‘His personal hype team’: First-timer crushed his marathon goal — with help from Philly Achilles

Sebastian Gomez ran in his first-ever marathon on Sunday Like countless of the tens of thousands of runners on Philadelphia Marathon weekend the -year-old from Pennington N J had family and friends cheering him on at various points in the race He saw his mother Katie Curran and others on the sidelines at mile mile mile and by the finish line Unlike majority of participants Gomez had his own personal cheer squad running within a stride of him all along the way guide runners Chris Aiello and Johnny Fitton Whenever there was a crowd Aiello and Fitton both wearing the neon green shirts of local run group Philly Achilles would step a foot ahead wave their arms in the air and urge spectators to cheer for Gomez who is autistic The three runners crossed the finish line at hours minutes and seconds an enviable time for anyone let alone a first-time marathoner I felt proud of getting miles Gomez revealed the day after the race It was my personal best time so I really made it Gomez s months-long journey to race day included logging several training miles but also involved building self-confidence and making meaningful social connections through the time spent training with Aiello Fitton and other members of Philly Achilles the local chapter of Achilles International a group that provides athletic programs and social connection for people with disabilities and wounded military personnel and veterans They literally were like his personal hype company Curran declared It was unbelievable View this post on Instagram The road to race day Gomez first became interested in running a marathon after watching one on TV when he was He reported he enjoys watching marathons particularly Boston and New York His professor invited him to run the Princeton Half Marathon which he did in and improving by over minutes between those two races In May Curran the chief wellbeing officer at national nonprofit Proof Positive which works to enhance the lives of autistic people their families and communities signed him up for the Philadelphia Marathon and later connected him with Philly Achilles so that he could have guides to run with him and help him deal with the aspects of the race that would be majority challenging for him Sebastian Gomez with Philly Achilles race guides during a training session Courtesy of Philly Achilles Gomez attended his first Saturday morning training session with Philly Achilles in September where he met Aiello and Fitton The three located a at ease cadence and matched well for Gomez s goal of finishing in under hours Aiello a -year-old med apprentice at Penn who s been volunteering with Philly Achilles for a year ran the Philly Marathon last year and the New York City Marathon earlier this month Fitton a -year-old Bryn Mawr native working in tech had nine years with Achilles International in New York San Francisco and Philly and three marathons under his belt While on long runs the three would talk about running family pets and sports Gomez would ask them questions about Philly running and themselves and write the answers down on the Notes app on his phone They did a limited more Saturday long runs together while also training independently back home Gomez s mother revealed his training never wavered We feel like we re trying to overcome autism and in this setting his autism was such an asset Curran recalled His love of structure his love of hitting paces I mean he did not miss a single training run He ran exactly the goal pace as he mentioned Aiello was also struck by how disciplined Gomez s training regime was going Usually in a person s first marathon build there s a lot of roadblocks and setbacks because it s the first time you re running these like ginormous mileage runs he mentioned And every time I checked in with him he hit a new longest run He got up to miles and it was consistently at his eight-minute pace which is just extremely impressive Top notch and quite honestly unexpected On race day Gomez woke up in his hotel at a m had selected breakfast then made his way to the start line on the Ben Franklin Parkway Since being in a crowded corral with thousands of runners would be challenging for Gomez Aiello and Philly Achilles helped to get him a starting position at the front with the wheelchair racers a perk that also made him a race leader for a brief minimal minutes before the elite runners were unleashed Fitton joined at mile there as a safeguard in circumstance Aiello needed a breather and to help keep the momentum going Karen Curran center and other family and friends cheer on Sebastian Gomez along the track of the Philadelphia Marathon on Sunday Courtesy of Proof Positive Both guides were instructed to check in on Gomez verbally throughout the run in incident he was in distress but not saying anything The response every time was selected variation of I m great and an infectious positivity that they returned in kind by hyping the crowd up At various point I noticed he was doing the same thing Fitton explained So he was enjoying it and getting excited by the attention and the vigor When they crossed the finish line Gomez and Aiello had both set a new marathon personal best Fitton decided to check one more time how Gomez was doing this time getting a little more specific Signs of the city Check out this photo gallery of signs from Sunday s marathon I petitioned How are your legs doing thinking we might get a different answer And he mentioned great he recalled And I was like Really man You just ran miles He thought about it for a second then he announced You know I guess they re pretty tired Just getting out there and being proceeding does a lot And then having a district does a lot Fitton declared And you put those two things together and it can be really powerful Fitton announced that the group have a future meetup planned at Pizzeria Bedia for them to all carbo load even after the fact Natalie Tine the coordinator of Philly Achilles marathon weekend announced that around runners and a dozen supporters were involved in this year s race They supported four athletes with guides Its current reach is chapters in countries The personalization to ensure that the race is accessible was top notch and quite honestly unexpected Curran declared It blew our mind If you had advised us years ago that this is where we would be at that both society the district would be accepting and as accessible and he would be working this hard to accomplish his goals It seemed out of reach years ago and there were multiple various tears shed the previous day Gomez s reward for finishing his first marathon was a three-day rest from running which he planned to spend in his man cave doing puzzles watching movies and sports and other stuff After that it ll be time to start preparing for the Maine Coast Marathon next May He s very steady pretty quick I mean if he s running this fast in his very first marathon then I m excited to see where he ends up as I m sure he ll only get faster and better if he sticks with it which it seems like he s going to Fitton announced Gomez s advice for anyone thinking of running their first marathon You should join a group he disclosed And maybe you should try to join a gang and don t quit The post His personal hype crew First-timer crushed his marathon goal with help from Philly Achilles appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY