Meet Sharon

Sharon McEnearney ran her first 3 miles at track practice in the bitter cold of November 2008. She was the slowest one on the distance team and it was beyond embarrassing to finish the run so much later than everyone else. When she got in the car at the end practice she told her dad in a huff of frustration, "I hate this. I am never running again!" But there's something you should know about Sharon, she doesn't quit. Sharon showed up to track practice the next day and continued to show up again and again for 4 years of winter and spring track. After that she joined the NYU-Poly Women's Cross Country Team for a year where she won the Rookie of the Year Award. For someone who said she hated running, boy did it seem like Sharon loved it​.

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During her time at Villanova, Sharon ran the Love Run Half Marathon TWICE (2015, 2016). Eventually, she decided it was time to test her endurance and run the Philadelphia Marathon. In November of 2016, almost a decade after that fateful first track practice, Sharon ran and finished the Philadelphia Marathon in 4 hours and 17 minutes. It's worth nothing that at Mile 15, Sharon's knee gave out. But she was determined. The race was going to be finished even if she had to crawl. She hobbled across the finish line and burst into tears of triumph (and a little bit of pain).

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​After about a year of working on her knee injury, Sharon was back at it again. She completed the Verrazano Half Marathon in Brooklyn. About a year later, she went on to run the Army 10 Miler in Washington, D.C. COVID-19 arrived and the world stood still. And for the first time in almost a decade, so did Sharon. The joy of running was suddenly gone. Maybe it was the mandated working from home, the bleak feeling for the world, or just the fact that getting in the elevator to go outside the apartment was now overly complicated. We'll never really know why, but for the first time, Sharon lost her momentum. She became an object at rest. 

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But like all things, the joyless-ness ended and Sharon has reclaimed her love and joy of running when she completed the Rocky Run Half Marathon in Philadelphia in 2024. She's back and she's ready to prove it to herself and the world.

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Sharon is running Boston for herself. But also for a cause she deeply believes in.

Access to organized sports like track in high school and a running community in college cross country changed Sharon's life. Everyone should have the ability to apply to college regardless of socioeconomic background. Its a terrifying process, especially if there's no one to help guide you along the way. The work Bottom Line does will help many students get their footing in the world of college applications and help them continue to succeed once they are in.

Who knows, maybe a Bottom Line student will also end up a runner!

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