BOSTON – Team Amy For Africa is back in Boston.
One year after Amy Compston competed in the 2013 Boston Marathon, where she was a top 15 percent finisher in the female division, the mission-minded runner has returned to compete on Monday.
Along with that honor, Team AFA took to the streets of Boston on Friday and handed out more than 450 gospel tracts. The eight adults on the trip, led by Amy, put them in the hands of hundreds at the Boston Marathon Expo downtown.
Amy says she simply took a cue from her daughter Bailee, who hands out the tracts with a smile and a thank you. Amy’s children didn’t make the trip this year, leaving that duty to family, friends and supporters of her mission, Amy For Africa, that started last May and has raised nearly $51,000 for missions in Moyo, Uganda.
Team AFA hopes to hand out at least 1,500 tracts before returning on Tuesday.
On Saturday, Amy’s husband, Chris, and oldest sister, Amanda, will be running in the Boston 5K at 8 a.m. Team AFA will then take in a game at historic Fenway Park between the Red Sox and Orioles in the afternoon. Others on the trip are Amy’s parents, Steve Wesolowski and Kathy Whitely, Mark and Beth Maynard, Chris, Amanda and family friend Mark Arthur.
Meanwhile, Amy will be cheering and eating candy – it’s a carb-loading day for the marathon runner, one of the few training perks.
Being back in Boston has brought back good and bad memories for the family. They pointed out areas downtown where the family waited for Amy to cross the finish line. It was also only about 20 feet from where the bombs went off that killed three and injured 264.
“It feels like we were just here,” said Chris Compston. “We all have a lot of memories.”
More than 36,000 runners are expected to participate on Monday, including 5,600 who didn’t get to finish last year’s race.