Running News Daily

Michael Davis runs Chicago Marathon with Cystic Fibrosis, sets record

More than 45,000 runners completed last Sunday’s Chicago Marathon, but none of them were quite like Townsend’s Michael Davis.

Davis became the youngest runner with Cystic Fibrosis in the event’s 42-year history to complete the 26.2-mile tour of the Windy City.

It’s a nearly perfectly flat trek through the city, until a hill inside the final half mile. Michael said he was so locked in; he didn’t even notice his mother.

“I had my headphones in, I turned the music up. She was actually at the 26-mile mark, and I was just looking at the ground trying to get up that hill. I didn’t even notice she was there until she showed me the video after. I was so zoned in to getting up that hill and finishing. I got to the top of the hill, the finish line was right there, and it was a good feeling.”

It's another finish line for Davis, who was named the 2017 Team Boomer Co-Athlete of the Year as part of the former NFL quarterback’s Boomer Esiason Foundation.

But it was another finish line that didn’t seem possible for Davis at one point when he was in elementary school.

“I had developed this bacteria in my lungs at one point, and my doctor actually told me that I was either going to die rapidly and fast, or slow and painful, and fast was going to be painful, and I was going to die. So that kind of sparked that I needed to make a change.”

That change? It turned out to be running.

“I was supposed to do a nine-month treatment, and I was going to lose my hearing along with other side effects. I started running, and I asked him if I could have one last summer to live my life, and start the treatment afterward. I picked up running, and surfing, and being around the salt air. I went back and my lung function actually had improved. I noticed that change and kept it up, and it’s made a huge difference.”

It was enough to spark Michael in the 5K game, and after he medalled in an event known as the Otter Trotter at Old State Elementary, he was hooked, but as someone always looking for a challenge, 3.1 miles wasn’t enough for Davis.

 “When I was 14 years old, I decided I wanted to more than 5K or a little run that I had been doing. I ran the New York City Half Marathon when I was 14. My lung function was pretty low, so I was in and out of the hospital a lot. After that, I kept running more and more, and my lung function started going up, and I felt better overall, along with the new medication. I then went on to do four half marathons, and decided I wanted to do a full marathon.”

Ultimately, Chicago became Michael’s goal, but there was still the matter of fighting the Cystic Fibrosis. Remarkably, as his stamina improved, his body was showing signs of winning some rounds of his health fight.

“Before I started running, I was in the hospital up to six times a year for 4-6 weeks at a time. Since I started running, now I’ve been out of the hospital for two years, and my lung function has been in the 80s [percent], and it used to be in the low 70s or even the 60s sometimes. I haven’t even seen that in two years, so it’s made a big difference.”