Casey Thompson and Preston McNurlen compete in the Des Moines IMT Marathon October 15. Photos courtesy of Casey Thompson.
A Sigourney-based duo carried the weight of the lives lost from the Las Vegas shooting as they ran the Des Moines IMT Marathon.
This is the second year Preston McNurlen, who has cerebral palsy, and Casey Thompson have run the marathon together. The duo races together to bring awareness to issues and promote law enforcement support. Sunday, Thompson ran behind McNurlen’s wheelchair while wearing a weighted vest. Thompson was inspired to wear a 59-pound vest to honor the 59 people who were killed in Las Vegas on October 1st, “The people who perished in that event should have been more recognized than they were versus, I mean you heard for a day or two following the incident about acts of heroism and things like that, but then it was just kind of gone. It saddened me. It upset me, and the fact that there was so much more good that could have been done by all those people had their lives not been lost.”
The marathon was no easy feat for Thompson and McNurlen as the vest added a high level of stress to Thompson’s body. He overcame this challenge as a call to action, “Do for your neighbor. Do something to help somebody else. I’m looking at an event that was tragic but you can brighten somebody’s day by doing something very simple. And if we continue to grow that, and more people are proactive and helping other people, and acts of kindness, we’re going to eventually, we’re going to win.”
Thompson and McNurlen carried the 59 lives the entire 26.2 miles and across the finish line.
Thompson wore a 59 pound weighted vest as he pushed McNurlen in the Des Moines IMT Marathon.