Shaun and Shamus Evans today completed their first Boston Marathon together. The father and earned second place among the duo teams.
“We've been thinking about Boston since Shamus and I started racing together when he was about 6 or 7 years old,” Shaun told GBH's All Things Considered host Arun Rath while on their drive back home to Saratoga County, New York.
“My dad has told me about the run before, but experiencing it firsthand — the crowd, the energy, the view — it was all just really amazing,” Shamus said.
Their mission is to promote inclusion in the sport of running. So while they awaited the day Shamus would be 18 years old and eligible for the Boston Marathon, the family found some productive ways to bide their time.
“In 2015, Shamus came up with the idea that we should run across the country. We ran from Seattle to New York City, donating running chairs to kids with disabilities so that they could do what Shamus does,” Shaun recalled.
That run took more than a year of planning and training.
“He sold my wife and I on it when he said, 'Dad, can we donate chairs to kids like me so they can feel what it’s like to go fast and feel the wind in their face?' ... We ran 60 consecutive days, 56 miles a day, and donated 35 running chairs along the way.”
Then, two years later, they ran the length of the Mississippi River. The pair has also run the Marine Corps Marathon seven times.
