More than 8,500 runners came to Hartford to participate in the annual Eversource Hartford Marathon, Half Marathon and 5K. Each has their own reason for running.
Matt Cavanaugh is going more than just 26.2 miles to raise awareness for a cause near to his heart.
"I mean, doing a marathon one week after doing another is tough," said Cavanaugh, a 44-year-old retired military veteran who is running 12 marathons in 12 months. "This is marathon number eight of 12. I'll put it this way, it takes a lot of Tylenol and tears."
Cavanaugh is putting his body to the test for a reason.
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"I'm out here to show people there's no limit to what you can do after you donate a kidney," said Cavanaugh, who donated a kidney two years ago to a complete stranger. "I knew that at a relatively very low risk to myself, I could give someone else life."
"There's just under 1,000 people in the state of Connecticut alone that are on the wait list for a kidney and there's probably more than that who are doing with kidney disease that haven't been put on that list yet, so it's only growing," said Kari Rancourt, the living donor transplant coordinator at Hartford Hospital.
During his stop in Hartford for the marathon, Cavanaugh teamed up with Donate Life CT to help raise awareness.
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"Becoming a living kidney donor is one of the best things I've ever done in my life," said Lindsay Vigue, executive director at Donate Life CT. "It has enriched my life as a donor as much as it has for a recipient."
"My kidney donation gave me a second wind in life," Cavanaugh said. "It pushes me every day to demonstrate that you can donate a kidney, save a life and go back to doing all the things that you do right now.
"If anything, I feel like an even stronger person," Vigue added.
Cavanaugh completed the Eversource Hartford Marathon in just under three hours.
"When it comes to kidney donation, we don't need a miracle, the miracle is walking around in all of us," Cavanaugh said.
"A lot of people don't know that you can donate a kidney while you're still alive so getting these stories out there matters so much to reach people," Rancourt said.
Cavanaugh's mission is to continue to raise awareness and push boundaries while serving others.
"A life is not important except on the impact that it has on other lives," Cavanaugh said. "You can't have a bigger impact on someone than to donate a kidney to them."
In order to complete his goal of running 12 marathons in 12 months, Cavanaugh is currently in a stretch of running six marathons in nine weeks. He flew from Hartford back home to Salt Lake City just hours after crossing the finish line.
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