It’s “not over yet,” said Eric Rodden, “but so far so good.”

That’s the bittersweet state of affairs when we’re going the distance in any endeavor. For two Massachusetts runners, it’s meant training for this year’s Boston Marathon.

A 26.2-mile run is a long haul for anyone, but especially so for someone who took up the sport about a year ago.

“I’m new to the running community,” said Rodden, who adopted the pastime as part of a New Year’s resolution. In that short running career, he’s finished a few half-marathons.

To keep motivated and educated in the sport, he joined “Evolution Road Runners,” a club based in North Attleboro, where he resides. “To have that support. Any advice I can pick up.”

Rodden’s training regimen has included between 40 and 45 miles per week, and his goal is to finish the big Boston race in under four hours. At the start of last month, he’d run 22 miles in one go.

Now in his 52nd year, he’s also accumulated a collection of minor injuries as those miles have piled up.   

In addition to getting all that distance underfoot, Rodden has been raising funds for “Spark Kindness,” a nonprofit group that his run will benefit. That local organization was founded in 2010 to combat online bullying, and has since broadened the scope of its services.

“I know what they do for kids,” said Rodden, who has two of his own. “I kind of know that environment, what they go through.”

He was inspired also by his son Griffin, who ran the Boston Marathon last year on behalf of Spark Kindness. Natick and the nonprofit have partnered in past years to raise funds and awareness for the group via the marathon.

Rodden plans to run the big race with his niece, Kaylee Wampler, who selected Brigham and Women’s Hospital as the beneficiary of her run. Participants running on behalf of nonprofits must raise about $7,500 to qualify for a spot in the Boston Marathon.

As of the middle of last month, he’d already garnered over $7,000 toward that total.   

Working toward his monetary and mileage goals has been great motivation, but Rodden said he’s found the running itself rewarding. It’s more about the journey, as they say, than the destination. 

“I work at a desk,” he said. “I’m stir crazy by the end of the day.”

To break things up and reset, his habit has been to don his running shoes, and log some miles during lunch breaks. Working out of a home office as he does, has made that routine practical.  

“Running has been a great outlet for me.”

For Richard Boucher of Uxbridge, that fire in the belly for running was also kindled relatively recently.

“I was kind of late to the game,” said the 54-year-old.

He’d never run for considerable distances prior to 2016, the year he joined Evolution Road Runners.

“They suck you right in,” he said. “It makes it easier when you have a lot of people supporting you.”

Since then, Boucher has completed several marathons, including the Hartford, Conn., edition, his first. This will be his second Boston Marathon, whose weather he said makes the run “always a wild card.”

Like his running mate Rodden, Boucher also designated Spark Kindness as the beneficiary for his marathon.

“That one resonated with me a lot,” said Boucher, who has four children of his own. “They really work with the kids. To kind of deal with the teenage years.”

To inspire and spur runners on, Spark Kindness will host a sign-making party at Paper Fiesta, located at 1 Main Street in Natick. The event will be held the morning of April 12th, from 9 a.m. to noon. The site of the event sits at the historical marathon’s 10-mile mark as the race passes through Natick.  

Boucher was also closing in on his fundraising goal as of mid-March, at a time when his running regimen was racking up about 50 miles per week. The Boston Marathon is Monday, April 21, and Boucher said his longer training runs would soon become scarce as the big day drew closer.

“A couple more 20-milers and we’ll start tapering.”