Gustafson siblings take on Boston Marathon once again

Ben and Kate Gustafson have been running marathons for more than 15 years, and on April 15, they completed the Boston Marathon together for the second time.

The brother-sister duo hasn’t always had the opportunity to run together, with Kate now living in the U.S., but they first ran the marathon together in 2016.

This time around, Ben was coming off a break from running, due in part to COVID-19 and his move back to Kenora from Toronto, when he ran a qualifying time at the Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota, and decided to go the extra mile and sign up for the Boston Marathon again, encouraging his sister, Kate, to do the same.

“In September of 2023, I reached out to Katie, and I said, ‘let's run this one more time,’” said Ben. It was his second time running the marathon, and Kate’s fourth; she first ran it in 2009. “Our plan was for it to be a celebration of running.”

In 2019 Kate qualified for the elite category in marathoning, running with the fastest athletes. She was ready to close out her Boston Marathon experience on a high note when Ben approached her about running it again. Kate was already training for the New York City Marathon this November, but she reluctantly signed up anyway.

“Ben was the main reason why I signed up this year, and why I trained,” said Kate. “I just wanted to get myself fit enough to have a great experience on the day, together.”

Growing up in Kenora, the Gustafson siblings — Ben, Kate and their older brother, famous sport fisherman Jeff Gustafson — played a lot of team sports, but they didn’t have a serious cross-country team in school, so they did most of their running at their camp on Echo Bay in Lake of the Woods.

Kate went on to be a Division One hockey player as a university student in the U.S., but once that was done, “I really missed pushing myself,” she said.

“It wasn't like I grew up dreaming of running the Boston Marathon,” said Kate. “But then you realize that it's so prestigious and important for the running community because you have to qualify.”

That’s when Kate found her love for marathon running. Her brother, Ben, wasn’t too far behind her — he started running in 2010 and ran a marathon almost every year until the pandemic put an end to that.

“Katie kept doing them and she kept getting progressively faster and faster, and it was very impressive what she was doing,” said Ben. “So that inspired me to keep running.” He set a goal to qualify for the Boston Marathon, just like his sister. It took him six tries, but he finally did it in 2015, and the two of them ran together the following year.

Ben and Kate were already close, but their love of marathon running has brought them even closer together. “My brother, Ben, is one of my favorite people on the planet,” said Kate. Running and training together has given them the chance to talk about anything and everything they could think of. “You might not know somebody that well at the beginning of a run, but if you have hours with the person, you're going to talk about everything,” she explained.

“Ben's very funny,” said Kate, and she admires his ability to make something hard into something enjoyable. “I am really inspired by how hard he works and how dedicated he is to getting better,” whether it's fishing, cross country skiing, running or his work, “he just like really throws himself all in. Like, over 100 per cent,” she said.

Training for a marathon is no easy feat. “The best way to train is to have a coach,” especially for those who are new to the sport, said Kate. “You don't want to get injured. You want to do it properly. You want to progress,” she said. “It's a huge commitment.”

Ben and Kate have both travelled to Iten, Kenya to spend weeks training for marathons in the same place where many of the fastest runners in the world grew up and trained themselves.

“You're looking at running 160 kms a week when you're [in Kenya] because that's all you're doing morning and evening, running twice a day,” said Kate. “Now, when we both have full time jobs and other things in our life, [training] could look like running 100 to 110 kms a week.”

Ben and Kate running the Boston Marathon together again was meant to be a celebration of running and, in a way, one last hurrah for them, “but there's no way that we're done,” said Kate.

“That was my nineteenth marathon, that was Ben's thirteenth marathon. We don't have a plan for what's next but I'm sure we'll get the itch, and we'll sign up for something else,” she said. “Because that's kind of just what runners do.”

By the time it was all said and done, Kate finished in 62nd place, and Ben in 1940th out of more than 30,000 runners.

Kate will continue to train for the New York City Marathon, happening this fall, and Ben has already begun looking for his next race, he said.

Drawing on the legacy of Kenora’s own Olympic decathlete, Mike Smith, Kate hopes that more people in northwestern Ontario and Kenora specifically will be inspired to take up running.

“Kenora is so beautiful, and running is an amazing way to experience it,” she concluded.

Serena Austin, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Kenora Miner and News