Best-selling author Christopher McDougall (“Born to Run”) will be in town on marathon weekend promoting his new book, “Natural Born Heroes: How a Daring Band of Misfits Mastered the Lost Secrets of Strength and Endurance.”

WalkBoston and the Somerville Road Runners are helping with a free fun run and Wild Fitness workout before the 2pm event! We’ll set off toward the river, covering 5k with a mid-run workout led by Wild Fitness creator Tara Wood.

The run is free, though runners must still hold a ticket to gain admission to the 2pm event (the 7pm event is now no longer ticketed, see changes below).

BOSTON:

Meet for the free run at 12pm. RSVP for the run on Facebook
Location: Old South Church, 645 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02116
Book Event & Stage Show to follow at 2pm (Buy a $5 ticket while supplies last)

CAMBRIDGE: 

Some big changes for the Cambridge event – the run is now just in Boston at 12pm, the 7pm event is now FREE, and it is taking place at the Harvard Book Store itself! Location: Harvard Book Store, 1256 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02138 (NO RSVP NECESSARY FOR 7PM EVENT)

Want to win a pair of tickets to attend the 2pm book event? We’ll be doing Twitter giveaways on the 3 Fridays leading up to the Boston Marathon: 4/3 (congrats Jenna F.!), 4/10 (congrats Sirrah H.!) & 4/17!

Rules:

1. Follow Chris McDougall, WalkBoston and Somerville Road Runners

2. One of those accounts will send out a tweet on each Friday at 9AM that includes the phrase ‘RT to win’ in it; winners will be selected at 3pm that day from qualified entries.

3. If you are selected, we’ll tweet to you and direct you from there on how to get your tickets!

About the organizations:
WalkBoston is a non-profit pedestrian advocacy organization dedicated to improving walking conditions in cities and towns across Massachusetts. Founded in 1990, our goal is to make walking and pedestrian needs a basic part of the transportation discussion. WalkBoston is working on everything from pedestrian safety programs to Safe Routes to School training to fixing signal timing at intersections, which all help make communities safer for runners.  A number of runners will be running the Boston Marathon again this year as part of the WalkBoston team raising money through the John Hancock Charity Program for WalkBoston! More info on our Crowdrise page.

The Somerville Road Runners are a charitable, non-profit organization that sponsors many events a year including weekly runs, track workouts, annual races and even competitive but delicious cook-offs! The club welcomes new members of all abilities. Keep your eye out for the black and gold singlets on Monday, as 60+ SRR runners will be on the course. More info at srr.org