UAlbany Freshman Part of Father-Son Duo Making Tokyo Marathon History

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (Feb. 25, 2025) — Shamus Evans was 18 months old when he first joined his father on a run.

Shaun Evans, an ultramarathon runner who was eager to share his passion with his son, strapped Shamus into a jogging stroller as soon as he was old enough to sit in one. And Shamus, who was born with cerebral palsy and would mostly require a wheelchair to get around, experienced the thrill of rolling along with his father as he logged weekly 20-mile training runs.

That thrill never wore off. The father-son pair from Galway soon became racing partners and have been competing since 2013 in challenges across the country, including a 3,200-mile run across America when Shamus was just 9 years old, a 1,700-mile run down the Mississippi River, and the Boston Marathon last year when Shamus was 18. On Sunday, the Evans family will participate in their first-ever international race, making history as one of the first duo teams ever to compete in the Tokyo Marathon.

“This upcoming race is so exciting,” said Shamus, who is now a 19-year-old freshman studying electrical and computer engineering at UAlbany. “It means so much to me that we can bring inclusion to a place where it is not as abundant as in the U.S. I'm also very excited to be fully immersed in the culture of Tokyo.”

Duo teams, which consist of a runner pushing a non-ambulatory person in a customized racing chair, have grown in popularity since the Evans family first began racing more than a decade ago. In response to the visibility of athletes like Shaun and Shamus Evans, who in addition to racing for personal enjoyment also use their athletic feats to spread messages of inclusion for people with disabilities, the Tokyo Marathon agreed to open entry for the first time ever this year to four select duo teams.

The Evans were selected for one of those spots after becoming involved with the ASICS ambassador program, and will race alongside 30,000 participants in the annual marathon, which is one of the seven World Marathon Majors, with a film crew tracking their progress.

"We met with the Tokyo Marathon Foundation a couple weeks ago, and they asked that we run with their two guide runners so that they can kind of take inventory of what it's like for a duo to run their race, to look at the course and see what foot traffic is like on the course for us before they really open it up to more and more rider-and-runner duos,” Shaun said.

The pair have been spreading inspiration and a message of inclusion for people with disabilities since they first started racing together.

Their very first race was the Firecracker, a four-mile road race held each July 4 in Saratoga Springs, which the pair completed in 2013.

"It was a super hot July day, but for Shamus, it was a blast,” Shaun recalled. “He was excited to be part of the running community.”

“Even though he could never really run a step on his own, I had the honor and privilege to be able to be his legs that day and that was more joy than I had ever experienced to date,” he continued. “I had run lots of races and had lots of success by then… but the greatest joy I ever really experienced was and has been running with Shamus.”

Their next race was an ultramarathon, which they won after covering more than 45 miles in just six hours. It was then Shamus got the running bug and told his dad he dreamed of running cross country with him. They spent the next two years planning and training to do just that, and plotted a course that in 2015 took them from the shores of Seattle to the shores of New York City.

Shamus, who had received a customized racing chair from the nonprofit Ainsley’s Angels of America, asked his dad if they could donate chairs to other kids like him as part of the trip. Working with the nonprofit, they were able to raise enough money to give away custom racing chairs to kids with disabilities in each of the states they crossed on their 60-day racing journey. In 2022, they published a book about their experience titled, Better Together: A Memoir of Persistence, Inclusion and a Family's Power to Overcome.

Since then, the pair has participated in a number of races, including the Marine Corps Marathon in Washington, D.C., and even multiple triathlons, with Shaun pulling Shamus in an inflatable kayak for the swimming portion and in a bike trailer for the cycling portion. 

They have no plans to stop anytime soon. After competing in Tokyo this weekend, their next big race on the horizon is the Boston Marathon on April 21.

Shamus, who is in UAlbany’s Honors College and plays baritone horn for the marching band, has adjusted well to college life and continues to dream big, his father said. With the aid of disability services, Shamus is able to live independently on campus. He is interested in aerospace engineering and hopes to design space shuttle and jet propulsion components for NASA or other entities, he said.

“Without Shamus, we wouldn't be doing half of what he has led our family to accomplish,” Shaun said. "Just the fact that he dreams big and doesn't necessarily see obstacles where others might, he's been an inspiration for us and so many others.”