With days to go before the marathon, Lisa Tuozzolo is preparing for the race and obsessing about the course she will soon face - but she has already conquered so much more.
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"This is a little bit of a physical metaphor of my life," she said. "26.2 miles of keeping going and not stopping and forging ahead."
It was three years ago when her husband said goodbye to Lisa and their two boys, Austin and Joseph, and left for work at the 43 precinct in the Bronx.
But he never came home.
He was killed in the line of duty when a man pull a gun and shot him in the chest.
RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Widow, colleagues of slain NYPD sergeant Paul Tuozzolo share their stories
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Last year, two years to the day since Lisa's loss, a friend of hers ran the marathon in her husband's honor and wore his shield number on his bib.
And now it is her turn. Tuozzolo has been training hard for months, and during the race, she'll be joined at each mile by a different member of Paul's precinct - all while she raises money to support other families of fallen heroes.
"I'm doing this for Paul. I know he's looking down and one side of his mouth he's saying am I nuts am I out of my mind, and on the other side he's saying how proud he is of me for proving that nothing's gonna knock me down," Lisa said.
Tuozzolo has already raised several thousand dollars for the Silver Shield foundation, which provides educational assistance to the kids of fallen first responders.
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