Rikki Lee Sabasteanski, shown with her husband, Ross, following the completion of the Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon in Nashville last spring, is running the Boston Marathon for the Hopkinton Garden Club.

The 2024 Boston Marathon is special for Rikki Lee Sabasteanski. She is running from her current hometown of Hopkinton to her former hometown of Boston, she is participating with her husband, Ross, and she is raising funds for the Hopkinton Garden Club.

“I have always hoped to run the Boston Marathon,” said Sabasteanski, who has lived in Hopkinton since 2019, “so I am very excited to have the chance.”

She also is honored to represent the Hopkinton Garden Club (gofundme.com/f/hopkinton-garden-club-boston-marathon-fundraiser), whose mission, which includes fostering sustainable gardening and conservation efforts, “truly resonates with me,” she said. As a student at Bentley College, she majored in marketing and environmental sustainability science, and as a mother, she and her three daughters love to grow their own vegetables and spend a lot of time outside.

“Our garden is a work in progress, but it is a nice activity for all of us,” Sabasteanski said.

A member of the Hopkinton Garden Club, she has taken part in many activities over the years, including plant and pumpkin sales.

Always an athlete, she played competitive softball in Florida when she was younger, and she took up running more recently. She did her first long-distance race in 2015 when she ran the Twin Lights Half Marathon in Gloucester. After taking time off to have three daughters and following the COVID pandemic shutdown, she began running more seriously again last year. In the spring of 2023, she ran the Rock ’n’ Roll Half Marathon in Nashville with her siblings and her husband, and then she did the Maine Marathon in Portland this past fall.

“Both of those marathons have good routes and were a great way to ramp up to do a major run like Boston,” Sabasteanski said, noting she had never stopped training. “So I was really very pleased to be selected for Boston by the Garden Club.”

Now near the end of her 18-week pre-marathon training schedule, she said she enjoys getting in her miles.

“It is a great mental and physical break,”she shared. “I like getting outside, putting on my headphones to listen to a podcast, and logging my miles. I get to run and learn something at the same time.”

Added Sabasteanski: “Running is my favorite form of physical fitness, and I enjoy the training. I like having a regimented plan of runs to do every week. It is very cut and dried. Having a black and white plan of training is a good fit for me.”

And while she enjoys the runs, she has found training during the winter a challenge. Between working full time in marketing for the Boston Consulting Group: Strategic Management Consulting and raising her family, she has to squeeze in her training, often at the beginning or end of the day.

“The shorter daylight hours in the winter make it harder to run,” Sabasteanski said. “Training during the long summer daylight hours was a lot easier.”

The winding, hilly roads on her training route near Lake Whitehall also have been a challenge, but she thinks they will help on race day, as she will be used to a variety of terrain.

“I am really looking forward to running the Boston Marathon,” Sabasteanski said. “I am very supportive and a big advocate for the mission of the Hopkinton Garden Club, so I am very pleased to represent them. I am now a Hopkinton resident and formerly lived in Boston, so it feels good to be running between the two towns. And my husband and I both try to set an example for our daughters about having our own interests as adults and enjoying physical activity. The girls love to put on my gear and pretend they are running, too. They are excited about our run and will be cheering us on during the marathon.”