Boston woman was closing in on personal record in Chicago Marathon when she stopped to rescue kitten

CHICAGO — A Boston woman was more than 20 miles into the Chicago Marathon and running along at a personal record pace when she spotted a tiny kitten along the race route that was in need of rescue.

Sarah Bohan, a Bostonian who was running for PAWS Chicago, took the non-profit animal shelter’s mission to heart when she found and rescued a stray kitten as she neared the end of her 26.2-mile trek.

“She was running a personal record pace until mile 21 when she saw a skinny, matted, scared ball of fluff under a bridge,” PAWS Chicago wrote in a Facebook post.

Bohan stopped to help, picked up the kitten, and carried it with fellow runner Gia Nigro for the next mile, before passing it off to a good Samaritan along the route who expressed interest in adopting the feline, according to PAWS.

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PAWS Chicago Sarah Bohan (right) (PAWS Chicago)

“I didn’t care about my time, this was my sole focus, and that just shifted my race entirely for the better,” Bohan told People.com. “I was committed to making sure that this little baby would be okay.”

Despite the unexpected pit stop, Bohan finished the marathon with a time of 3:31:35.

Bohan was one of 483 marathoners who laced up in support of PAWS, a no-kill shelter with a mission to replicate its success in saving the lives of homeless animals in communities across the world.

“Team PAWS amazes us year after year with their hard work and above and beyond fundraising,” the shelter added.

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