‘His personal hype team’: First-timer crushed his marathon goal — with help from Philly Achilles

Sebastian Gomez ran in his first-ever marathon on Sunday. 

Like many of the tens of thousands of runners on Philadelphia Marathon weekend, the 23-year-old from Pennington, N.J., had family and friends cheering him on at various points in the race. He saw his mother, Katie Curran, and others on the sidelines at mile 6, mile 12, mile 23 and by the finish line. 

Unlike most participants, Gomez had his own personal cheer squad running within a stride of him all along the way — guide runners Chris Aiello and Johnny Fitton.

Whenever there was a crowd, Aiello and Fitton — both wearing the neon green shirts of local run group Philly Achilles —  would step a foot ahead, wave their arms in the air and urge spectators to cheer for Gomez, who is autistic.

The three runners crossed the finish line at 3 hours, 28 minutes and 30 seconds, an enviable time for anyone, let alone a first-time marathoner. 

“I felt proud of getting 26.2 [miles],” Gomez said the day after the race. “It was my personal best time, so I really made it.” 

Gomez’s months-long journey to race day included logging many training miles, but also involved building self-confidence and making meaningful social connections through the time spent training with Aiello, Fitton, and other members of Philly Achilles, the local chapter of Achilles International, a group that provides athletic programs and social connection for people with disabilities and wounded military personnel and veterans.

“They literally were like his personal hype team,” Curran said. “It was unbelievable.”

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The road to race day

Gomez first became interested in running a marathon after watching one on TV when he was 11. He said he enjoys watching marathons, particularly Boston and New York. 

His teacher invited him to run the Princeton Half Marathon, which he did in 2023 and 2024 — improving by over 20 minutes between those two races. 

In May, Curran — the chief wellbeing officer at national nonprofit Proof Positive, which works to enhance the lives of autistic people, their families and communities — signed him up for the Philadelphia Marathon and later connected him with Philly Achilles so that he could have guides to run with him and help him navigate the aspects of the race that would be most challenging for him. 

Gomez attended his first Saturday morning training session with Philly Achilles in September, where he met Aiello and Fitton. The three found a comfortable cadence and matched well for Gomez’s goal of finishing in under 3½ hours. Aiello, a 25-year-old med student at Penn who’s been volunteering with Philly Achilles for a year, ran the Philly Marathon last year and the New York City Marathon earlier this month. Fitton, a 31-year-old Bryn Mawr native working in tech, had nine years with Achilles International — in New York, San Francisco and Philly — and three marathons under his belt.  

While on long runs, the three would talk about running, family, pets and sports. Gomez would ask them questions about Philly running and themselves, and write the answers down on the Notes app on his phone. 

They did a few more Saturday long runs together, while also training independently back home. Gomez’s mother said his training never wavered.

“We feel like we’re trying to overcome autism and in this setting his autism was such an asset,” Curran recalled. “His love of structure, his love of hitting paces. I mean he did not miss a single training run. He ran exactly the goal pace as he said.” 

Aiello was also struck by how disciplined Gomez’s training regime was going.

“Usually in a person’s first marathon build, there’s a lot of roadblocks and setbacks because it’s the first time you’re running these like ginormous mileage runs,” he said. “And every time I checked in with him, he hit a new longest run. He got up to 22 miles, and it was always at his eight-minute pace, which is just extremely impressive.”

‘Top notch and, quite honestly, unexpected’

On race day, Gomez woke up in his hotel at 4:30 a.m., had some breakfast, then made his way to the start line on the Ben Franklin Parkway. 

Since being in a crowded corral with thousands of runners would be challenging for Gomez, Aiello and Philly Achilles helped to get him a starting position at the front with the wheelchair racers — a perk that also made him a race leader for a brief few minutes before the elite runners were unleashed.

Fitton joined at mile 13, there as a safeguard in case Aiello needed a breather, and to help keep the momentum going.

Both guides were instructed to check in on Gomez verbally throughout the run, in case he was in distress but not saying anything. The response every time was some variation of “I’m great,” and an infectious positivity that they returned in kind by hyping the crowd up.

“At some point, I noticed he was doing the same thing,” Fitton said. “So he was enjoying it and getting excited by the attention and the energy.”

When they crossed the finish line, Gomez and Aiello had both set a new marathon personal best. Fitton decided to check one more time how Gomez was doing, this time getting a little more specific.

“I asked, ‘How are your legs doing?’ thinking we might get a different answer. And he said ‘great,’ ” he recalled. “And I was like ‘Really, man? You just ran 26 miles.’  He thought about it for a second, then he said, ‘You know, I guess they’re pretty tired.’ ”

“Just getting out there and being active does a lot. And then having a community does a lot,” Fitton said. “And you put those two things together and it can be really powerful.” 

Fitton said that the group have a future meetup planned at Pizzeria Bedia, for them “to all carbo load even after the fact.”

Natalie Tine, the coordinator of Philly Achilles’ marathon weekend, said that around 70 runners and a dozen volunteers were involved in this year’s race. They supported four athletes with 10 guides. Its current reach is 34 chapters in 17 countries.

“The personalization to ensure that the race is accessible was top notch and, quite honestly, unexpected,” Curran said “It blew our mind. If you had told us 20 years ago that this is where we would be at 23, that both society, the community would be accepting and as accessible, and he would be working this hard to accomplish his goals. It seemed out of reach 20 years ago and there were many, many tears shed yesterday.”

Gomez’s reward for finishing his first marathon was a three-day rest from running, which he planned to spend in his man cave, doing puzzles, watching movies and sports and other stuff.

After that, it’ll be time to start preparing for the Maine Coast Marathon next May.

“He’s very steady, pretty quick. I mean, if he’s running this fast in his very first marathon, then I’m excited to see where he ends up as I’m sure he’ll only get faster and better if he sticks with it, which it seems like he’s going to,” Fitton said.

Gomez’s advice for anyone thinking of running their first marathon? 

“You should join a team,” he said. “And maybe you should try to join a team and don’t quit.”

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