Over 20,000 runners and supporters came out to promote St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital at the 15th annual St. Jude Marathon this past weekend.

Festivities started on Thursday, Dec. 1 with the opening of the St. Jude Weekend Expo, the “spirit” shop stocked with race gear, and continued through Saturday afternoon, Dec. 3, ending with the kids’ marathon. The races on Saturday included a 5K race, a 10K race, a half marathon and a full marathon.

Among the thousands of participants, some St. George’s students and faculty chose to run and cheer for a great cause.

St. George’s friends and families joined together on Friday, the night before the race, at the St. George’s bunkhouse for a family sleepover. The bunkhouse was located near the St. George’s tent, which was along the race route.  

Biology teacher Mr. Sam Abrams was one of the many faculty members that showed their support for St. Jude. Mr. Abrams ran in the 10K race on Saturday morning.

“A big piece for me was if [the children of St. Jude] are going through this [pain] every day, if this is their struggle and if this their battle, then I can sacrifice my legs a little bit to raise money and be a part of something that is bigger than myself,” said Mr. Abrams.

Mr. Abrams described crossing the finish line as a mix of satisfaction and hunger.

“I had never run more than six miles in my life before yesterday [Dec. 3] at one consecutive time and it was cool to do this thing that I could never do,” Mr. Abrams said.

St. George’s had cheerleaders as well as runners on Saturday. Among those cheering on their fellow Gryphon runners was Prefect of Service Avery Whitehead.

“Just cheering on people just makes me so happy because they need the encouragement and they smile and you feel so good about yourself,” said Whitehead. “It’s just helping a great cause and they’re helping a great cause. I just love that.”