BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) -- Some Kern County healthcare workers joined the Bakersfield Marathon in the name of heart health. Some cheered on the runners, and others ran for those who couldn't. "Last year after the event they had a drone dip down, and do a tour of the route, and I remember looki ng at it, and I'm like, "I can't run. I can't do anything. I want to do that," Alison McGhee, who ran the half-marathon, said. McGhee is a respiratory manager by day at Memorial Hospital. But, every other part of the day since September, she had been training for the half-marathon. "We have 160 employees, and physicians that are gonna run, and there's like 80 people out there cheering, and hopefully, if they start this time right now they can run it with me next year cause I'm not gonna give this up," McGhee said. Some healthcare cheerleaders made signs to inspire the runners including the CEO. "We'll be cheering on at Beech Park. So, we'll be cheering some of the spirit out there with them," Paola Pleitez, a Memorial Education Specialist, said. The staff can thank their boss for volunteering them as the cheer squad for the Dignity Health team at the city's great race. "It says, "You can and you will." I think running is definitely sort of a mental game, and there's going to be a point where some people are feeling like giving up, and we want to inspire our community, and our colleagues to finish this rate that they set out," Jessica Wonderry, a nurse administrator, said. McGhee said she isn't running the marathon for social recognition, or for the medal. She's doing it for others like her children who wish they could they run, and for the ones who never got a chance. ...read more read less