The Boston Marathon is full of stories. At Mile 20, on the corner of Commonwealth and Center, sits Heartbreak Hill, where Tarzan Brown bolted away from John Kelly and, famously, “broke his heart.” Since then, countless marathons have been won or lost on that incline. At the base of it sits the Heartbreak Hill Running Company, a fixture of the Boston Running Community.
Last winter, we collaborated on a collection of apparel. I would design the clothes, imbuing them with Marathon tales, and they would create them. Over the course of the season, we would release the clothes along with a series of promotional comics featuring “Heartbreak Jill,” a readheaded runner in the Boston Marathon. 

First, we made hats and shirts featuring the “Hopkinton Express,” a big yellow school bus, driven by the store’s founder, Dan Fitzgerald. The race runs from Hopkinton to Boston, so most marathoners will take a school bus to the starting line before making their way back on foot. 

For the first installment of the comics, Jill stands beneath the statue of John Kelly at the base of the hill, trying to hitch a ride to the start. She meets two other runners who are both trying to win the race and they decided to wait together. Finally, Dan stops his big yellow bus and offers them a lift.

Next, we dropped the “Oh-Sh*t-I-Forgot-My” Gloves that paid homage to Bill Rodgers. On a cold Patriots Day in 1975, with nothing to cover his hands, Bill had his brother grab some gloves from a nearby hardware store. For the next two hours and nine minutes, Bill led the charge back to Boston and set an American Record, all while wearing those goofy gloves.  Our gloves— simple, white painter’s gloves— featured the Heartbreak logo on the wrist. 

Once the runners in the comic are at the starting line, Jill realizes that she forgot her gloves, and one of her newfound friends offers her his, telling the tale of how he was once in a similar situation.

Lastly, we had the “Switzshirt,” a big, grey sweatshirt that that looked an awful lot like Katherine Switzer’s sweatshirt from 1967. In those days, women weren’t allowed to apply for numbers for the Marathon, so Katherine bypassed this by registering as the ambiguous “K.V. Switzer.” She then proceeded to run the race— the first woman to ever officially do so— before the director, furious at getting tricked, tried to rip off her bib (he didn’t, and she finished). Our version had a bib sewn on, so that nobody could rip it off. 

In the comic, Jill has trouble securing her bib to her shirt, so she borrows some from her other new friend, who tells her that every since an earlier incident, she’s sewn her bib to her sweatshirt. 

The comics closes with Jill and her friends running by the Heartbreak Hill storefront, where Dan is there to cheer them on.

All the of the comics were printed and on display the Saturday before the marathon, when the store hosted a party celebrating the collection. Runners could drink, shop, get their Switzshirt bibs customized, and anyone who bought something could get their portrait drawn.