Onward Shay Boise Marathon planned for this weekend

BOISE, Idaho (CBS2) — This weekend people from all 50 states and at least seven countries will be running for cancer research.

The "Onward Shay!" Boise marathon starts Sunday morning.

This is the third year of the event which was started in memory of a woman named Shay Hirsch who died from cancer.

"The 'onward shay' part of it comes from when she was battling her cancer and going through treatments," said Keith Hughes the event director. "She wrote frequent letters to her friends and she'd always sign them saying 'onward shay,' just meaning she was always looking forward to the future so that's where the name for the event came from."

On Saturday, there's a kids run for ages 2-12 that kicks off at 3 p.m. in the afternoon.

And Sunday is the big event, the half and full marathon starts at 9 a.m.

The 5-k and 10-k's start at 9:15 a.m..

Registration will take place on Saturday during the expo at Payette Brewing.

In addition to helping with cancer research, Onward Shay is a Boston qualifier.

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