By Liz Steen

Special Correspondent

If you’ve ever given up on a resolution or personal goal after a few days, or even a few months, prepare to burn with shame when you compare yourself to West Seattle runner Kelly Dawson, who runs West Seattle’s Hoops4Life basketball camp with her husband, Highline College basketball coach and law professor Che Dawson. The couple met at Seattle University and raised their two sons in Seattle.

Dawson is in Athens, Greece, this weekend, completing a goal she set decades years ago in San Francisco: run 100 marathons and finish the last one in Greece, the country where the legend of the marathon began. Her first marathon was July 9, 1997. Her last will be Sunday, November 8, 2026. Each marathon covers 26.22 miles. Dawson has run 2,620 competition miles, not counting training and prep, in 29 years.

“She really just got into running marathons just socially, with some work friends,” her husband Che Dawson said. “She just made a goal for herself that she was going to do 100. And that she wanted to do the 100th in Athens (at the original) Marathon site. So, yeah, she's powered through it.”

Dawson averaged 3.2 marathons each year while the family lived in Seattle the last 20-plus years. Sons Miles and Malik will cheer their mother at the finish line Sunday as she finishes her last marathon mile. She trains at Orange Theory Fitness in West Seattle and by running two or more times each week.

“I mean, she, you know, she works full time and we've had 2 kids in the meantime and she's… (awed pause) I mean, incredible respect. I've never had a desire to do a marathon myself, “ her husband said.

Her husband believes that Dawson’s experience gives her an advantage over runners facing their first marathon, although he is careful not to suggest the distance has become easy.

"She'd probably want to throw something at me saying that. I make it sound like it's not hard, right?” he joked. “It sounds hard. But her preparation, I think, is very different than somebody who's just wondering whether they can even finish it, you know?”

Dawson knows she can finish the race. She’s done it 99 times. After Athens, however, she’s hanging up her running shoes. Her husband says she is looking forward to leaving marathons behind. She expects to continue running shorter distances, but Athens will likely be her last 26.2-mile race.

“I don't think she wants to do any more marathons. This is just going out on a high note,” he said.