For the past few years, for the first time in her life, Merissa Wright isn’t running away from something.

Instead, she’s running toward it.

Wright, 29, of West Hartford is an early childhood therapist and a doctoral candidate in clinical psychology at the University of Hartford, where she is also an adjunct professor. She is a spin instructor. She was a star runner in high school and college.

She’s also a sexual abuse survivor.

Wright will compete in her first marathon Saturday at the Eversource Hartford Marathon, a race, she said, that mirrors her personal journey of learning to cope with past trauma in her life.

“For me, the marathon is such a representation of what the healing journey is,” Wright said. “The physical feat of a marathon is what it feels like – at least in my expe

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