his training as part of his preparation.

“I was proud of myself that I persevered and pushed through in the last two, three miles,” he said. “That was really emotional for me.”

After months of preparation, actually completing the course himself was “really something special,” Buller added.

Reimann said completing the marathon was “probably the coolest thing I've ever done, hands down.”

Roberts raised money for Boston Scores, a charity she volunteered for weekly that provides free soccer lessons for public school students.

She said that it was support from family, friends, and even strangers that propelled her across the finish line.

“Everyone has incredible signs, and there’s cheering,” Roberts said. “I took my AirPods out for the last mile because I knew I wanted to hear everything and really soak it in and remember it all.”

“It genuinely was like nothing I’d ever heard before — the noise was deafening,” she added.

Shaw wrote that the crowds in the Wellesley Scream Tunnel and in the final mile in Boston “were absolutely amazing.”

“People were singing Sweet Caroline, cheering my name which was written on my singlet, and just encouraging all runners,” he said.

The most difficult stretch of the marathon are the four Newton hills located between the 20th and 21st miles of the race. The last of the humps, notoriously known as Heartbreak Hill, is half a mile long and sits on a 3.3 percent incline.

Despite the daunting challenge, the runners remained undeterred.

“I’d run Heartbreak Hill a lot of times, and so I knew when the day came I could rely on that foundation that I built,” Roberts said. “But it was still, you know, heartbreaking.”

For the senior runners, who will graduate from the college in a month, the marathon served as a final goodbye to the city.

“It was like a huge farewell to Boston, the city I’ve spent the last four years in and really grown to love,” Roberts said.

Reimann said that despite his training, it was still “a big mental push during the day.”

“To cross that finish line — regardless of time, regardless of when you kind of stopped to take a walk, or when you had to slow down — you finished,” he said.

“That’s something you have in common with 30,000 other people in Boston, and that is just such an incredible and moving feeling,” Reimann added.