Keith Gilbreath, shown with wife Rachel and son Bennett, plans to focus more on enjoying the experience of this year’s Boston Marathon, hist first attempt since 2023.

Keith Gilbreath has run a dozen marathons, including Boston, but when he takes to the starting line this April to run for Hopkinton Boys Youth Lacrosse, it’s going to feel like a bit of a comeback.

Gilbreath last ran Boston in 2023 before a bout with atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder. Following a treatment known as ablation, Gilbreath is symptom-free and ready to run again.

“I’ve been jokingly calling this my ‘couch-to-marathon’ program,” he said. “I was really out of shape and struggling to run a mile when I started back in November to train for this.”

By the end of March, Gilbreath had completed his 21-mile long run and trained through one of the worst winters in recent memory weather-wise. When he ran his first Boston Marathon in 2023, he had earned his place by qualifying the previous fall. This year, he said he has a different mindset.

“After all the years of trying for speed and finally qualifying, now I get to run it for charity,” he said. “It’s a cool thing because the race takes on a whole other meaning. You get to go around and high-five people and just enjoy the race.”

Instead of competing for time, Gilbreath said he is focused on his charity and helping a program that has meant a lot to his family. Both of his children, Lucy and Bennett, played youth lacrosse, and Gilbreath is a former high school and club lacrosse player.

“I have always been a huge fan of the sport and the community,” he said. “Lacrosse in general, the support, the discipline, the athleticism that goes into it, it’s both a mental and physical sport and it’s a really great community.”

Gilbreath first got hooked on running in his early 30s after his competitive soccer career came to an end. Needing an athletic outlet, he turned to triathlon training while living in Maryland in a community that is something of a hotbed for those events. He completed his first marathon in 2008 to prepare for an ironman triathlon in 2009. The latter year is also when he met his wife, Rachel, also a runner. Gilbreath said he did not have as much time for triathlons when the couple’s children and their dog, Cooper, entered the picture, but he stuck with running.

While he plans to simply enjoy the course and the day, Gilbreath did admit that he is hoping to beat his wife’s marathon time to secure some family bragging rights. But he’s mostly excited to return to the road and to racing in a huge event.

“I was away from it, and now I went from not even running to being back to the thing I love so much,” Gilbreath said. “The finish line will be very symbolic for me.”