This 20-year-old Mass. native just became the youngest male to finish all 6 marathon majors

James Redding began running with his mother at 14 to stay in shape while playing hockey and progressed from monthly 5Ks to 10Ks and a half-marathon in 2021. He and his mother pursued charity entries to access major marathons, including a Dana-Farber fundraising entry tied to his mother’s cancer treatment and a Brookline Education Foundation entry connected to his family and hometown. Redding completed Boston, Chicago, New York, Tokyo, London and Berlin over an 18-month span, earning the Six Star Medal and setting the youngest-male record at 20 years, 143 days with some lottery luck and targeted outreach.

"I researched and heard about the charity [program]. I sent my mom a link to Dana-Farber, cancer charity for the Boston Marathon, and this is a special cause for us, because she was a patient there [battling Hodgkin's lymphoma] when I was 2 or 3 years old, and they saved her life. So I sent that to her, and I said, 'Hey, like, what about, what about this marathon? It gives it a little bit more meaning.'"

""I get this reciprocal, kind of full-circle text from my mom, and it's her sending me a link to a charity for the Boston Marathon," James said. "And the charity that she sent me was the Brookline Education Foundation, which was, again, super close to home, because she's been a teacher and administrator at Brookline High School for 20-plus years now, and my K-through-12 education came in Brookline. "So I'm looking at this, and I'm"

Read at Boston.com