Team Pine Street's runners give Marathon a reality check

There are two ways to get an official number in next month's Boston Marathon: Run another marathon fast enough to qualify for Boston or run for one of the 18 official charity teams. For some of this second group, that affiliation ends on race day, but that's not the case for Team Pine Street, which is piling on miles on the road, and food on the plates at Pine Street Inn, a homeless shelter in the South End.

''The first time, I just picked any charity I could get on just so I could do it," says David Levinson of Natick, a public defender, of his run two years ago.

This time, ''When I came across Pine Street Inn, I felt like I had a personal connection with them, because some of the people I've represented have stayed there," he says.

For teammate Karen Roses of Somerville, that process happened in reverse: She's been volunteering at Pine Street since 2000 when she was an employee of Fleet Bank. Now with Bank of America and a volunteer with another local program, she's taking the ''running bug" and putting it to work for Team Pine Street, which met at the shelter and served dinner to residents and clients on a recent evening. Running to help the homeless, she says, ''takes your mind off of the whole grueling training aspect of it, because every now and then you have that reality check: You're doing it for a purpose, you're helping people, you're raising money."

That purpose, says teammate Nicole St. Pierre of Allston, keeps the team focused during frigid, 17-mile runs. ''It's definitely motivating to be part of a team," says St. Pierre. ''If I was not part of Team Pine Street, I would not be running the Marathon."

WILL KILBURN