Boston runners blaze the trail for inclusion
AREA NONPROFITS AND THEIR BOSTON MARATHON TEAMS ARE WORKING TO ENSURE EVERYONE CAN ACCESS RUNNING AND ITS HEALTH BENEFITS.
The prestigious Boston Marathon celebrates elite runners. But it also celebrates those who make the sport more inclusive and those who qualify for the race based not on their speed, but on their commitment to fundraising and their community.
The Bank of America Boston Marathon Official Charity Program and its partnering nonprofits, among other causes, help make running — and its physical and mental benefits — more accessible by breaking down barriers.
The Hoyt Foundation: Radical, unapologetic inclusion
No one knows about inspiring inclusion better than the Massachusetts-based Hoyt family. Though Rick Hoyt had cerebral palsy, he regularly participated in the Boston Marathon with his dad, Dick Hoyt, pushing him in a wheelchair. The duo went from participating as unregistered bandits to marathon legends, competing in more than 1,000 races, including more than 30 Boston Marathons, between 1980 and 2014. “I still have people who, when they talk to me now, will say, ‘You know, the Boston Marathon for me was never over until I saw your father and Rick go by,’” says Russ Hoyt, Rick’s brother, and CEO and president of the Hoyt Foundation, which the family founded in 1989. The foundation’s mission is to provide people with disabilities what Rick’s mother and father gave him: the opportunity to be included. “If young children who have disabilities are seeing older children or adults with disabilities participating in these races,” Hoyt says, they “see the potential that they
They were the start of something different, something great for the Boston Marathon and the running community, just showing radical and unapologetic inclusion.” NATE KUDER
have or see an opportunity as opposed to a roadblock.”
Though Dick and Rick Hoyt have both passed away, the family’s legacy at the Boston Marathon lives on. A bronze statue near the starting line commemorates the duo, and participants on Team Hoyt — the foundation’s charity team — take on the course with the drive Dick and Rick exemplified.
“They were the start of something different, something great for the Boston Marathon and the running community, just showing radical and unapologetic inclusion,” says Nate Kuder, who is running the 2024 Boston Marathon on behalf of the Hoyt Foundation with his wife, Lyndsay. Together, they have pledged to raise $20,000 for the organization.
“The fact that we get to raise the money for the Hoyts and maybe make somebody’s life better, somebody with disabilities gets to be included in sports,” Kuder says, “it’s super inspiring for us.”
Black Girls RUN!: A sisterhood that’s changing lives
Making running more accessible is a multilayered mission. “It’s not just having access to a park or a well-lit sidewalk or neighborhood that I can go out in,” says Jay Ell Alexander, owner and CEO of Black Girls RUN! (BGR). “It’s also access to running shoes that aren’t affordable, or clothes that fit me properly, or race registrations.”
BGR, which was recently awarded the 2024 Dick & Rick Hoyt Award by the B.A.A., began as a blog in 2009 when the founders noticed few other Black women were in the races they were running. Alexander became the owner of BGR, which grew into a supportive community of Black women of all ability levels moving together, and started the BGR Foundation in 2018. They also offer run coaches and complimentary race registrations and gear.
Today, BGR has 75 chapters across 32 states and continues to grow.
The goal of the organization is two-fold: It aims to increase the representation of Black female runners and also bring awareness to health disparities that impact Black women, which include — but aren’t limited to — a higher risk for diabetes and heart disease.
This mission deeply resonates with NaTasha Washington, an ICU nurse in Boston.
“I see a lot of us, a lot of women, who look like me. I take care of them in the ICU,” she says. “It hurts me to think, ‘If only this person could have been a little bit more active and had a healthier lifestyle, maybe some of the things that they’re dealing with now wouldn’t have happened.’”
This year, Washington is fundraising and running the Boston Marathon for the first time for the Black Girls RUN! Foundation. “Who would have thought of me, at 50 years old, running a marathon?” says Washington, who grew up in Roxbury and Jamaica Plain. “The idea of me being able to run this race in my own hometown… It’s like the Super Bowl of races. It’s a huge honor.”
It doesn’t stop there
These are just two of the impactful organizations striving to improve athletic equity by supporting athletes here in Massachusetts. Visit the Boston Marathon’s official fundraising platform at bofa.com/helpacause to browse the nonprofit teams running the marathon this year and find ways to give back.
“The idea of me being able to run this race in my own hometown… It’s like the Super Bowl of races. It’s a huge honor.” NATASHA WASHINGTON