Sandra Gittlen hangs out with one of the dogs that will benefit from the funds she is raising for the new shelter Baypath Humane Society is building on Fruit Street.

Sandra Gittlen is proud to be a back-of-the-pack marathon runner.

“I’m never going to be fast at all,” she said. “I just figure I should enjoy it. I always joke that I get my money’s worth.”

The 55-year-old Northborough resident has been running marathons almost as long as she’s been a volunteer at Baypath Humane Society, the charity she’s raising money for this year. Since participating in her first Boston Marathon in 2013, she has run a total of 15 marathons. This year will be her seventh go-around on the Boston course.

Baypath means a lot to Gittlen, who fell in love with the organization after adopting two cats from Baypath in the early 2000s. Today, she has one dog and four cats from the shelter — along with a separate rescue dog — and has been a volunteer at many different levels.

“I have held just about every volunteer position there is,” said Gittlen. “I’ve been an in-shelter volunteer, an adoption counselor and I’ve been on the board.” She now acts as co-chair for the capital campaign raising funds for Baypath’s new Fruit Street facility.

The money Gittlen raises from her marathon endeavor this year will go directly to funding shelter construction. When completed in the fall, the facility will have 8,200 square feet of indoor space. The building’s design includes a community room, an advanced medical area to handle diagnostics and spay-and-neuter activities, and updated housing facilities.

According to Gittlen, the facility’s walls have been erected, and crews are beginning to work on the inside of the building. She commended the pace of everyone involved. “Everybody’s been working together to get this done on time for the animals,” she said.

Once the new shelter is complete, Baypath will be able to help more animals and be a greater resource for the community, she explained.

“That’s what’s inspiring me,” said Gittlen, “knowing all this money is going to help get us there.”

Gittlen’s goal is to raise $15,000. That money will be added to the $5.6 million already raised toward Baypath’s $6.5 million fundraising goal. 

She also estimated that, in total, she has raised around $75,000 for the organization since she first started running for charity.

For Gittlen, what sets Baypath apart is the compassion of its staff and volunteers. She also marveled at the shelter’s capacities in spite of a limited budget.

“I think what we do for dogs and cats and the community is pretty incredible on a shoestring [budget],” Gittlen remarked. “To raise funds for them through running is the least I can do.”

Trick is to ‘enjoy the miles’

Gittlen, a Pennsylvania native, first got into running for her health. She noted having a rare autoimmune disease that made her sick for a long time.

“I wanted to do something that was healthy and kind of the antithesis of being sick,” she recalled. “There’s nothing more empowering than a marathon for your health — to know you can go 26.2 miles.”

She began running around 2010, and it was another couple of years before she made the leap to running the Boston Marathon for the first time.

Now a seasoned marathon runner, Gittlen said training this year has been complicated by cold weather and icy conditions. She enjoys running outside as opposed to on the treadmill, but high snowbanks from multiple snow events this past winter complicated road conditions.

“This has probably been one of the hardest years for training,” she noted.

Gittlen doesn’t have a specific process for training. “I think you just have to do it,” she said. She also espoused a running philosophy of being present and enjoying the moment.

“I think the trick is just to enjoy the miles,” she said. “To just be in the moment and enjoy the fact you can do it.”

Added Gittlen: “If you’re hating every step, it’s going to be really hard to train.”

As with any experienced Boston Marathon runner, there are parts of the course she loves and those she is less than thrilled with. “I love to hate Heartbreak Hill,” she said. “It always gets me.”

She spoke highly of her past experiences making it onto Boylston Street with the finish line in view. “It’s like nothing you’ve ever experienced before, even if you’re coming in late,” Gittlen recalled. “It washes over you and it’s so emotional every single time. You almost can’t breathe.”

First marathon ‘tough day’

Gittlen’s first marathon and run of the Boston course was 2013 — the year of the Boston Marathon bombings. “That was a very, very tough day,” she recalled.

She recounted how she had friends down at the finish line and “nobody knew where anybody was for a while.” Gittlen also noted that authorities stopped her and other racers at Heartbreak Hill, not allowing them to continue to Boylston Street.

“It was so sad and so incomprehensible,” Gittlen said of the events of 2013. “I think it was impossible to conceive of what was going on and how to handle it.”

That day had an impact on Gittlen, who resolved to come back in 2014 and race again. She said she had a lot of anxiety over the run and was cautious about having loved ones down at the finish line again. However, she remembered experiencing a strong sense of community between the runners that year.

“[Returning in] 2014 showed … how much people love running as a community and what that meant to everybody,” she said. Gittlen reported that the attitude she observed was about members of the running community loving each other and coming together to “do the thing that we love to do.”

“The Boston Marathon is special,” Gittlen concluded. “It is a special, special race.”

Come race day, Gittlen said she will have nieces and nephews supporting her along the race course, and she anticipates folks from the shelter — and even some four-legged friends — will show up to cheer her on.