After doing 17 marathons and five 50-kilometer runs, a 7-mile jaunt normally wouldn’t mean much to Mark Shipley.

But the Cranberry Township resident can’t wait to run through downtown Pittsburgh today.

Shipley, 38, is one of the Butler County participants in the One Run For Boston, a nationwide 3,328-mile, 2,000-runner relay from Santa Monica, Calif., to the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The baton left Santa Monica at 1 p.m. March 16. It will finish in Boston at 6 p.m. Sunday.

“I’m humbled to be doing this,” Shipley said. “As a runner, this is a way I can help.”

Proceeds from this event — raised through national donations and runner fees — will benefit the survivors and their families from last year’s Boston Marathon bombing.

One Run For Boston spokesman Bill Doncaster said $350,000 has been raised through the event so far and the goal is $1 million.

Shipley and Patty McCloud, 49, of Mars are part of a 43-person running group that will carry the baton for 4.2 miles through Pittsburgh this afternoon.

Joe Church, 62, another Mars resident, will carry the baton for eight miles — from Harrison City to Delmont — early this evening. Church did not become a runner until 10 years ago and has run 55 marathons since.

He has run the Boston Marathon twice and will run it again this year.

“All of the running community took that bombing as a personal attack on our sport,” Church said. “My wife died a year ago, but she accompanied me to Boston when I ran in 2007 and 2010.

“That second bomb went off not 100 feet from where she was sitting at the finish line waiting for me to cross. That angers me.”

One Run For Boston debuted last year, organized just weeks after the bombing, and raised $91,000 to assist survivors and impacted families. Three friends from England — Danny Bent, Kate Treleraven and James Hay — were the driving force behind organizing the relay.

“There really is such a thing as the running community,” Doncaster said. “The whole thing came together so quickly. Runners jumped on board from all over the country to complete the route.”

The baton is traveling through California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, New York, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Shipley, who coaches a running group in Seven Fields, will be doing the Boston Marathon for the first time this year.

“A good friend of mine, Kristy Brown, lives in Pittsburgh and participated in this last year,” he said. “I decided to run with her this year. It’s a very visible event and that helps in the fundraising.”

McCloud lived in Boston during the 1990s and describes the marathon there as an event “that brings that entire community together.”

“The Boston Marathon is a holiday for that city. Businesses along the race route have office parties and watch the runners go by,” McCloud said. “People come out and stand along the route and at the finish line to cheer runners on whether they know them or not.

“For someone to do such a heinous thing on such an uplifting day ... I can’t find the words. It’s very emotional for me. I’ve stood at that very spot where that bomb went off.”

McCloud has a sister living in Boston who works as a nurse.

“(The bombing) is still very raw there. People just standing around watching have had their lives changed forever,” she said. “The way they’re adjusting and going about their lives, some still in the hospital or still rehabbing, it’s very inspiring to me.”

Doncaster said the baton has already been used to “swat the nose of a wild dog in the desert, fend off coyotes, and it got held up by a tornado warning in St. Louis. But it will reach its destination. It’s very symbolic.”

Church, who has run a marathon in 46 states thus far and will have completed one in all 50 states by next March, isn’t surprised the One Run For Boston has gained so much support.

“Word travels fast,” He said. “People run for different reasons. It’s an honor to play a small role in this. It’s a way of fighting back.”

Shipley said the final legs of the relay in Boston will be run by surviving members of the bombing.

“The wife of a police officer killed that day will carry it across the finish line,” he said. “It’s a privilege to take part in something like this.”