Amy bites her medal after completing the 2014 Boston Marathon.l
Amy nears the finish line of the Boston Marathon in 2014.
Amy is all smiles near the finish of the 2014 Boston Marathon.
Amy at the starting line in Hopkinton in 2014.
BOSTON — Boston is the second-closest place to heaven for Amy Compston — the Moyo district of Uganda has already stolen her heart for the No. 1 spot.
But on Monday, when Compston takes the 26.2-mile bus ride to the other end of the Boston Marathon course for the start of the world’s most famous distance race, it will be like Second Heaven.
It will be the fourth consecutive Boston Marathon and sixth world marathon overall for the face of the Amy For Africa mission who no longer runs for herself but for God. She loves to share her testimony to anyone and everywhere who will listen, love on those babies in Moyo, run in the Boston Marathon and breathe — pretty much in that order.
There’s an extra spring in her step during Boston Marathon time, even with the hectic schedule that this nurse-mother-missionary-wife-speaker keeps on a daily basis. It’s no wonder. She ran her first Boston Marathon in 2013 and it was after returning home from that tragic event that God told her to run for Him. The Amy For Africa mission was born about a month later and has been going strong for three years.
AFA will be taking 22 on a medical mission to Moyo in about a month but it’s first things first. This coming weekend it will be Boston Marathon time. Amy’s husband Chris will be running in the Boston Marathon 5k on Saturday with the hope of running under 21 minutes.
He has been hobbled with a badly sprained ankle suffered while playing basketball about three weeks ago so his training is not what he’d like it to be. But he’s hopeful of going under 21 while running with 10,000 others in one of the world’s biggest 5K races.
Amy’s goal is to run a BQ (Boston Qualifer), which is 3 hours and 35 minutes or less, on Monday. Her training has been difficult with some nagging injuries too although the last couple of weeks have been much improved.
So if you are a praying person, there’s something to put on the list over the next few days.
If you want to follow Amy in the Boston Marathon you can text to 234-567 and put Amy’s bib number (15151) in the line where you send the text. You will get updates during her run.