I am excited to share with everyone that I will accomplish my goal of running this years 2025 TCS NYC Marathon as a part of Team Heart & Stroke. I am beyond blessed to run for a cause very close and personal to me. I will be running through the beautiful city of New York for 26.2 miles. I chose to run this Marathon to honor my dad who had open heart surgery a couple years back. Here’s my story.

On the morning of June 9th 2023, my dad suffered a heart attack. Something so unexpected happened so quick. After finding out that my dad needed emergency surgery the very first thing the next morning was when I felt everything go blank. Going in the next morning before the surgery was a sad feeling. Not knowing if we would ever see my dad again. We said our goodbye's and played the waiting game. After the longest 7 hours double bypass surgery we got the call that my dad was okay. I had never felt more relief in my life. I didn't realize how precious life is and how anything could happen at any moment until i saw my dad recovering from open heart surgery with a breathing tube in his mouth. From the months of bed rest to my dad finally being able to go back to work, really made me change the way I look at life. How important it is to live a healthy life. Eating healthy and getting the correct amount of exercise is essential. I immediately started looking into ways to switch our everyday food to healthy alternatives. I told myself that I didn’t want to ever experience something like this again whether it was me or anyone else in my family. I have always been an active person and in the beginning of 2024 is when I decided to try out running. I instantly fell in love. From running my first race in May and running another one a week later, is when I instantly knew that this was my way of building a healthy life. I am running for my dad as a Heart attack survivor and for everyone else out there that unfortunately weren’t as lucky as he was. My dad used to run when he was younger so it only feels right to be one as well. I’m glad it runs in the family.

I have a fundraising goal of $5,000 to meet in order to run in November. Im hopeful that with the help of my friends, family and, community we will be able to hit this goal together.

For anyone that makes a donation I would like to thank you for supporting me in this journey as all the proceedings will go directly to the American Heart Association to help bring awareness to cardiovascular health.

If you are able to donate then that would be gladly appreciated and even if you are not able to donate then a simple share would also mean the world to me.

Thank you all once again for helping me get to New York!

With Heart,

Marco Antonio Gordillo Martinez

Thank you for supporting American Heart Association. Your contribution is greatly appreciated.