On November 6th, tens of thousands of runners from all over the world will gather to run the TCS New York City Marathon. They will include professionals looking to win the world’s largest 26.2-mile race, dedicated amateurs who have logged qualifying times in other marathons, and those who won their bibs in a lottery. There will also be many who received their bibs by running for a team supporting a charitable cause. This includes a team running to benefit the critical research to end ALS at the ALS Therapy Development Institute (ALS TDI).
Preparing for and running a marathon is no easy task – and these runners have taken on the additional challenge of fundraising to support ALS research. However, their dedication to the cause has inspired them, and their supporters, to go the extra mile. To help understand what’s motivating them, we spoke to two members of ALS TDI’s marathon team
Running to Honor her Father
Allie Gluck, originally from New Jersey, lives in New York and works in technology consulting. Although she was an active runner in high school, she drifted away from the sport in college and after entering the workforce. Last year, she decided that she needed something to keep her active outside of work, and set her sights on training for a marathon. In addition to a great physical challenge, Allie also saw this goal as a powerful way to honor another milestone in her life – the 10th anniversary of losing her father, Jeff Gluck, to ALS.
“I think, with the anniversary coming around,” she says, “you want to do something to remind everyone that, even though we lost this person ten years ago, it's still something that is on my mind and my family's mind every day. So, let's keep his memory alive and do something to raise awareness and fund drug discovery at ALS TDI.”
To help spread awareness about ALS and ALS TDI, Allie has turned to social media, posting about her training and sharing her ALS story as she prepares for the big race. Her efforts so far have been going very well – she’s raised more than $14,000. She believes the biggest factor in her success has been simply sharing her story authentically, and asking her network for help.
“I've just had people from all different walks of life donate and reach out to me,” she says. “I also took a lot of time to write a very thoughtful fundraising page. I think it's pretty easy to get someone to click on a link, but it's hard to get someone to actually donate to it. So, I thought, if I can get someone to click on the link and then read my page and feel moved by it, that's how I’d lock in the donation. So I wrote something about my dad.”
With race day approaching, Allie is looking forward to seeing all her hard work and training pay off as she tackles the big run, with many of her friends and family in the crowd to cheer her on. However, she’s equally excited for the night before, when she’ll meet the rest of the ALS TDI team for a pre-race dinner, connecting with other people who can relate to what she’s been through as someone who’s lost a family member or friend to ALS.
“As time and life go on, it feels rarer and rarer that I get to feel verbally connected to my dad,” she says. “Although I feel it in my heart, it’s less and less often that people will talk about it or bring it up. But ALS TDI had a Zoom call when everyone got their bibs, and everyone got to go around and share their stories. I'm sure we'll do something of that nature during the dinner the night before the marathon. Just to really feel connected like that, that has been special, and not something that's happened for me in a while.”
A Mother and Son Run Together, to Remember a Teacher
Ellen Maurer, another member of team ALS TDI, is an experienced runner and athlete. She has completed over 20 marathons, including 13 New York City marathons. However, this year will be the first she has tackled in 10 years. She says that, after she gave up big races a decade ago, there was one thinning that could make her take on another one.
“I vowed that if one of my sons ran a marathon,” she says, “I would run one with them.”
That came to pass this year, as her son, Zachary Goldman, decided to take on the NYC marathon. In addition to training for and running the race together, they’ll both be supporting great causes. Zachary will be raising money for Augie’s Quest, while Ellen is on team ALS TDI. She says they were both inspired to fundraise for these two organizations working to end ALS by the loss of an important teacher in her sons’ lives.
“Zachary and my son David had a mentor, Roger Ames, when they were in high school,” she says. “He was a music teacher, a Pulitzer Prize nominee for composing and piano, and a wonderful, wonderful man. Zachary is an opera singer, and Roger led him in that direction. He was very much part of our family, we lost him to ALS last year.”
When Zachary began searching for a charity to run for in the marathon, he knew he wanted to find an organization supporting ALS. He applied to both the Augie’s Quest and ALS TDI teams. When he was accepted by both, he was happy to pass on his ALS TDI bib to his mother, who was excited about the opportunity to both run with her son and to support ALS drug discovery.
“I believe in medicine, and so I just thought it was a really good cause,” she says “And I love that it's all for research. I did get into other charities, where the fundraising obligation was less money, but we chose to do this in Roger's honor. Roger was the inspiration, and he left a very big legacy for a lot of his students.”
Ellen and Zachary have been training together to prepare for the race. Despite the fact that, at his younger age, Zachary will often run faster than his mother, they stay connected by phone with earbuds to talk each other through the toughest parts of their long runs. They have also been sharing their story – and the story of Roger, their inspiration – on social media and to their friends, spreading awareness and raising funds to support their run. So far, they’ve raised more than $8,000 together.
“I’m thrilled that I was selected for this opportunity to raise money for an amazing charity in honor of somebody who is very important to our family,” Ellen says, “and to have the opportunity to be able to do this with my son. I think it's very exciting that we both are raising money for two different charities, but for the same cause. It’s made us that much more united and connected.”
To contribute to ALS TDI in support of Allie, Ellen, and the other runners taking on the TCS New York City Marathon, click here.
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