On April 21, Tory Wight, 48, of New Ipswich will be standing at the start line for her latest marathon, wearing the bib number 28,322 – a symbol of just how big a race she is about to run: the Boston Marathon.

Wight said she got her first experience running on the high school track team, but let it fall to the wayside as a young adult. She was in her mid-30s when she decided to pick it up again, by training for a “Run for Your Lives” zombie-themed 5K obstacle course. She looked up a “couch potato to 5K” training plan online, and the rest, she said, was history.

“In the running world, they say a 5K is a gateway drug. Once you do the 5K, you want to do the 10K, then the half-marathon, then a marathon,” Wight said.

She said since she started running again, she has become a serious runner, participating in races throughout the year, joining a local running club and going for the marathon.

“I’ve always loved the way it makes you feel,” Wight said of running. “It’s the closest you can get to flying without a plane. And there definitely is such a thing as a runner’s high. And there’s a camaraderie – when you go to races, you meet people with the same wavelength, with one thing in common.”

Half-marathons are one of her favorite events, and she has even taken on a challenge to run a half-marathon in all 50 states, having already completed races in California, Massachusetts and Arizona in addition to New Hampshire, with plans for races later this year in Vermont, Maine, Rhode Island and Michigan. But she also has a few marathons under her belt; while this will be her first Boston Marathon, she has completed five, with her first being the Manchester Marathon in 2017.

“I was just looking to finish,” Wight said of her first marathon. “By mile 17, when I really thought I was going to die, I was thinking, ‘Why do I do this?’ But when you get to the finish, and see the support, and realize what you’ve accomplished, it makes it all worth it.”

As the race approaches, Wight is in her tapering period of training, scaling down from her 20-mile-in-a-day peak, in order to recover enough for the actual race. She’s hoping for a time of 4 hours and 34 minutes, which she said is in line with other courses she has run with similar hilly terrain to the Boston Marathon. But, she said she’ll mostly just be happy to get to experience one of the races considered in the Abbott World Marathon Majors, the championship series of marathons.

“I am super excited, but also very anxious. I know that when I get there, and am waiting for my wave to start, I’m going to have a million butterflies,” Wight said. “I know just finishing is going to feel amazing.”

Wight said she plans to make the run without music, in order to take it in, and plans to just take it in and enjoy the experience. She said the strategy has gotten her some of her personal best times in the past.

Ashley Saari can be reached at 603-924-7172, Ext. 244, or asaari@ledgertranscript.com. She’s on X @AshleySaariMLT.