Matt O’Keefe, Sammy Moniz, and Cooper Marsh Complete Boston Marathon, Raise Thousands for One Summit and Boston Scores
On Monday, April 15, 2024, a sea of runners shuffled up Heartbreak Hill, past Boston College, and down Kenmore Square in Boston, MA, on a 26.2-mile course for the 128th annual Boston Marathon.
- Three of those people — HWPO Training’s Matt O’Keefe and Sammy Moniz, as well as Lab Management’s Cooper Marsh — were among the 30,000 to toe the line and finish.
Some background: Having grown up in Massachusetts (O’Keefe was raised in Boston proper and attended Boston College), the trio is uniquely familiar with the Boston Marathon tradition. All their lives, they’ve been aware of the reverence it incites in everyone who spectates, supports, and participates.
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O’Keefe had run it twice before, some 20 years ago now, but Moniz and Marsh were marathon rookies heading into the 2024 edition.
- “I have wanted to run Boston for at least a few years now. It’s always been a bucket list item being born and raised in Massachusetts and having seen my uncle run it many years in a row,” Marsh tells Morning Chalk Up. “That desire grew even more after the bombings as the city rallied around one another, and the race grew even more special.”
O’Keefe and Moniz’s inspiration came from close friend and founder of One Summit, Adam LaReau. HWPO Training had worked with the nonprofit — which helps pediatric cancer patients and their families — as a part of HWPO Give and was invited to participate in the marathon as a way to raise money and awareness for the organization.
- “We saw this as an amazing opportunity to showcase how we live, how we train, and to be a partner with One Summit for it, it was just an easy decision,” O’Keefe tells Morning Chalk Up.
Giving back: O’Keefe and Moniz ran to raise money for LaReau’s One Summit. In his program, the children battling cancer are matched with Navy SEALS who serve as mentors, and they receive support and community engagement.
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Moniz gave birth to her and spouse Mat Fraser’s baby back in August 2023, and she revealed that she only ran her first post-birth mile a few months later in October. Moniz understood the gravity of the challenge that she was embarking upon by running a marathon, but the bigger purpose fueled her.
- “I knew I was doing it for One Summit, and I knew that what I was doing was hard, but that’s nothing compared to the struggle that these families endure and what they go through,” Moniz tells Morning Chalk Up. “If you’re grounded in why you’re doing something, it’s easy to get over yourself and just do it.”
- “I was so grateful to One Summit for allowing me this opportunity. They gave me this gift of being able to push myself like I did; I’m just so grateful that they allowed me to do this for them,” Moniz says.
The two were able to raise $15,000, with donations from friends, family members, and the sales of their limited edition HWPO Run Club T-shirt. HWPO Training is matching that total, resulting in a $30,000 donation to One Summit.
Marsh fundraised for Boston Scores, a nonprofit that partners with Boston Public Schools to provide support to urban youth via after-school soccer and enrichment programs. Having a background in soccer, partnering with Boston Scores was a natural choice for Marsh.
- “Sports kept me out of trouble or even from being lazy and just going home to play video games, as it does so many other kids — and they taught me about hard work, respect, and teamwork. So for the charity to help kids play soccer (or whatever sport) and give them academic support, it’s a no-brainer,” Marsh says.
The training: Growing up playing soccer, Marsh said he was predisposed to running, but wasn’t familiar with tackling a marathon. He wanted to, “put (his) fitness to good use in a different and less comfortable domain.”
- “I ran twice a week for a while, and then three times a week, with two CrossFit classes a week for my entire training cycle. I didn’t follow a traditional linear running plan as that would have been too much volume for me. So I had a short, medium, and long run day each week and I’d scale back when I needed, or skip runs if I had to and just got back to it the following week,” Marsh says.
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Marsh came to enjoy the long runs, which gave him a chance to clear his head and leave his cell phone at home.
O’Keefe and Moniz trained using the HWPO Sweat program, scaling and adapting as needed, adding in runs that increased in distance as the marathon edged closer. They pointed out that training in this way was ideal for them, as it was sustainable and manageable.
- “The reason [HWPO Sweat] worked for me was that it was so adaptable. We subbed biking for running, subbed in a lot of lunges, and what’s so great about a program like this is that as people become more familiar with their bodies, they can easily swap out and swap in what they need to support their goals. And they have the help of a giant support system if they need it,” Moniz says.
O’Keefe agreed that this method of training was so beneficial for him as well.
- “We want to be able to do things like this often,” O’Keefe says. “And if we’re able to use our training, and have that support for the things we’re challenging ourselves to do, that’s what we want. We can get really caught up in staying inside the gym, and that’s not always the best thing. There’s so much more out there.”
What’s next: Moniz and O’Keefe shared that this is just one of many more challenges yet to come for the two of them and their greater HWPO Training network.
- “We have this idea that we want to do more things with [HWPO Training] membership. We want to do more with our training — long bike rides, hikes, runs — we want to have things to train for,” O’Keefe says.
Adventure races, HYROX, 5ks, 10ks, could all possibly be in the mix down the line.
O’Keefe shared that Mat Fraser’s main goal when forming HWPO Training was to help people. And to do that, like all effective leaders and role models, he and his team needed to lead from the front.
Hats off to Moniz, O’Keefe, and Marsh for tackling such a feat. Make sure to check out One Summit and Boston Scores, both of which are always accepting donations.
Featured image: @victakesashot / Instagram