(Kim Tunnicliffe/WBZ NewsRadio 1030)
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HOPKINTON (WBZ-AM) -- Kaitlyn Kiely has been pushing three 50-pound bags of salt in a racing wheelchair for months.
On Monday morning, Kiely's boyfriend Matt Wetherbee sat in that wheelchair, and the two set off along all 26.2 miles of the Boston Marathon route--fulfilling a promise she made after he was paralyzed two years ago.
In a Facebook video, Kiely explained Wetherbee was paralyzed from the shoulders down in an accident.
"He was playing pickup basketball," she said in the video. "He tripped, and went head-first into a wall, instantly paralyzed."
She promised Matt the two would run the marathon this year.
"It's my love note to him," she said. "I'm with you all the way--my unfinished business is not taking no for an answer."
Kiely didn't qualify, but that didn't stop her--she decided the two would run the race route Monday morning instead.
"Either you do something really brave and crazy, or you succumb to the reality," Kiely said in the Facebook video.
The couple was joined by family, friends, and even strangers as they took off from the marathon starting line in Hopkinton.
WBZ NewsRadio 1030's Kim Tunnicliffe reports