Hospitalist Running Boston to Honor COVID Victims
Dr. Marcial Santos, a hospitalist at Cape Cod Hospital and Liberty Commons physician, will be running the 126th Boston Marathon on April 18 in honor of patients who passed away because of COVID-19.
Santos, who has been working on the frontlines of COVID for the past two years, decided to train for the marathon to honor patients who don’t have a chance to breathe fresh air anymore. He is raising money for the Esplanade Association in Boston, a nonprofit organization that works to revitalize and enhance the Charles River Esplanade. The minimum fundraising requirement is $11,000.
For the past several years, Santos says running has helped him handle the stresses of his job. “Now it feels more critical to run as a celebration of life, to know my lungs are strong and my body is powerful,” he wrote on his fundraising page.
The Cape resident says he has been training on his own because of his uneven work schedule. Santos says he laces up in Hyannis during the week for his shorter training runs and pounds the pavement along the Cape Canal or Cape Cod Rail Trail on the Mid-Cape for his longer runs.
“I work out when my work allows me to,” says Santos, who ran the Chicago Marathon in 2019. “It could be anytime of the day, and for that reason, it is hard to run with a group. Besides, I am a slow runner and try to implement a run/walk routine to make it pleasant.”
We wish Dr. Santos and all of the runners the very best on Marathon Monday!
Are you a CCHC employee running the Boston Marathon? We’d love to share your photos in a future edition of The Pulse. Please send your photos and marathon stories to pulse@capecodhealth.org
