The Boston Marathon: Philanthropy, a Dare, and a Fellini Movie

This week, more than 30,000 runners took to the streets in and around Beantown for the 128^th annual Boston Marathon. The course takes runners from the town of Hopkinton straight into downtown Boston. To get a feel for what it’s like to participate, we spoke to four attorneys with very different experiences taking part in the event.

Pamela Gilman, Barton Gilman

Year(s) Ran: 2007 and 2014

Pamela Gilman was never a long-distance runner, but she’d always wanted to run the Boston Marathon in honor of both of her parents. Her mother passed away from non-Hodgkin Lymphoma, and her father has always been a runner, taking it up as what Gilman calls his “mental health break from two daughters.”

In 2007, when Gilman was nearing 50, she determined it was time. She joined Team in Training and, along with a group of other first-timers, trained for and completed the event. “It was just incredible to have my dad standing there at the finish line,” she says. “Other than the birth of my two kids, it was one of the greatest days of my life.”

She thought she was “one and done,” she says, but several years later, Gilman’s sister was diagnosed with Stage 4 Hodgkin Lymphoma. Thankfully, through a combination of drugs and in-hospital chemotherapy, she survived—and Gilman decided to run in 2014.

“I opted to run again in honor of my sister—thankfully, not in memory,” she says. “I was thrilled to be able to do it, and would do it again in a heartbeat if I could.”

Ann Hetherwick “Hether” Cahill, Day Pitney

Year(s) Ran: 2019

While training with Team Brookline, Hether Cahill found much more than fitness; she found community.

Cahill, who had run half marathons previously but never a full, says that because of its philanthropy and welcoming spirit, Team Brookline attracts runners from all walks of life. She met a woman with a fractured hip who missed half the trainings but went on to run 22 more marathons, a man who essentially made good on a dare after a friend suggested they both put their names in to qualify, and more.

The organization raises funds for five local charities: the Brookline Library Foundation, Brookline Center for Community Mental Health, Brookline Education Foundation,

Brookline Symphony Orchestra, and Brookline Teen Center. Runners who sign on are given access to education and training plans and quickly form bonds over their desire to give back to their town.

“It was just an incredible group of people and a wide range of experience, skills and background,” says Cahill. “We always showed up for each other every weekend, every run.”

Julie Moore, Employment Practices Group

Year(s) Ran: 27 between 1988 and 2024

Monday marked Julie Moore’s 27th Boston Marathon, and her 70th marathon altogether. An avid runner since high school, she’s taken part in long-distance events across the country, from Big Sur to Savannah to Niagara Falls—but Boston remains at the top of her list.

“It’s the oldest, it’s the most prestigious, it’s the only one you have to qualify for,” Moore says. “There’s an aura, a vibe—it’s just outstanding. It’s so much history. Everyone who is a marathon runner, they just aspire to run Boston.”

The race has changed a great deal since her first run in 1988; now, for instance, her friends and family can track her progress on an app, and time when they come outside to cheer her on. One year, she says, her son and his girlfriend were able to track her so closely that they popped out of work at just the moment she was passing by.

Her favorite stretch of the run has also changed. At first, it was downtown Natick, where she grew up. “I felt I knew everybody,” she says.

Now, in her adopted hometown of Wellesley, the support is just as strong. “There are lots of familiar faces,” she says. “I love that.”

Lawrence M. Green, Sunstein

Years Ran: 2000-2007

Larry Green started running the Boston Marathon in 2000 in partnership with a friend who worked at a local charity. “I had to raise a certain amount of money, and if I did, I could run under their name,” he says.

He raised the money and wound up qualifying for the event, then had so much fun that he went on to do it again six more times.

One of Green’s favorite parts of the race is the intensity of the crowds. “You get crowds the entire 26.2 miles,” he says. “In some places they’re five rows deep. The whole experience is really exciting and energizing and a lot of fun to do.”

Green’s most memorable experience on the route happened at Heartbreak Hill, an infamous half-mile incline that occurs 20 miles into the race. To boost his energy at the bottom of the hill, he took a gel supplement of carbohydrates and caffeine thinking it would give him a helping hand.

It played out slightly differently.

“For a few minutes, I was feeling the effects of the caffeine and I felt like I was hallucinating,” he says. “I felt like I was in a Fellini movie where everyone was moving really slowly. It lasted maybe for about five minutes, but it all seemed very surreal.”