Bridget Montgomery received this year's 2006 Margaret L. Bradley award. Universal Sole Track Club of Chicago picked Bridget Montgomery to receive the 2006 Margaret L. Bradley Award. The award will provide Montgomery with transportation expenses from Chicago to Boston to race the Boston Marathon.

Montgomery ran a 3:04:33 marathon in Chicago in 2002. She was a teammate of Margaret Bradley's on the Universal Sole team.

The Greater Boston Track Club and Universal Sole TC jointly established the Margaret Bradley award in honor of Margaret after her 2004 death. The intent of the award is to send one runner annually from GBTC to compete in the Chicago marathon and to bring one runner annually from Universal Sole to compete in the Boston Marathon. The two clubs intend for the award to continue in perpetuity for the purpose of recognizing and aiding aspiring, young, female marathoners who are of similar ability to that of Bradley.

Montgomery began running at the age of 7 through a local summer track program. She competed for the University of St. Francis in Joliet, Ill., her freshman year in college and then transferred to Boston College. She ran her first marathon during her senior year in college -- a 3:13 at the Sunburst in South Bend, Ind.

Montgomery graduated summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa from Boston College in 2002. She joined the Greater Boston Track Club but moved to Chicago before Margaret Bradley joined GBTC. But when Bradley left Boston for medical school in Chicago, GBTC coach Tom Derderian urged her to find Bridget Montgomery for a training partner.

Montgomery is currently pursuing her masters in English and Gender and Women's Studies at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she also works in the writing center and occasionally teaches freshman composition. Along with her graduate work, she is working as an editor and writer at For Her Information Chicago.

"I could speak forever about Margaret," Montgomery says. "We always had a special bond, since we both ran for GBTC and Universal Sole. She had an infectious smile and a contagious energy and thirst for life. She was a fierce competitor and a loyal friend; she was the kind of person that people want to be in life."

Margaret L. Bradley was a member of GBTC who died in the Grand Canyon on July 10, 2004, at the age of 24. Margaret ran the 2003 Chicago marathon in 2:58:52 and led the GBTC women's team to victory in the 2004 Boston Marathon with a time of 3:04:54, finishing as 31st woman. Margaret lived in Chicago in 2003 and 2004, and while living there she competed with the Universal Sole track club.

"I know my teammates at Universal Sole were magnetically attracted to her deep love for the sport and her ability to wow all of us by pursuing her medical studies while running 90 to 100 miles a week," Montgomery says. " We shared an unspoken rhythm that runners often do when they run down a snow-covered road in the dead months of winter. I miss her optimism, her spirit, her love for our sport, her friendship, her intellectual curiosity, her determination . . . Margaret taught me so much about running, but even more important than that, she taught me about friendship and compassion."

GBTC is trying to build an endowment that will enable this award to be given in perpetuity. For more information or to make a donation, please contact the chair of the Margaret Bradley award committee www.gbtc.org.