Wayland Resident Runs to Support Research in Memory of Son
When Paul McInnis signed up for his first marathon in 2022, he was not a distance runner. “I had no idea what I was doing,” he said. “Running a marathon is like nothing you’ve done before – it’s a learning curve of mental as well as physical training to stay focused that long, running in all weather.”
More than three years later, on Monday, April 21st, McInnis will run his third consecutive Boston Marathon as part of the Miles for Miracles team, raising money for Boston Children’s Hospital, in memory of his son, William.
William passed away in January 2022 after suffering a cardiac arrest due to long QT syndrome, a rare, inherited condition. McInnis specifically supports the Inherited Cardiac Rhythm Department at Boston Children’s Hospital, who researches the disease. “This means that every dollar I raise goes directly to the incredible team that took care of William,” he said. “They helped us find answers, helped us understand Long QT and provided genetic testing to multiple family members.” Contributions have just passed his personal goal of $15,000 this year.
Running provided a much needed outlet for his grief, explained McInnis, and he soon started signing up for races which opened up a new avenue of support. He did his first half marathon in March 2022 and signed up for the New York City marathon in fall 2022 as part of Miles for Miracles. “At the first team practice in November 2022, I went in there thinking I don’t want to meet anybody, I don’t want to talk to anybody,” he recalled.
However, when people struck up conversations about why they were running, he knew it was a good way to share William’s story. McInnis now runs for Team Remember, a subgroup of Miles for Miracles runners, who run in memory of a lost loved one with a connection to Boston Children’s Hospital.
Miles for Miracles has provided McInnis with a community of people who experienced similar loss and all of them are running to give back to the hospital by raising awareness. From past experience, he is aware that runners tend to get the most donations in the last couple of days before the Marathon.
Raising awareness is just as important as raising money, said McInnis. “We had never heard of Long QT until we were in the ICU – the only three symptoms are cardiac arrests, seizures and fainting spells.” In spreading awareness of this rare but inherited condition, he hopes that other families will get genetic testing and avoid his experience.
Training follows a 20 week plan that starts in December. McInnis runs five or six days a week but meets with the team every Saturday morning in Wellesley to run along the Boston Marathon course. “During peak weeks, I max out running 55 miles.”
The team runs are usually about 75 people but there are almost 200 people running for Boston Children’s Hospital. He added, “as of April 13th, our Boston team has raised 78% of our $3,650,000 goal.”
“My motto is ‘run like William,’” he said, based on his son’s love of running.
Other runners from Wayland:
Armata, Peter
Balben, Chantal
Block, Emily
Cronin, Timothy
Doherty, Kristin
Erdekian, Elena
Ferreira, Angelo
Grove, Jerry
Hasan, Jahad
Huang, Jin
Kenney, Ian
Korzec, Katelyn
Macdonald, Lindsey
Mcinnis, Paul
Mckinnon, Elizabeth
Schuster, Randi
Scott, Neil
Stoller, Jackie
Zagata, Mark
Zedower, Richard
