Running for Greg -- A Life Quest for Julianna Kurtz

Julianna Kurtz, a 2004 graduate of Franklin High School, daughter of long-time veteran’s services officer, Dale Kurtz and his wife Michele, has a busy life, working as an executive assistant in Harvard’s Financial Administration department – and distance running whenever she can.

It wasn’t always that way. Up until about five years ago, she explained, her passion was dance. And when she gave up that passion, with some caution, she tested the waters of running. Starting with short jaunts and using the Couch to 5K® training app, she began
build up her endurance.

How her growing ability as a runner become something than just a healthy habit began with a family tragedy nearly 20 years go. In April of 2004, she explained, she lost her older brother Greg, a 1998 graduate of Mount St. Charles Academy. Greg had continued his education at SUNY Albany and then took a position as a computer support technician at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He had unexpectedly become gravely ill and died in Albany due to complications of diabetes.

“Because we have a real bond among our family members, we all got stronger through our loss,” she recalled.

Greg’s passing might have been unexpected but his health struggles had been engaging the family’s energies for years, ever since he was first diagnosed as a 9th grader.

And getting stronger didn’t mean forgetting. Far from it, Julianna said she was “always close to her brother” and always kept photos and mementos handy.

Then came the dawning realization that she could use her passion for running and her determination to keep alive her brother’s memory as a motivation to start running to raise money. In particular, she chose to focus on the organization originally known as the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and now simply by the untethered acronym JDRF. And raise money, she has.

Her Couch to 5K app did just what it was supposed to and in short order she was running in 5K runs for local diabetes events and charity walks, too. Then she realized that JDRF had teams that ran marathons. The athletic preparation was daunting, she admits, but preparing to raise the minimum entry amount to be on the team was perhaps even more challenging, she said.

Her first marathon was Chicago in 2018. Then came New York 2019 followed by the inevitable Covid hiatus. “Last year, around Christmas, I applied for Boston not expecting to get in, but I did,” she explained. There were pros and cons to running that year, but she realized she had to run, it was an opportunity too important to miss.

Along with the desire to raise money, Julianna also discovered that there is a unique honor available to those who complete six marathons around the globe, the Six star Medal of Abbott World Marathon Majors. That, and fundraising, was an additional incentive to complete the Berlin Marathon in the fall of 2022. Her new goal is to complete London in 2024 and Tokyo in 2025. Another brother lives there, so 2025 will also be a family reunion of sorts.

But staying focused on Greg and fundraising remains top of mind. ”I always have Forever Greg on my singlet and engraved on my medals,” she added.