Prior to last week, Laura Holt had never run a marathon.

Now, the 35-year-old Brandon Township resident can proudly say she completed a world-famous race.

On April 15, Holt was one of 27,355 runners who participated in the 123rd Boston Marathon. She ran the 26.2-mile course in 4 hours, 45 minutes, 46 seconds and became one of the 26,632 who completed it.

“For a first marathon, I think that’s pretty decent,” said Holt, a 2002 graduate of Lake Orion High School and member of LakePoint Community Church in Oxford. “I didn’t really care about my time. I just wanted to be able to finish.”

“There’s nothing like finishing a marathon. It really is the best feeling in the world,” she noted.

Holt’s 19 weeks of training for the race didn’t prepare her for the emotional high she felt as thousands upon thousands of spectators rooted for her every step of the way.

“It’s the most surreal experience because you feel like a celebrity running that course,” she said. “People are calling (out) your name like they know you . . . People are cheering for you like they’re your family. It’s the craziest thing . . . They really pull you through the marathon.”

When Holt arrived at the famous – or infamous – Heartbreak Hill, the final hill on the course, she said it was the “roaring” of the crowd, which was “four people deep on both sides,” that helped motivate runners to conquer the challenging incline.

“That hill is at Mile 20 and you’re just aching at that point,” she said.

Coming down the race’s final stretch along Boylston St., Holt said she felt like an “Olympian” or “Tom Brady winning the Super Bowl.”

“It’s the most emotional part of the whole marathon,” she said. “Everybody around you is just crying because it’s just this buildup of emotions from the whole race and the experience. It’s very cool.”

When asked how she felt physically during the race, Holt replied, “It was painful.”

“I’m not going to lie. It was one of the most physically difficult things I’ve ever done in my entire life,” she said.

After crossing the finish line, Holt said she ate a big dinner, drank water, laid in bed and took some Aleve, which a friend had given her as part of a “care package.”

“I’m so thankful I had that,” she said.

Holt described the race as “the physical equivalent of the emotional marathon” she and her husband, Bryan Holt, have been running while dealing with their 2-year-old daughter Lucy’s health issues.

Throughout her short time on Earth, little Lucy has undergone heart surgery and battled cancer.

The thought of her daughter and everything she’s been through kept Holt going as she put mile after mile of pavement behind her.

“My mantra through the whole thing was to be brave for Lucy and do this,” she said. “She’s been so brave through all of her testing, all of her surgeries. I thought to myself if she can be this brave through all of these things that she didn’t have a choice to do, I can be brave to run this race. That really was what got me through it.”

Lucy, who is the granddaughter of Bob Holt, associate pastor of LakePoint Community Church, was the whole reason Holt even ran the marathon.

Holt was part of the Miles for Miracles team, a group of 190 runners and 144 patient partners dedicated to raising funds for Boston Children’s Hospital. The world-renowned medical facility twice saved Lucy’s life. She underwent two major surgeries there, one to repair more than 15 holes in her heart and one to rid her liver of cancer.

“I could never thank them enough for what they’ve done for me and for my daughter,” Holt said.

Today, Lucy is healthy and thriving.

“She is so strong,” Holt said. “This little girl is the busiest, the strongest, the funniest of our three children. She is basically defying all of the odds . . . She is a climber. She is running all over  the place. singing, dancing. She is a riot. She’s very, very smart.”

To express her gratitude to the medical professionals who saved Lucy’s life, Holt decided to run the marathon and collect donations for Boston Children’s Hospital. Her goal was $10,000 and she ended up exceeding that by $350.

Every dime she raised is going to the hospital’s Every Child Fund, which provides patients’ families with housing, meal and parking vouchers, stress-relief services, support sessions and interpreters. For patients, the fund pays for time with therapy dogs and music therapists, art supplies and celebrations for holidays and birthdays. The fund also benefits the pediatric research center as it seeks new treatments and cures.

Collectively, Miles for Miracles members raised over $2.2. million for the hospital.

Holt found it “incredibly inspiring” getting to know her teammates and hearing their stories.

“All these people are just so thankful for this hospital,” she said.

There was one person on the Miles for Miracles team who  was celebrating their 20th year running in the marathon.

“I hope to someday do that,” Holt said. “I just don’t see myself ever not doing this.”

To folks thinking about running the Boston Marathon, Holt advised they must be prepared to “dig deep” within themselves. She said the course leaves you feeling “raw” as it reveals your strengths and lays bare your faults.

“It’s not an easy race, physically (or) emotionally, but it’s worth every single long run, every (bit of) sweat,” she said. “It’s worth it all.”