Running by Bostonians for Bostonians: Local groups race to demystify and diversify the world of running
Written by Jake Bentzinger, Karissa Korman, Rose Pecci and Sage Scott. Graphics and photos by Karissa Korman. Map by Sage Scott.
Runners — some decked in neon KT Tape or strapped into deflated CamelBaks — turned the corner to a crowd of cheering friends and family over Patriots’ Day weekend in Boston. These racers were chasing the tail end of their 26.2 mile trek through the city, but they weren’t running April’s marquee event, the Boston Marathon. They were part of the “26.TRUE” marathon, an alternate event planned by a local running group dedicated to disrupting Boston’s often insular running community.
In a city like Boston, home to 23 diverse neighborhoods and a severe racial wealth gap spread unevenly across those neighborhoods, “running” may strike a discordant note.
It may conjure images of white women decked in expensive Lululemon or Outdoor Voices logging miles down the Charles River Esplanade after work, or of the elite racers tearing through the Boston Marathon course that is primarily not — ironically enough — actually in Boston.
But local running groups like PIONEERS Run Crew, the hosts of the 26.TRUE race, are gathering together and hitting the pavement to demystify and diversify the world of running.
The Boston Marathon is a cultural staple in the city of Boston that brings runners from all over the world together to raise money for various charities and organizations and to compete in the world’s oldest annual marathon. The 127th Boston Marathon took place on Patriots’ Day on April 17, but just a couple of days before that another 26.2-mile race was held in Boston.
The 26.TRUE, a full marathon on an alternative course designed to amplify and celebrate the culture and diversity of the neighborhoods that make up Boston. The 26.TRUE is just one part of recent efforts by local organizations and community leaders to expand access to running and walking in the Greater Boston area with a focus on communities of color.
“We want to provide access points to running and walking for anyone that wants to participate and then for those groups that have been historically excluded and marginalized, find ways to identify what are some of the barriers that have prevented people from being able to participate and how do we, as a collective, eliminate and remove those barriers,” said Suzanne Walmsley, director of youth and community engagement at the Boston Athletic Association (B.A.A.) and Boston Running Collaborative Steering Committee member.
The B.A.A., a nonprofit running-focused organized sports association, organizes and hosts the Boston Marathon each year, as well as many other races and events in the Greater Boston area. In January 2022 the B.A.A. launched the Boston Running Collaborative, an initiative to build an inclusive and diverse running community in Boston. The Collaborative is led by a steering committee from Greater Boston’s running and non-profit communities and has members from a variety of organizations and groups that are committed to addressing barriers to walking, running and a healthy lifestyle.
Because it hosts numerous races in the Greater Boston area, the BAA is well-equipped to help organize running and walking events alongside grassroots groups. The annual Road to Wellness 5K, empowered by the Dimock Community Health Center and HoodFit in addition to the BAA, was the first of the community-centered running and walking events that the Boston Running Collaborative now works to establish.
The Dimock Community Health Center and HoodFit are both part of the Boston Running Collaborative. Thaddeus Miles, director of community services at MassHousing, founded HoodFit, an initiative that aims to empower Boston’s Black community to embrace physical and mental wellness. Miles is one of eight members of the Boston Running Collaborative’s steering committee, which meets monthly to identify the wants and needs of the communities it serves and determines how to implement programs and events that will benefit the Greater Boston community.
They have coordinated races that may be walked, run, or biked— whatever gets members of the community active— and a health fair that provides people with free information, resources, and supplies necessary for good health.
“We’re looking at how do we not just run to address some of the health disparities, but how do we actually create a health fair that allows people to connect with some different sets of resources,” said Miles. “We’re addressing some of the health inequities, some of the social determinants of health in connection with other groups.”
He hopes that these resources will not only improve physical and mental health in Roxbury, but also encourage more accurate representative perception of the people living there.
“When you see the run itself, it has a level of connectivity that changes the narrative, I believe, of what some may see as imagery of Roxbury as image of people of color across the city,” said Miles.
In addition to working with community organizations and individuals to identify, develop and prioritize running and walking initiatives, the Boston Running Collaborative and the BAA help to financially support groups that align with their mission to expand access to fitness and exercise. In honor of the 125th Boston Marathon, the B.A.A. and the Boston Running Collaborative awarded $125,000 total in grants to 12 organizations.
Among the groups that received grant money from the Collaborative was Adaptive Sports New England, a Massachusetts non-profit dedicated to increasing participation in sports by youth and adults who have physical disabilities or vision impairment. According to Joe Walsh, president of Adaptive Sports New England, the grant went directly to funding adaptive sports programs such as the organization’s wheelchair track program and wheelchair basketball.
“Many communities have got a strong presence and a strong identity around their sports and that has physical benefits for participants, but it also has psychological and social benefits,” said Walsh, the sole representative of adaptive racing in the Boston Running Collaborative. “Access to sport in general, it’s essential that it be open to the widest range of people so that those who will benefit from it can choose to participate.
Many of the organizations that contribute to the Boston Running Collaborative hosted events and activities in the Greater Boston area during marathon weekend. This year, Black Men Run’s Boston Chapter held its third annual shakeout run and Black history tour of Boston on the Sunday before the Boston Marathon. Additionally, a Boston Running Collaborative panel took place on that same Sunday where members of the Collaborative spoke about building community through running.
On the Saturday before this year’s Boston Marathon was the Black Unicorn Marathoners ninth annual celebrate and connect event, a free, public celebration of BIPOC runners. Olympian and 2014 Boston Marathon winner Meb Keflezighi led the procession of marathoners at the annual Boston meetup, which took place at the Reggie Lewis State Track & Athletic Center. Runners at the event took turns stating their name, city and the number of Boston Marathons they have participated in. Many of the attendees belonged to groups associated with the Boston Running Collaborative, such as Black Girls Run! Boston and TrailblazHers Run Co.
“We know that there are a lot of things that stand in the way of people being able to devote time and energy to their health,” said Walmsley. “Really, what we’re here to do as the Boston Athletic Association is to support the work and help provide opportunities for it to become sustainable and also stable, but we know that it’s the community members that know best what they need and what they’d like to have.”
But the work of grassroots running clubs and — and even major organizations like the B.A.A. — isn’t finished running its course.
On Marathon Monday, members of PIONEERS Run Crew and TrailblazHers Run Co., two racially diverse running clubs, cheered for their fellow members around Mile 21 in Newton, hopping onto the course a few times as their friends ran by.
Maureen Milliken, a Maine resident who ran the Marathon four times between 2005 and 2009, told the Boston Globe that spectators running onto the course to give kisses, high-fives and water, or to run alongside loved ones was “incredibly common.”
But police officers on bikes lined up in front of the spectators and acted as a barrier between the group and the course.
““The military-style formation of the police officers is a concrete example and visual representation of the intimidation and over-policing of Black people,” wrote Tasheena M. Davis and Iván Espinoza-Madrigal of Lawyers for Civil Rights in a letter to the mayor and police chief.
“It’s sad, because as a white woman, I was always struck at how overly white the runners and spectators were in a sport that could so easily be inclusive,” Milliken told the Globe.
KARISSA KORMAN 