World Marathon Major Travel Expenses

I am looking to become the world’s first Abbott World Marathon Major Six Star finisher in a day use wheelchair. These six marathons; Chicago, New York City, Boston, Tokyo, London and Berlin are among the most prestigious and popular marathons in the world and are widely considered the pinnacle of distance running. I am sort of a novelty in the running community because I am a wheelchair user that participates in marathons in my day use wheelchair, as opposed to participating in the racing wheelchair event. The problem is that four of the World Majors don’t permit day use wheelchair runners, and I am on a mission to change those rules and become the world’s first day chair runner to run all six races. I finished Chicago in 2018 and I’m participating in Berlin and New York City this fall. I’m running the London marathon for charity in 2020 and I’m looking to travel to Tokyo and Boston in 2020 or 2021 if possible. As you can imagine this is a costly undertaking, and as a disabled person my resources are scarce and so most of the expense of this endeavor will end up on credit cards. Of course I want to avoid that as much as possible, so I’m looking to raise as much money for travel, accommodations and food as I can to offset the debt I will inevitably put myself in for this. I want the world to realize that just because I’m in a wheelchair doesn’t mean I should be disqualified from these races and my ultimate mission is to change these rules and allow for day chair runners to be able to participate without barriers. I’m hopeful this undertaking will change minds and open these races for people like me so we don’t have to defy rules and find loopholes to participate.

Anything that is left once this is over and done with will be donated to the Spina Bifida Association.