When 48,000 runners lined up to start the Chicago Marathon, most were thinking about winning.
But for one runner, her goal to beat her personal record turned into something else entirely.
It became a rescue mission.
Boston resident Sarah Bohan had taken off from the starting line, focused on beating her previous race record. But then as she got close to mile 21, something stopped her in her tracks.
A “white fluffy thing.”
“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,” Sarah said.
I turned around and scooped up the cat.”
The 26-year-old social worker said she didn’t even hesitate about stopping her run for the tiny kitten.
Sarah Bohan rescued a kitten while running the 2023 Chicago Marathon. Photo by Paws Chicago
“I didn’t care about my time, this was my sole focus, and that just shifted my race entirely for the better,” she said.
Another runner, Gia Nigro saw Sarah pick the kitten up and also stopped to join the rescue mission. The two women walked slowly on the sidelines of the race, with Sarah holding the kitten
“I wasn’t going to run with this cat; that would injure it,” she explains.
So the runners kept walking the race, trying to find someone on the sidelines to rescue the cat. After all, it seemed like fate that Sarah found the cat. She was, coincidentally, running for the group Paws Chicago, a no-kill animal shelter.
“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,'” Sarah said. But, as a mom of two cats herself, she would have done anything to help the scared kitten out.
“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 said. “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.'”
Sarah Bohan hands the kitten to a kind spectator. Photo courtesy of Gia Nigro
After asking a ton of spectators and walking with the kitten for more than a mile, two women stepped and told the pair, “We will take this cat.”
“I must have asked them about five times to confirm that they would care and love this cat,” Sarah laughed.
I was committed to making sure that this little baby would be okay, and I wasn’t just going to give it to anyone.”
Sarah and Gia went on to finish the race. But their rescuing duties weren’t quite finished – they also stopped and helped a woman who had fallen. Then, along with the woman, all three crossed the finish line together. Sarah’s time – 3:31:35, only 19 minutes shy of her personal best.
For Sarah, being able to help an animal and another person was a lesson in how winning isn’t always important.
“You’re taking in the energy of the crowds and the spectators, I’m helping a cat and I’m helping this woman cross the finish line and that’s what it’s really about,” she said. “Yes, it’s amazing to get a personal record. Yes, it’s amazing to have that glory. But it’s not what it’s always about and I think I really was able to experience that first-hand yesterday.”
Watch below to see this kind-hearted runner find the tiny kitten a home.
