On Sunday, Oct. 8, Max Johnson, a Libertyville High School senior, ran the Chicago Marathon to raise money for brain cancer research. Johnson finished the marathon in 3:41:23, which was 14th-best for the 16-19 age group.

    Johnson wanted to run the marathon because he was looking for a hands-on and personal way to help out a charity. He raised $1,635 for Advocate Charitable Foundation to help fund brain cancer research.

    He chose the organization because he is a member of Centre Club, which is part of the Advocate Condell Medical Group. More specifically, he decided to raise money for their brain cancer research because of the death of Maddy McInerney, a former student at LHS who died last year from brain cancer.

    To raise money, Johnson sold t-shirts to friends and peers; he also emailed family, neighbors and friends to see if anyone wanted to donate to his cause.

    The marathon required a lot of preparation. Johnson looked into multiple training options online and chose a 16-week program.  He started his training in the middle of June.

    “Every day I train[ed] differently. Monday[s] through Friday[s], I would do short distances, but really fast. Saturday[s] would be an easy run, and on Sundays, I started out running nine miles and I would progress two miles every week until 21 miles. Then I would digress two miles for three weeks until the race,” Johnson explained.

    In addition to exercising, Johnson has also had to adjust his diet.

    “I [had] to eat healthier and eat a lot of carbs because on average daily, I burn about twice as many as the average person because of the running and that’s on top of soccer. It’s a lot,” described Johnson.

    Johnson said he has received an incredible amount of support from the community and friends.

    “I have been supported greatly by a lot of people, especially when I had to raise money,” he said. “People reached out to me to donate and those t-shirts especially, people wanted to buy them to show their support.”

    Johnson also reached out to adults who had run marathons in the past for advice about the race itself. According to him, a lot of them ended up donating money as well, to show their support for him.

    The night before the race was LHS’s Homecoming dance, so Johnson had to leave early and head straight to Chicago to prepare for the race. He had to be at his race corral at 5:20 a.m. the morning of the race.

    During the race, Johnson overall felt very prepared.

    “It went better than expected because of the energy from the fans and the event itself was exciting, which really helped me out,” Johnson said.

    In the days following the race, Johnson had to do a lot of recovery work. Playing soccer has made him more sore, but he said he was expecting that.

“I was so sore the day after the marathon that I couldn’t walk down stairs,” Johnson said.