BOSTON -- This year, the Children's Hospital marathon team is running in honor of Katie Lynch.

Katie passed away in October. She was a tiny woman who took on giant challenges.

Two years ago, Katie walked the first 26 feet of the marathon as part of the Children's Hospital team -- a nearly impossible task for a person who faced the physical difficulties she faced every day.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that Katie's family will be on hand to cheer the team on in her memory.

Few people realize what it took for Katie to do her own personal marathon.

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She was a woman 28 inches tall with endless physical complications resulting from the rare tissue disorder she was born with. After the extraordinary feat, her family said that just about everything was becoming a marathon for Katie.

"There was a lot of pain, and she would have to go lie down for hours. And when I think about that and how it was growing in intensity with each year and months, I don't know that it could have gotten any more intense for her," Katie's brother, Wyeth Lynch, said.

It is why Katie's mother declared she was running toward heaven when she passed away at age 27 in October.

"I wouldn't change a day of Katie's life and wouldn't wish her back because that would be for me. That wouldn't be for Katie's journey. And we were just really blessed to be part of that journey," Katie's mother, Joan Lynch, said.

The journey that day was to raise money for Children's Hospital.

"I realized last week that I had been dreading the marathon, and I just didn't know it. And then it came to me that it was time to get on with it, girl. That's what she was about -- getting on with it and just forget yourself and do what you can do," Joan Lynch said.

"She wanted to be useful. She wanted to be a part of things. She wanted to make a difference," Katie's father, Chris Lynch, said.

"Katie believed if you committed to something, you did it," Joan Lynch said.

"She was at her best when she was hawking Children's. She loved the media. Another sound bite, another dollar for Children's," Chris Lynch said.