Mom and son marathon duo score major win for inclusion

Michelle Gentis and her son, Joshua, dream of completing a goal many distance runners share finishing all six races that make up the Abbott World Marathon Majors.

Crossing the finish line in Tokyo, Boston, London, Berlin, New York and Chicago is a remarkable achievement for any runner, but, for Michelle and Joshua, there's an added degree of difficulty.

Joshua has a rare brain disorder resulting in significant physical disabilities, so he races as a team with his mother.

Michelle pushes hiscustom-built wheelchair, and he participates as a rider-athlete.

"He weighs about 120 pounds now," Gentis said.

"That's about double what he weighed when we started in 2008."

The physical strain that comes with manoeuvring Joshua's chair around a 42-kilometre course isn't the only challenge the duo has had to deal with.

About three years ago, when Team Joshuainquired about entering the Bank of America Chicago Marathon, the race didn't have a duo category.

Gentis got in touch with executive race director Carey Pinkowski and asked him to change the rules so that Team Joshuacould participate.

Then she asked again. And again.

"She can be very persuasive," Pinkowski said with a laugh.

"At the time when I first talked to her, we didn't have duo teams. She just worked on me and she was very persistent. Really, she was the one who put the idea in my head."

New rules

In 2015, race organizers updated their policy to allow duo teams like Team Joshuato run in Chicago.

Pinkowski says Gentis was the driving force behind that decision.

"She's been a big advocate for that division and really is responsible for why we have the division," he said.

Now that Joshua is 16-years-old and meets the minimum age requirement, he will be on the starting line on Sunday surrounded by 40,000 other racers.

"I'm just so thrilled and excited about that not that Josh and I get to participate but other people in wheelchairs from around the world will get to come to one of the world's marathon majors," Michelle said.

"It's going to be a great thrill."

Popular guy

No one will be cheering harder for Team Joshuaon Sunday than the cross-country team at Richmond Christian School.

Joshua and Michelle train with them regularly and have become fast friends.

Supt. Roger Grose says that's not a surprise, because Joshua is one of the most popular students at the school.

"He brings life to the school;he really does," said Grose.

"He lives a very different lifestyle than the rest of us do, and it's been good to learn to accommodate that and read that."

Michelle says Joshua loves people and that's one of the biggest reasons why he gets so much enjoyment out of racing.

"People say, 'What is Josh's favourite thing to do?' and he doesn't have a favourite thing," she said.

"His favourite thing is to be with people."