Kris Porell

In spring 2002, after undergoing a double mastectomy as a result of breast cancer, doctors had to tell Kris Porell to slow down during recovery.

"Of course they're telling me, 'OK you can walk,' and the next day I'd be walking 3 miles, and they'd say 'No, that's too far! You can walk to the mailbox,' " she said. "I kept getting in trouble."

But the walk to the mailbox just wasn't interesting enough. In August that year, Porell joined the Zipcar team to participate in her first Pan-Mass Challenge, an annual bike-a-thon to raise money for cancer research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute.

Porell, a mother of four who works at Norfolk Middle School, raced the PMC four more times because she enjoys helping to find a cure for others.

"Every time I speak to another person going through breast cancer treatment and surgery, [the therapy is] something different they're doing just because of the money we're raising for research, little by little," she said.

In April 2004, a year and a half after her first PMC, she ran her first Boston Marathon since the surgery. As temperatures topped 85 degrees and runners melted on the pavement, Porell decided her third Boston Marathon - which took her five long hours - would be her last.

"I swore I'd never do another Marathon," she said with a laugh. "It was the worst experience of my life."

She said in addition to the temperature, the 2004 Boston Marathon was also tough emotionally because it was her first run after the surgery.

But Porell, 43, ran track at Millis High School and was a sprinter at Colby College, so the Norfolk resident had a hard time staying away. She qualified with a 3:44 at the Rock 'n' Roll Marathon in Phoenix Jan. 13.

"I definitely feel very proud and blessed," said Porell, who will wear bib No. 17570. "I do speak to a lot of people that have all different outcomes, and I just feel very, very lucky. That's why every day you get out there and run, or do whatever you can, to appreciate what you have."