Brooklyn Runners Raising Money for Boston Marathon Victims

In solidarity with and in order to help the people most hurt during the twin bombing attack on the Boston Marathon last week, NYCRUNS is sponsoring a fundraiser exactly one week after the Patriots’ Day tragedy.

Steve Lastoe, a resident of Windsor Terrace and a member of NYCRUNS in Downtown Brooklyn organized, as he puts it, a “virtual 5K” run in order to raise money for families most affected by the bombing.

“It was a direct attack on my community – that motivates me” said Lastoe, 41. “This race is our world” he added. “It’s as though somebody came into our church; the Boston Marathon is the Holy Grail.”

The Boston Marathon attack killed three people, including an 8 year-old boy, and injured 183 others, about a dozen losing limbs.

Participants in the NYCRUNS virtual 5K fundraiser will pay $25 to join. They will then do a timed 5-kilometer run or walk at their own convenience, as long as they finish their walk/run by 2:50pm on Monday, which will be exactly one week since the bombs exploded in Boston. Money raised will go to The One Fund Bosotn, which was established by Governor Deval Patrick of Massachusetts and Boston Mayor Tim Menino to help the victims of the bombing.

Lastoe said that NYCRUNS hopes to raise at least $25,000 from the virtual race.

The fund has already raised over $5,000 from more than 200 runners, some of them New Yorkers who participated in the Boston Marathon, the mother of all marathons.

Bay Ridge resident Cassie Nelson, 38, who was a half-mile from the finish at the Boston Marathon when the bombs exploded and she was told to stop her run said,

“I feel overwhelming sadness. It is all so senseless.”