Boston Marathon Runner Profile: Laura Dempsey

The Watertown resident will run the Boston Marathon with the New England Organ Bank team in honor of a friend.

Laura Dempsey

Age: 35

Number of Marathons She has Run: Nine, including seven Boston Marathons.

Why She is Running: Dempsey runs with the New England Organ Bank’s Donate Life New England Marathon Team. For the last few years she has run for her friend Laura Linehan, who died at the age of 20.

“I run in honor of a friend who died waiting for a liver transplant,” Dempsey said. “She passed away in 2008 just two weeks before the Marathon.”

Dempsey now works with the New England Organ Bank, which is based in Waltham. She encourages people to sign up to be organ donors. They can do so by going to:www.donatelifenewengland.net.

By running to raise awareness of the need for organ donors, she hopes to pay tribute to her friend.

“I want to make sure she lives on in all our efforts to raise awareness about organ and tissue donation,” Dempsey said.

Her Goal for the Race: Although she runs for New England Organ Bank, Dempsey qualified for the race at the Philadelphia Marathon.

“My best times (in Boston) is 3:52:37, I’d love to beat that,” Dempsey said. “It was a really tough year to train, with all the snow, but after the now melted it all came together.”

Her training did not emphasize speed, but Dempsey still hopes to post a good time.

“Three (hours) 50 (minutes) would make me really happy,” Dempsey said.

Come back to Patch on Patriot's Day for Patch's Boston Marathon coverage. We will track the Watertown runners profiled by Patch to see how they fare in the big race!