Gina Woiak participated in her first marathon in October 2005, mostly running — with a little walking — through a forest of redwood trees in Humboldt, California. As difficult as that task was, nearly as challenging was her stay at a local inn with her sister, Kim Carter.

“The bed and breakfast we stayed at had this huge set of stairs to go up to our room, and I didn’t know anything about the soreness after a marathon,” she said with a laugh. “I remember those stairs to this day because I struggled to go up and down them.”

Eighteen years later, Woiak, a Baltimore resident and high school chemistry teacher who turned 50 on Sept. 2, is on the verge of finishing a monumental assignment. She will run in the marathon portion of Saturday’s Baltimore Running Festival, completing her quest of 50 marathons in all 50 states.

Woiak said she expects about 50 to 60 family members and friends to attend the race. Among that group will be colleagues and students from Western Tech, where she formerly taught, and Catonsville, her current school, eager to see her dream come to fruition.

“She’s just worked so hard for it, and I think we’re just all so excited to see her succeed,” said Kim Bickerstaff, a biology teacher at Western Tech who described Woiak as her mentor. “This is a huge goal. I can’t even fathom it. This is something that has taken years and so much time and energy. It’s going to be so cool when she crosses the finish line.”

Woiak’s journey to this stage was somewhat unexpected. Growing up in CentrevilIe on the Eastern Shore, the former Gina Young was a volleyball player in the fall and a sprinter in the winter and spring at Queen Anne’s County High. Although she concentrated on the 100-, 200- and 400-meter events, she marveled at her friends who were distance runners.

“When practice started, they left, and two hours later, they came back because they were running the whole time,” she said. “I was always in awe.”

After graduating from Towson University in 1996 with a bachelor’s in natural science that included a concentration in chemistry, Woiak began teaching chemistry at Western Tech. Work and stress took up significant portions of her day until she joined four other teachers in running in 5Ks, 10Ks and 10-milers.

On April 3, 2005, Michael Hassan, an 18-year-old senior defenseman for the Western Tech boys lacrosse team, died of severe bleeding inside his brain after playing in a tournament the day before. Hassan’s death sparked a conversation between Woiak and a colleague about what they wanted to achieve in their lives.

“For some reason, running a marathon is what came to my head,” she said. “It definitely had always been a curiosity of mine.”

During her second marathon, the St. Jude Marathon in Memphis, Tennessee, on her birthday in 2006, Woiak heard some runners discussing the idea of running one marathon in all 50 states.

“I had never heard of that before, and I thought, ‘Well, I’ve done two in two different states. Maybe I need to look this up,’ ” she said. “Then I got addicted to it. I got addicted to getting faster, I got addicted to going to places that just weren’t on my radar to visit. And then you end up having these crazy, awesome times in these towns and states you never thought you’d go to.”

Woiak, who met Riley Woiak in 2010 and married him in 2014, has taken part in marathons in 49 states, Washington, D.C., and the Cayman Islands. She said two of her favorites are the first one in California and one in Maui, Hawaii, in April.

Woiak competed in four marathons per year. With her current training schedule, she averages 1,500 miles annually and changes her running shoes every 500 miles.

Along the way, Woiak has overcome injuries to her IT band and Achilles tendon and a bout of plantar fasciitis. Jennie Roe, a 48-year-old science teacher at Western Tech who ran in at least 20 marathons with Woiak, admires her friend’s determination.

“I think people don’t see that every time she goes out there, it’s still not easy to run a marathon no matter how many you’ve done,” Roe said. “In that sense, she’s a great inspiration for anyone that really thinks about it that way.”

Woiak credited Bickerstaff with suggesting she save Maryland as the destination to complete her 50-marathons-in-50-states mission. Woiak said she is taking a little bit of a relaxed approach to Saturday’s race.

“I’m not worried about my time,” she said. “Obviously, I still trained for it, but I’ll run my thing, and when I see friends and family, I’m going to stop and take pictures, and I’m going to hug anybody that wants to hug. I’m going to celebrate it.”

Riley Woiak said his wife is a role model for him and others who have reached out to them.

“It’s amazing to see not only the fact that she’s able to do it, but the sheer number of people that are rallying around her and want to celebrate with her,” he said. “That’s the part that really gets me. When you talk about the 50 or 60 people that are going to come, those are the people that are going to be there, but there’s many others that aren’t going to be there that are supportive of her.”

Woiak — who has competed in marathons in Boston, which she will run again April 15, and Chicago — has earned a qualifying time for the New York City Marathon, which is lottery-based. Once she participates in that one, she said she will turn her attention to completing what is known as the Abbott World Marathon Majors, which includes the three American events and those in Berlin, London and Tokyo.

Woiak keeps her medals from every marathon in a rack in her home office and hangs each bib number on a wire above the rack. She recently received from a fellow teacher a necklace of a dopamine molecule, which is the chemical reaction that drives certain behaviors.

Even after the Baltimore marathon, Woiak said she intends to continue running “as long as my body will let me. I appreciate the adventures it has brought me, the things I’ve seen and the places I’ve visited that I definitely wouldn’t have gone otherwise.”