Sarah Bohan Rescues a Kitten while running the 2023 Chicago Marathon.Photo:PAWS Chicago
PAWS Chicago
A marathon runner’s race turned into a rescue mission.
While running theChicago Marathonon Sunday, Boston resident Sarah Bohan found herself focusing on fluff instead of speed when she saw an abandoned kitten along the sidelines of the race.
The 26-year-old was nearing mile 21 when she spotted a “white fluffy thing” on the sidewalk, the Boston Children’s Hospital social worker tells PEOPLE.
“It had to have been one pound, the fur was matted, it had marks underneath its eyes from not being well kept, and it was just crying,” she recalls, adding that nobody else seemed to notice the little creature. “I turned around and scooped up the cat.”
Marathon runner Sarah Bohan finds new home for kitten she saved during Chicago race.PAWS Chicago
Despite being on track to achieve her personal record pace, Bohan says she didn’t think twice about slowing down to save the kitten.
“I didn’t care about my time, this was my sole focus, and that just shifted my race entirely for the better,” she continues, saying that fellow runner Gia Nigro saw her pick up the kitten and joined in on the rescue mission. The pair walked along the sidelines of the race after taking in the feline.
“I wasn’t going to run with this cat; that would injure it,” she explains. As she and Nigro walked the race, they asked spectators if any of them would take the cat. After a mile of inquiring with people on the sidelines, two cat moms watching the race stepped up and said, “We will take this cat.”
After the kitten was in safe hands, Bohan and Nigro finished the race together, even stopping to help a woman who had fallen. The three marathon runners crossed the finish line together. While she did not beat her personal best, Bohan still finished the race with a time of 3:31:35, about 19 minutes off from her personal best.
Serendipitously, the Connecticut native was one of 482 people running forPaws Chicago, a no-kill shelter located in the Midwest city. She ran with the shelter’s team because she didn’t get into the race with last year’s lottery, as she had never run a marathon before this year. Despite the all-too-perfect connection, Bohan promises that finding the kitten was pure coincidence.
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“I recognize the irony of this entire story, where there are people who are probably skeptical, ‘She’s running for Team Paws, and now she’s saving a cat,'” the cat mom of two says, admitting that had no spectators taken the kitten then she would have left the race and focused on the animal.
“I would have dropped out of the race and brought it to a vet because it’s what you do when you have a pet in need,” she says. “The obligation of human compassion just kind of kicks in instinctually, and I didn’t care about the race at that point. I was just like, ‘This cat needs someone, and I might have to be that person. And I’m okay with that because that’s my responsibility.'”
source: people.com
