Registered dietitian Michelle Piro will run the 130th Boston Marathon in support of Spoonfuls. She says running for a charity with such a connection to her professional life makes this experience much more meaningful.
But her Boston Marathon roots go much deeper. Her grandfather, Jerry, qualified and competed in the historic race 25 times and ran the 100th Boston Marathon.
“I’ve always wanted to run the Boston Marathon,” she says. “It’s been a dream of mine forever.”
Piro says that as a registered dietitian who studied nutrition and health promotion, she has always been passionate about food.
“The fact that they really reduce food waste and help fight insecurity as well within that process just really stood out to me,” she says.
As part of the team raising money for Spoonfuls, Piro got a chance to ride along with the Spoonfuls team and learn more about the work they do.
“That was a really cool experience,” she says. “Just to see how much they really do acquire and how much it’s so needed with the different organizations that they drop it off at.”
Piro says with such a deep family connection to the Boston Marathon, she knew she wanted it to be her first marathon. She says she grew up with stories of how her grandfather started running in his 40s and 50s, so this moment is full circle for her and her family.
“I was also born in 1996, and it is 30 years from when he ran,” she says. “I thought that was kind of a cool tie as well. It’s also running in memory of them.”
While her grandfather died in 2020 and her grandmother passed away last August, Piro has some of her grandfather’s mementos to help inspire her training.
“I have a lot of his old Boston memorabilia, old Boston T-shirts and jackets,” she says. “He ran the 100th marathon, Boston Marathon, so I have his old medal in my desk drawer,” she says. “It’s just so cool being able to come full circle and listening to those stories growing up and be able to do that now this year, especially on an anniversary year, I feel like it’s such a cool opportunity.”
As a Boston native, she says training has been going well, and she had a good foundation of running as she went into the training cycle. She says she’s also got a leg up as a dietitian as well, with the right foods and hydration.
And this means a lot of fresh produce. Piro says she enjoys mixing up and eating seasonally.
“Recently I’ve been utilizing a lot of citrus fruits, lots of oranges, especially a good snack or a refreshing thing to add to my meal after a run, or just in general,” she says. “Lots of oranges, lots of bananas. I feel like that’s a big part of training.”
Piro says she’s also eating a lot of apples, especially Cosmic Crisp, which she says she’ll eat as a snack and add to breakfast.
Vegetables, including squash and potatoes for carbohydrates, also play a key role in fueling her training.
“I also love a good fresh salad,” she says. “I’ll do a lot of different fun salads depending on the week and what I’m in the mood for. And that way, I’ll add a lot of different extra chopped veggies depending, too, on what’s on sale or what’s in season. I really emphasize any variety of different things. I feel like there’s no shortage of opportunities to get more produce in.”
Piro says she’s excited to continue her family’s legacy with the Boston Marathon and that being a part of Team Spoonfuls has made her first marathon more meaningful.
“Running for an organization that I just have the utmost respect for and something that I’m so passionate about with public health promotion and food access — I feel like it’s just the perfect storm,” she says.
