Grafton dad to run 48 miles in 48 hours to raise awareness for son’s rare disease

GRAFTON, Mass. — Chris Marino is using his feet to pull off a pretty impressive feat.

“Essentially what it is, is running four miles, every four hours for 48 hours. So that’s a total of 12 runs that will net out to 48 miles in total,” Marino said.

The Grafton father will start his quest Friday at 8 pm and expects to complete his challenge Sunday evening.

“Essentially doing two marathons in two days and with very little time to sleep and recover between runs,” he said.

Marino is running to raise awareness and money about Adrenoleukodystrophy, or ALD. It’s a rare, genetic condition that damages the membrane that covers nerve cells in the brain and spinal cord. Marino’s 12-year-old son, Braden, was diagnosed with the disease two years ago. He will battle it for the rest of his life.

“As he gets older there’s an adult form of the disease that the majority of men develop. There’s no treatment for that to date and many of the symptoms are MS-like. It’s a disease of the spinal cord, so there is a lot of unknown on how that will affect Braden,” said Braden’s mother, Katie Marino.

That unknown is one of the reasons why the Marino’s say Chris is running as he did over the summer when he ran all 345 streets in Grafton, to honor Braden and keep their mission alive.

“When the alarm goes off at 3:30 in the morning and I have to get back out at 4 am for my whatever number run and it’s cold and I’m tired that’s what’s going to push me out the door, not ‘Oh I’m achieving this thing for myself.’ It’s really achieving this so we can further our message for Braden,” Marino said.

ALD is more common in boys. Many states are now screening newborns for the disease, but it’s not a required test in Massachusetts.

Here is a link to Chris Marino’s fundraiser: https://because.massgeneral.org/fundraiser/3141105

Cox Media Group