Marathon Sports Boston Group Run

About 200 runners from the Wednesday night run clubs at Marathon Sports ran the final part of the course together. 

On one level, the Wednesday night run clubs at the Marathon Sports stores in the greater Boston area are just like any other weekday running groups at any other running store in America. But the past year has brought these runners closer together, created a collective sense of motivation and helped those in the Boston running community move on as best possible from last year’s bombing tragedy. (The first bomb blast went off in front of the Boylston Street store window, just 50 feet from the Boston Marathon finish line.)

This week, about 200 runners from the Wednesday night run clubs at the Boston (Boylston Street), Wellesley and Brookline stores met at the Brookline store and ran 3.5 miles to the Boston store as their final group run before Monday’s Boston Marathon. About two-thirds of the runners are running the marathon on Monday, including many who are running for Team One Fund and raising between $8,000 and $25,000 for the charity that supports the bombing victims. (Although the run paralleled the final few miles of the course, the group made sure to avoid the final part of the course: They avoided turning on Hereford Street, only ran about a half block on Boylston and none of them crossed the marathon finish line.) The run concluded with beer, pizza, hugs, laughs, Adidas schwag and some final pre-race strategy talk. Oh, and, with the permission of the Boston police officers on duty at the marathon finish line, they got together for one epic group photo.

For more about the runners in the Wednesday night run clubs at Marathon Sports, scroll through the videos and stories in our “Boston Strong” multimedia package and flip through the photos below.