Endurance unites Philly Marathon competitors from different worlds
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Left to right: Leanne Taylor holding her son, Oliver; Students Run Philly Style mentor Gil Padilla and freshman runner Arturo Castellanos. Photos: Courtesy of Leanne Taylor and Gil Padilla
She's raced through Paris; he trains before dawn in Philadelphia.
Why it matters: Canadian Paralympic medalist Leanne Taylor and South Philly teen Arturo Castellanos live thousands of miles apart — but both belong to the same hard-charging universe of endurance athletes bound by missions, mantras and the mettle to test their limits.
Driving the news: Organizers anticipate 37,000 runners converging on the city for this year's Philadelphia Marathon — from locals taking on their first race to travelers chasing PRs.
- They all face the same daunting test: 26.2 miles capped by the punishing climb through Manayunk. The marathon starts at 6:55am Sunday in Center City.
The big picture: Most competitors share a few traits: a borderline-maniacal ability to push through pain to reach joy, and simple mantras that help them scale the hills of life — and Manayunk.
What they're saying: "Just be myself," says Taylor, the 33-year-old paratriathlete and new mom.
- "Just keep going," says Castellanos, the 14-year-old freshman at William W. Bodine High School.
Case in point: Seven years ago, Taylor became paralyzed from the waist down after a nasty spill over her handlebars while biking Bison's Butte in Winnipeg.
- She underwent surgery, grueling rehab and bouts of self-doubt about her future before forging a path forward as a triathlete.
- In 2024, she won bronze at the Paris Paralympics, where she swam in the Seine and hand-cycled along the Champs-Élysées.
Looking to stay fit after the Paris Games, Taylor traveled with her husband to Philadelphia to take part in her first marathon — and learned the night before the race that she was pregnant with her now-4-month-old son, Oliver.
- "You're in race mode. … and then you're like, Whoa, bigger picture," she says.
Zoom in: Castellanos, who joined Students Run Philly Style in middle school, wakes up most days at 3 a.m. to run along the Schuylkill River.
- He has transformed himself from one of the group's slowest runners into a committed diehard who overcame plantar fasciitis to reach his first marathon.
- He hopes one day to complete in all three Philly races — the 8K, the half and the full — on the same weekend.
The bottom line: Both competitors know these endurance tests take something out of them — but they also shape these athletes.
- "When I get into the rhythm, I feel like there's nothing else happening in the world," Castellanos says. "There's no red lights, no green lights, no cars, nothing."
- Whenever she's fading in an event, Taylor thinks of the people who visited her in the hospital during her recovery — and watched as a medal was slipped over her neck in Paris.
"To give some kind of joy to them — and to me," she says, "felt like a 'Thank you, we got to share together.'"