Six years ago, I ran the NYC Marathon just months after brain surgery. This year, I’m doing it again—stronger, healthier, and more grateful than ever.

In 2019, I shared that I had been diagnosed with a large meningioma at the base of my skull—a brain tumor in a pretty terrible spot called the foramen magnum. After nearly a year of unexplained symptoms and dead ends, we finally got an MRI, and within weeks I was having brain surgery at NYU Langone.

It was one of the scariest and most uncertain moments of my life. The support I received—from **Emily, the girls, our family and friends, our amazing community—**was overwhelming in the best way. That November, still recovering, I ran the NYC Marathon in honor of that experience and to raise money for the Brain Tumor Foundation, which helps provide free MRIs for people who might otherwise go undiagnosed.

Many of you generously supported me back then. I haven’t forgotten it—and I never will.

Today, I’m thrilled to say: I’m doing great.

• My recovery has been steady, and I’m stronger and healthier than I’ve felt in years.

• I’m back to regular running, racing, coaching the girls, working, living—and appreciating every day I get to do it.

• And most importantly, I’ve had six more years with my family, fully present, fully alive.

So I’m running NYC 2025 again for the Brain Tumor Foundation—not because I have something to prove this time, but because I can. Because I’m one of the lucky ones. And because someone else out there is still waiting for a diagnosis they don’t know they need.

That tumor had likely been growing for ten years.
Ten years of being missed. Ten years of “probably nothing.” Ten years of chance. It was found just in time—but that only happened because I finally got access to the right test.

The Brain Tumor Foundation works to change that story for others. They fund free, early-detection MRI screenings, especially for people without access to great healthcare or a second opinion. And that kind of early detection saves lives.

If you donated in 2019, thank you again from the bottom of my heart. If you're able to support me again this year—whether for the first time or the second—I’d be deeply grateful.

And since it’s Brain Tumor Awareness Month, it’s the perfect time to give.

Thanks for believing in me then. And for helping me run for someone else now.

—Todd