JOE RUNS THE WORLD MAJORS FOR CHARITY IN 2018

My name is Joe Martinez.  I plan to run all six Abbott World Marathon Majors (WMMs) in 2018 to raise money for low income kids (especially immigrant kids) that can’t afford or don’t have access to a top tier education.  The organizations I am raising money for are Regis High School (my alma mater and preferred charity), Questbridge and Unicef (non-religious organizations with similar missions to Regis - more on them below).  In addition to raising money, I will blog about my experience for others that want to try to complete the WMM in the same year.   

 

I believe kids should have access to free, quality education, but recognize the challenges to achieving this goal.  While we work to improve our education system it is of vital importance to identify and cultivate top students from across the socioeconomic spectrum  -  business, government and our country is better served with leaders having different backgrounds and views, as this leads to better decisions (something many would argue is missing today).  

 

My A goal is to finish all six marathons; my B goal is to set my age group (45-49) record by averaging just under 4 hours per race; my C goal is to complete all six averaging less than my Boston Marathon qualifying time of 3:25.

 

I hope you will consider donating to Regis, Questbridge and Unicef.  I’ll be running close to 2500 miles during the year so that you don’t have to!  I’d love for you to contribute a dollar for each of the miles involved with this journey, but understand that is quite a lot.  Any amount would be great, but if you can, I hope you can at least consider one dollar (or euro, yen, reais, etc) for the 157 miles I need to run to complete all six races. 

 

About Myself

 

I grew up in a low income neighborhood in Queens (my mom and dad were immigrants with no high school education), but I had the opportunity to go to Regis High School, a private Jesuit university-prep school in Manhattan that provides free education to Catholic boys who could not otherwise afford a top tier (Catholic) education.   Without that opportunity and the support of my mom and dad, I doubt that I would have had the resources, motivation and belief that I could go to a top university or be where I am today.  I graduated from Duke University (BA (94) and JD (97)), where I happened to meet my lovely wife, Katie and we now have the two best kids ever, Ana and Matt.  I have had a great career first at a top tier law firm in New York (Shearman & Sterling) and now, for the last ten years, as a Managing Director and General Counsel of South America for Citigroup.  I am very grateful and want other kids to have the same opportunities I did.

 

About the WMMs

 

The WMM is a series of six of the largest and most renowned marathons in the world which form an annual series to determine the world's best male and female marathon runners.  Obviously, I am not in the running for world’s best.  However, only 11 persons have completed all six in the same calendar year, and only 1000ish people have completed all six ever.  The races are Tokyo (2/26), Boston (4/16), London (4/22), Berlin (9/16), Chicago (10/7) and New York (11/4). 

 

Regis High School

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Regis was founded in 1914, through the financial bequest of a single formerly anonymous benefactress: Julia M. Grant, the widow of New York City Mayor Hugh J. Grant. She stipulated that her gift be used to build a Jesuit high school providing a free education for Catholic boys with special consideration given to those who could not otherwise afford a Catholic education.  The school continues that policy and does not charge tuition, with the vast majority of its student population having immigrant and/or low income roots in the NYC area.

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Questbridge

 

Questbridge a national nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California with strong connections to Stanford University, and happens to share Regis’s mission. QuestBridge connects the nation’s most exceptional, low-income youth with leading institutions of higher education and further life opportunities. By recruiting, developing, and motivating these students — beginning in high school through college to their early career — QuestBridge aims to help talented low-income students attend the nation’s best colleges and to support them to achieve success in their respective careers and communities.

 

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Unicef

 

I am also a strong supporter of Unicef’s initiatives in helping children across the world.  Unicef was the first charity I contributed to – I loved to fly (and still do) and Unicef partners with leading global airlines, including its only US based partner, American Airlines, to raise money for kids on international flights (the “Change for Good” program).  Unicef is a strong supporter of education, which has  the power to “transform lives and break the cycle of poverty that traps so many children”.  Unicef is particularly focused on education for girls (hopefully Regis will be in the future too!).

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