My Updates
Round 2!
Team Hilly had a taste in 2025, and now we want more! This year, my brothers and I are running the 2026 New York City Marathon to raise money and awareness for the Alzheimer’s Association once again. Our time goals might have changed, but our purpose remains the same: we are still running for our Dad.
In 2023, our father, Chris, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s. Over the past few years, we have watched him navigate this journey with incredible strength. One of our biggest goals for last year was simply to recreate a “game day” atmosphere for him, but what we ended up creating was a core memory that will hopefully be seared into all of our minds for the rest of our lives.
The entire training process turned out to be a powerful metaphor for the very disease we are running to fight. Most of your training is done entirely alone, and that isolation is exactly what Alzheimer’s can feel like as you lose your memory, motor skills, independence, and so much more. In training, you have to say no to things, maintain strict discipline, and battle through injuries and obstacles completely out of your control—just like this disease forces families to do every day.
But marathon day itself is a beautiful reminder that no matter what you are going through, you are never truly alone. There are thousands of people out there who care—whether they are family, friends, or a complete stranger handing out a banana 18 miles into a run. In order to defeat this awful disease, we need that same collective support and the right resources to finally find a cure.
That is why we have decided to lace them up yet again. We are back with a mission to spread even more awareness, help fund a cure, and give families facing this diagnosis the vital resources and support they need.
