Andrew Szendey 6 Star
Andrew Szendey | Published on 10/27/2024
I am now the 9th person in the MVS club to achieve the Abbott World Marathon Majors 6 Stars (Boston-New York-Chicago-London-Berlin-Tokyo) and part of 17,000+ runners overall. My wife Maura and I are the first married MVS couple, and Abbott estimates one of only about 400 couples in total, to have completed the journey.
World Majors classification began in 2006 based on a set of criteria: participants, quality, organization, sustainability, legacy, and aid stations. In 2016 Abbott introduced the 6-Star Medal. “Shocking” is the one word answer I filled out in my application to describe my 6-Star journey. I can fully say that without the MVS club, and my wife, this achievement would not have happened despite the fact that I have been running since I was 15.
When I joined 8 years ago, I had never run more than 8 miles. Through a combination of club member encouragement and being tired of not finding Maura in the marathon field, when she announced her NYC 2021 marathon entry, I blurted out that I would rather run it myself than be a spectator. Fortunately, the MVS club has NYC bibs, and my application was selected. This began my journey as the reluctant marathoner – I never set out to run any, certainly not the 6 Majors.
After finishing NYC (2021), at which I was pleased with my time, I said never again. Then Maura announced she was running London (2022). So, I learned that London is a major charity race and fairly easy to find a charity to raise funds for (~$2500). For Boston, which was my fantasy dream as an 18-year-old, I was selected for one of the MVS bibs in 2023. Upon Boston completion, I was going to be finished with marathon running until I got laid off from work in March 2023 (I was set to retire end of year - so, okay) and decided I now had time for training to join Maura in Chicago, but by then it was too late for an entry. However, Abbott has a lottery for those with 3 majors completed, and I got lucky.
So now I am on the hunt for the 6-Star Medal. Tokyo (2024) required a charity bid to secure a bib. For Berlin (September 2024), I gained entry with Destination Marathons, which is now part of Sport Tours international. I set a benchmark to finish these marathons in under 5 hours, which I achieved, with Tokyo as my fastest in 4 hours and 23 minutes.