Stepping it up

April 17, 2007

Not long after the elite runners were crossing the finish line in Copley Square, three-time Boston Marathon winner Uta Pippig was on Heartbreak Hill waiting to cheer on the NOVA/Tufts Marathon Team she's been working with for a NOVA documentary, "Marathon," slated to air on PBS this fall. The documentary follows a small group of first-time marathoners. The peppy Pippig, now a motivational speaker and the founder of Take the Magic Step, gave the gang a roaring send - off and even met them at the finish line. . . . While their husbands -- Sox pitchers Curt Schilling and Mike Timlin -- were at Fenway Park waiting for the rain to clear, Shonda Schilling and Dawn Timlin took to the marathon course again yesterday. Schilling, running her third Boston Marathon, crossed the finish line in 4:53:58. She raised money for her SHADE Foundation of America, which seeks to eradicate melanoma. Timlin, who finished in 4:26:29, ran for the Angel Fund, a non profit supporting ALS investigations at MGH. . . . Former New England Patriot turned sports-blabber Steve DeOssie ran the marathon yesterday to raise money for the MS Cure Fund. His time: 5:24:09. . . . NASA astronaut Suni Williams ran her own version of the Boston Marathon aboard the International Space Station. The Needham - bred scientist ran the "course" in 4:23:46 while harnessed to a treadmill. She periodically asked Mission Control for updates on her sister, Dina Pandya, of East Falmouth, and NASA astronaut Karen Nyberg. Pandya finished in 4:14:30 and Nyberg completed the course in 3:32:19. . . . Restaurateur-concert promoter Keivan Mizrahi invited some of his fellow runners to his Worcester eatery Viva Bene for a little carbo-loading on Sunday night.

Mathews proud to show his mug

If you were arrested in Harvard Square and charged with indecent exposure for wearing SpongeBob Square Pants skivvies during a PETA protest, perhaps you'd be thankful the Cambridge police wouldn't release your mug shot. But not PETA chief Dan Mathews . He was so disappointed the cops wouldn't cough up his photo for his book, "Committed: A Rabble-Rouser's Memoir," that he had famed designer Todd Oldham shoot a cheeky re - creation. "Ironically, to avoid antagonizing the authorities, I had purposefully opted not to wear my blue Monopoly underwear, which say 'Go Directly to Jail' on the back," writes Mathews, who visits Borders in Downtown Crossing tomorrow. The March 1, 2004, arrest of Mathews and several other PETA supporters was chronicled in the local media after they staged a "bed-in" demonstration in The Pit near the entrance to the T. The charges against the other protesters were dropped, but Mathews had to pay a $300 fine, a fact he seems to relish.

We know how singer-songwriter Lori McKenna will be spending her summer. The Stoughton mother of five has signed on to what's shaping up to be the most successful concert tour in country-music history, Tim McGraw and Faith Hill's "Soul2Soul Tour 2007." She's a natural for the tour given that Hill included three of McKenna's songs, including the single "Stealing Kisses," on her 2005 No. 1 album "Fireflies." McKenna will feature material from her new CD, "Unglamorous," out Aug. 14.

World Wrestling Entertainment superstar "Stone Cold" Steve Austin was in Boston the other day promoting his new film, "The Condemned," an action thriller that opens April 27. Austin plays a death-row prisoner who is purchased by a TV producer to take part in an illegal reality game show. . . . Three-time Pulitzer Prize winning playwright Edward Albee, New Repertory Theatre producing artistic director Rick Lombardo, and actress Karen MacDonald will discuss "Does Theater Have a Future? The Players Look Forward. . ." April 30 at the Boston Public Library. The Ford Hall Forum discussion will be moderated by former Boston Globe theater critic Ed Siegel.

Names can be reached at names@globe.com or at 617-929-8253.