Thursday, October 1, 2026
When Oyster Bay native Elisia Gallo crossed the finish line of the 2025 Boston Marathon, she completed more than her first 26.2-mile race.
The recent Boston College graduate had also raised more than $20,000 for Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s Stepping Strong Center for Trauma Innovation, turning months of training into support for trauma survivors and their families.
“I knew I wasn’t just running for myself,” Gallo said. “I was running for this whole community, for the hospital, for the Stepping Strong team, and I was fired up, and I was ready to go.”
The 21-year-old Oyster Bay High School graduate recently earned a degree in economics and business from Boston College, and plans to work in sales at Bloomberg starting in August. While she has been involved in sports like track and soccer for years, running a marathon was never part of her plan.
She discovered running as a seventh-grader, and competing in track and field at Oyster Bay Middle School. “I really enjoyed the group of friends that I was with,” she recalled. “It was almost like we were suffering in track, because it’s very hard to do without a good group of people.”
She ran the Long Island Half Marathon as a high school senior, and completed another half marathon while studying abroad in Barcelona, Spain. But it was an unexpected opportunity last fall that set her on the path toward Boston.
After a friend decided not to run the Cambridge Half Marathon in November, Gallo stepped in and ran the 13.1-mile race in her stead. “I hopped in without any training,” she said.
Encouraged by Kevin Cotter, head coach of track, field and cross country programs at Oyster Bay High School, who had run the Boston Marathon, Gallo decided to apply for one of the race’s limited charity entries, and submitted applications in mid-November 2024, five months before the race — but still a month or two later than most other applicants. Shortly afterward, Brigham and Women’s Hospital contacted her with an offer.
“They reached out to me and said, ‘We have our first meeting tomorrow,’” she recounted, “so I’m pretty sure I was the last bid that they gave out.”
Along with the coveted marathon entry came a daunting challenge: raising $15,000 in just four months. When she told her parents about both the opportunity and the fundraising goal, the reaction was immediate.
“I called them, and I told them that I was running the Boston Marathon, and that I needed to fundraise $15,000,” Gallo said, “and they were, like, ‘Are you asking us?’ I was like, ‘I am telling you, OK.’”
The hospital’s cause had personal significance for the Gallo family. The Stepping Strong Center was founded in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, in which three people were killed and hundreds injured, and it supports trauma research and recovery efforts. The mission resonated with Gallo after her father, Mario Gallo, had been first on the scene of a serious motorcycle accident involving two friends in 2024. The experience, he said, reinforced his family’s longstanding commitment to helping others.
“We surround ourselves around trying to help community,” he said. “That’s what really made this hit home; it’s running to help people who are less fortunate.”
In addition, Elisia’s mother, Kelly, is an operating room nurse with 25 years of experience treating trauma patients.
To reach her fundraising goal, Elisia partnered with Boston nightlife promoters and organized ticket sales connected to events throughout the spring semester. “It was a great cause, so people were very passionate about donating as well,” she said.
Support came from classmates, coaches, family members and members of both the Boston College and Oyster Bay communities. Once she reached the $15,000 goal, she decided to keep going, eventually raising over $20,000.
At the same time, Gallo faced the challenge of preparing for her first marathon after beginning serious training only in January, three months before the race.
She started with shorter runs before gradually increasing her mileage, and supplemented her training with CrossFit classes and recovery sessions in a campus hot tub. At home during winter break, she and three friends formed an informal running group and trained on Oyster Bay’s roads and trails.
Back at school, Gallo lived near the marathon route, which gave her the chance to train on the city’s famous hills, including the difficult climbs near the B.C. campus that have challenged generations of runners.
“They really didn’t have nothing on me,” she said. “We were cruising up those hills.”
Gallo completed the race in 4 hours and 23 seconds, narrowly missing her goal of finishing in under four hours. Nonetheless, she described the marathon as a celebration rather than an ordeal.
“A lot of marathon runners will call the marathon itself the victory lap,” she said, “and I couldn’t even think of two better words to describe it.”
Before the race, she wrote the numbers 1 through 26 on her arm and dedicated each mile to a different person, place or group that had helped her along the way.
For Mario Gallo, seeing his daughter succeed came as no surprise. “She’s an old soul that gets driven,” he said. “If you keep your mind to it, you’re gonna do well, and you’re gonna succeed.”
His daughter added that she has caught “the marathon bug,” and looks forward to running another 26-miler soon.
