Sports
Runners for Boston Solidarity Run Tonight at Running for Kicks
Staff at the Palos Heights running shoes and apparel store decided to join the legions of running stores across the country and hold a run in honor of Boston starting 6 p.m. Monday night.
Gail Ryan saw store after store post on Facebook that they were holding a solidarity run for Boston.
Quickly, the sales associate at Running for Kicks floated the idea among fellow staffers and owner Mel Diab, who returned along with the other local Yankee Runners from the Boston Marathon last week. Soon, Running for Kicks had their own event ready.
“I started thinking about it and all these stores across the nation seemed to be doing it,” Ryan said. “It grew to almost 100 people right away after we created our event page.”
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Two runs and one walk will be held starting 6 p.m. Monday from the store, and it's open to all fitness levels. One running route will go through the Ishnala subdivision, while the other will head north of the store, and both will be about four to six miles, Ryan said.
“We want as many people to come out as we can get,” Ryan said Friday while at the store. “There will be paces with pace leaders, ranging from a 7 minute 30 second mile pace to a 12 minute pace.”
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A walking group will go for about four miles as well, Ryan said. All participants will be in a group picture taken promptly at 6 p.m., and will receive a race bib donated by the nearby UPS Store.
“And we really do mean 6 p.m.,” Ryan said amid laughter. “It’s hard to get these folks to stand still for long when they know they are about to run.”
Attendees are encouraged to wear apparel from past races, or any Boston-related items.
As of Sunday evening, 149 people have said they would attend, with 36 maybes.
A donation container will also be available with all proceeds going to The One Fund, established by Boston and Massachusetts officials to help those affected by the bombing.
“We do Monday night fun runs, and we’ll get as many as 60 people for those,” Ryan said. “We’re hoping this will be our biggest Monday night run yet.”
Event: Runners for Boston Solidarity Run
Where: Running for Kicks, 7158 W. 127th Street (and Harlem)
When: 5:45 p.m. with runs and walk starting promptly at 6 p.m.
Light refreshments will be served after the run.
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