They ran 10 miles in kilts for a cousin gone too soon
Over 4,100 runners participated in the 10th annual EQT Pittsburgh 10 Miler on Nov. 7. Two of them ran in kilts.
Dani Marsh, 33, of Edgewood, is an avid and accomplished runner, but transitioned toward pacing others or for charity instead of for her own personal-best times. But this was the first one where the “cause” was so close to home.
She ran with her cousin, Joshua Line, 24, of Brookline, and together, they donned the tartan garments in honor of their cousin, 39-year-old Michael Bolger, who died from complications of type I diabetes in early October.
He was known as “the family IT guy,” a fantastic cook and an avid reader. Being half Scottish — and “really leaning into that,” as Marsh says — he wore kilts to every family wedding and holiday get together.
For all of those reasons, he and Marsh had a bond.
Of their two or three
weekly phone calls, at least one was to fix whichever piece of technology she broke that day. The others might have been about a new book or recipe he thought she’d enjoy. And each conversation included their good-natured banter, with Marsh aiming comments at his kilt-wearing and Bolger taunting her about her inexplicable aversion to sloths and clowns.
His cousins, Marsh and Line, are in a running group together, and planned to participate in the EQT Pittsburgh 10 Miler. But when they learned the race would come just one day after Bolger’s
celebration of life, which the family chose instead of a funeral, they knew two of his kilts had to come along for the ride.
Marsh chose the thickest one, which made it easier to wrap around her small frame. But that choice also made it the heaviest and served as a constant reminder the race’s purpose.
“I pictured him, not in a sad way, but kind of like he was laughing at me,” she said, imagining the ribbing she’d get for lugging that kilt along with her on an uncharacteristically warm November day.
She and Line spent much of the race chatting about their older cousin, but when it finished, Marsh needed some silence.
“Because he was so young and it was such a sudden death, I’d been in denial a little bit,” she said. “The race helped me realize … “
She needed a moment for herself after those 10 miles, but there’s no doubt the previous 1:23:04 — her official finish time — were all for her oldest cousin, whose kilts continue to provide that dash of Michael-ness to special events, as they always have.