Yorkville resident Kerry Stillmunkes completes Boston Marathon

Although her father, Don Duffy, was the Yorkville cross country and track coach while she was a student, Kerry (Duffy) Stillmunkes only ran one season of cross country.

"Running was just always my form of exercise," Stillmunkes said. "When I was in high school, my dad was the cross country coach and helped coach track. But miles were always intimidating."

On April 18, the Yorkville resident completed her first Boston Marathon with a time of 4 hours, 4 minutes and 14 seconds – good enough for an average pace of 9:19 per mile through the 26.2-mile course. This is the 50th anniversary of the first woman to run Boston.

"You spend so much time preparing for it, and then it's over so quickly," Stillmunkes said. "The hardest part has been the last couple weeks trying to get back into your normal routine. You have to give your body time to recover. My normal outlet of running hasn't really been available to me."

This was her fifth marathon, running her first in Schaumburg in May 2013, and has completed three Chicago Marathons. Stillmunkes' 2014 Chicago finish qualified her for this spring's Boston event, and her 2015 finish this past fall has already qualified Stillmunkes to run in the 2017 Boston Marathon – if she decides to give it another try. (The Chicago Marathon's October date misses the qualifying deadline for the Boston race six months later, becoming a qualifier for the race 18 months ahead of time.)

"It's the hardest thing I've ever done. I enjoyed Boston so much more after I ran," Stillmunkes said. "I definitely understand why you have to qualify to be there because it was so much more challenging. You start later in the day – I think I finally started around 11 a.m. – and the course itself is rolling hills. It's really hard to find that kind of training here."

Stillmunkes, who was a member of Yorkville's 1992 state championship 4x800-meter relay team, went back to her alma mater and asked to borrow a Yorkville jersey to represent her hometown as well as one of the top running programs in the Midwest to wear during her race last month.

"I love the running program at Yorkville. They've really turned that program into something – they've just had so much success," Stillmunkes said. "It was neat to be able to wear that jersey while I was there."

"I thought it would be really cool to represent my hometown where it all kind of started, at the Boston Marathon. It's a huge honor to be able to go, and it's a milestone in a marathon runner's life."

The mother of three – Jack, Cal and Avery – will now turn her attention to shorter local races, and has plans to run a half marathon this year.

"Running is a lifelong thing and here I am, almost 40-years old, 20-plus years later and not only do I still feel a connection to my high school days of running, but I'm still able to go out and participate, which is just a cool thing," Stillmunkes said.