Spencer Levine and Amanda Tam finish Montreal Marathon in 3:47, hit $15,000 ALS fundraising goal

Spencer Levine pushed Amanda Tam in a special wheelchair through the Montreal Marathon on Sunday, October 11, finishing 42.2 kilometres in 3 hours 47 minutes—beating their four-hour goal. The couple had trained for months for Tam's first marathon, and the effort paid off: they raised $15,000 for ALS Quebec, hitting their fundraising target the night before.

Tam lives with ALS, a disease that doesn't discriminate by age or demographics the way most people assume. "The average person who gets ALS are usually white men in their 50s to 60s, and clearly I don't fit that demographic, so I want to spread awareness, share my story," Tam said. She spoke to the stakes plainly: "I want to show people that even though you have a death sentence with ALS, it doesn't mean you have to stop living. I mean, I've lived more now than I ever did. And the whole point of my story and my goal objective is to bring a voice to those who have lost it to this disease."

Levine felt the weight of the accomplishment. "We set out to do this course in four hours, and we ended up finishing in three hours and 47 minutes. So absolutely smashed our target, and we just had so much fun the whole way," he said. He also noted: "We successfully raised $15,000 for ALS Quebec. So we hit our target just last night and we are so happy to support such a great organization."

The marathon drew about 6,000 participants in the marathon race itself, part of a weekend that saw roughly 35,000 people participate across all race distances. Alex Ratthé, general manager of race organizer Courons, watched the couple at the start line. "It give me goosebumps. I saw them at the start line this morning. I gave them a hug. I said, you're beautiful. You keep smiling," Ratthé said. Fellow participants were struck by the effort: Catherine Laberge, a half-marathon runner, said "It's a lot of hours that you have to put into that preparation. So I'm really impressed." Another runner, Mégane De Repentigny, added: "I can't even imagine the determination it takes. It must take months and months of preparation. He did it, and that's incredible."

The marathon's fundraising program, Du cœur à la course, brought together 61 organizations and has raised more than $1.23 million toward a goal of $1.35 million, with three weeks remaining in the campaign.