Waterford's Cynthia Kuhn overcomes long odds to run in Boston Marathon and Australian race

Cynthia Kuhn has beaten long odds over the past 20 years.

Invitations to run in consecutive Boston Marathons are the latest examples of that for the Waterford resident.

Kuhn, 53, accepted the offer to participate in Monday’s 26.2-mile race, the annual highlight of Patriots’ Day activities throughout New England.

A year ago, the Mercyhurst University employee crossed the famed Boylston Street finish line in 3 hours, 28 minutes, 29 seconds.

Running long distances has helped Kuhn in beating the long odds she's faced in her life.

In the fall of 2003, the 1989 Seneca graduate experienced what she considered unusual symptoms while pregnant. However, she wasn’t thoroughly examined until after the birth of her second son, Garrett.

The delayed diagnosis proved dire.

Kuhn had a golf ball-sized tumor on her brain stem. The only silver lining was it was diagnosed as benign.

Kuhn’s tumor was successfully removed in early 2004. Even better, she was informed there was a maximum 2% chance of another such growth.

“Since then,” Kuhn said, “I’ve had three. My most recent doctor said I’ve just had bad luck.”

Kuhn’s ensuing brain tumors also were benign. The second one was discovered and removed in 2005.

The third one, though, truly staggered Kuhn and her husband, Bill Kuhn.

It was discovered in 2021, 16 years after the second one.

Cynthia Kuhn was told the odds of such tumors recurring over such a lengthy gap in time were comparable to the percentage she was told after the original’s removal.

By then, though, running was a major bonus when it came to Kuhn’s rehabilitation. She and her husband, spurred by their sons’ interest in cross country, took up the activity more than a decade ago.

Running the multiple up-and-down hills around their Yaple Road home made the latest recovery process easier, if not easy, Cynthia Kuhn said.

“I was much older at that time than I was with the other (surgeries),” she said. “My doctors thought that I was in good shape, so I recovered a lot quicker.”

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‘Running among the best of the best’

The Kuhns graduated from 5- and 10-kilometer events to their initial marathon in 2016 at Corning, New York. Cynthia Kuhn completed the Wineglass Marathon in 4:13:36.79 and Bill Kuhn in 5:06:04.88.

The undulation of that Finger Lakes region course significantly varies from that for the Erie Marathon at Presque Isle State Park.

The 2022 Erie Marathon was Kuhn’s second distance event after she resumed running. She finished first (3:27:46) in the women’s age 50-54 division.

While the park’s nearly pancake-flat terrain was ideal for Kuhn at that point, there was a familiarity-breeds-contempt aspect to it.

“I don’t mind a few hills,” she said. “(Presque Isle’s course) is nice, but when you’re from Erie you know where every mile marker is. When you know where everything is, that’s not always fun.”

Tedious or not, Kuhn’s time that day, combined with her age group, left her eligible to be picked by the Boston Athletic Association for inclusion in the 2023 Marathon.

Kuhn couldn’t accept their offer fast enough. She traveled with her husband and several relatives, who were somewhere amid the estimated 500,000 spectators that traditionally line the course.

“I’ve never been to a marathon with so much crowd support,” Kuhn said. “There wasn’t a spot on (the course) where people weren’t three people deep and cheering. And then there was knowing you were running among the best of the best.”

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Destined for Down Under

The ripple effect from running in the 2023 Boston Marathon will continue throughout this year.

After Monday, Kuhn has no plans to enter any other marathons the rest of this spring or summer. She definitely won’t register for the 2024 Erie Marathon at Presque Isle, which is scheduled Sept. 8.

The Kuhns will be en route to Australia, if not already there by then.

Cynthia Kuhn, based on her 2023 Boston Time, was offered a starting berth for the women’s 50-54 division of the Abbott World Marathon Majors. Various races will take place in downtown Sydney Sept. 15

That offer, way more than the one for Boston last year, shocked Kuhn.

“I didn’t think about getting invited … but I am happy to go,” she said.

Bill Kuhn wiped out what scant hesitancy his wife had about traveling Down Under.

“Well, I paid for her entry fee,” he said, “so she has to go now.

"She’s just incredible. I never thought she would have got to this point. She’s done everything she’s wanted to do running wise.

“And she’s always been there for me.”

Beyond that experience, Cynthia Kuhn has no idea what her future holds. Surviving three brain tumors left her not thinking too far ahead.

Running, though, will be in the mix.

“It makes you feel good about yourself, knowing that you can do it and that your body can handle it,” Kuhn said. “Hopefully, it can still improve our lives as we get older.”

More: Race brings former Cathedral Prep football champs together. This trio complete Boston Marathon

Contact Mike Copper at mcopper@timesnews.com. Follow him on X @ETNcopper.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Boston Marathon: Waterford PA cancer survivor Cynthia Kuhn to compete