raise awareness about suicide prevention<\/a> and $10,000 to support the Jason R. Flood Memorial, a cause that honors his close friend who died in 2016.<\/p>\n\u201cUltra running is something that I have fallen in love with,\u201d Hanlon said, \u201cbut to be honest, it has always felt like a selfish sport, especially some of these big races. This is a way for me to take my passion and use it for a cause that is really special to me.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s kind of emotional,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Jason Flood died by suicide at the age of 18 in November 2016 after a battle with undiagnosed depression. He and Hanlon shared a close bond as friends, attending Pinkerton Academy together in Derry, N.H.<\/p>\n
The memorial fund raises awareness for suicide prevention, educating teens and young adults on recognizing warning signs and connecting them through music and athletics.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s almost embarrassingly humbling. I don\u2019t know how else to explain it,\u201d Jason\u2019s father, Doug Flood, told the Herald about Hanlon\u2019s attempt to run 250 miles and raise funds for the cause.<\/p>\n
Flood, who works in Cambridge, added that he knew his son\u2019s friends were \u201chigh quality individuals,\u201d and that it is \u201chumbling\u201d that they are still supporting the family and believing in the foundation\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just want to grab any old-timer who says \u2018Kids today are soft\u2019 and just tell them to pay attention,\u201d Flood said. \u201cSome of these kids today are way beyond what we were as kids. I get some aren\u2019t, but there are plenty of overachievers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hanlon, 28, has averaged 80 to 85 miles a week of running heading into this mega run, which will require him to traverse through the dark of the night while tired.<\/p>\n
He said some of his closest friends will be his main supporting cast, meeting him every 25 miles with fuel, liquids and new shoes. Others will run various lengths alongside him.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone is running for something,\u201d said Hanlon, a three-time Boston Marathon finisher.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople have healed,\u201d he added, \u201cbut I want to make sure that at the end of the day, nobody is forgetting about Jason and what he meant to all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Massachusetts-based engineer doesn\u2019t plan on getting much sleep until Sunday. Waltham resident Tom Hanlon, who works as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":303386,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7064,115001,9,24,11,10,115003,115002],"class_list":["post-303385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-boston","tag-boston-running","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-suicide-prevention","tag-ultrarunning"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303385","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=303385"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/303385\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/303386"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=303385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=303385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=303385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}