It would be hard for former Marblehead High School and Boston College athlete Allison Castaldi to consider herself a short distance runner anymore.

The 1999-2000 Northeastern Conference had been accustomed to the triple jump, hurdles, and sprinting until last spring when a co-worker invited her to run in the New York City Marathon, something Castaldi felt would be a dream come true.

"Running a marathon has been something I've wanted to do for a long time," explained Castaldi, who finished 338th in her age group (25-29) with a time of 3:44:59.

"Cheering the runners at the Boston Marathon was part of growing up, but as someone who considered herself a short distance runner, 26.2 miles seemed really far."

Castaldi, who spent two years volunteering in Honduras with the Peace Corps, ran the marathon with the Concern Worldwide team, a charity dedicated to providing a better standard of living for people in third world countries. One of 43,741 marathon starters Castaldi herself raised a total of $1,200 for the charity.

"I was very excited to run to support Concern, a charity that does work in line with what I have been studying the last two years in my graduate program at The New School (in New York). In Honduras I spoke with people that survived by picking through trash at the dump site in I am happy that my fundraising efforts will benefit people living in similar circumstances around the world," said Castaldi.