A man with Down syndrome continues to make history, earning a world record at his first marathon in London earlier this year and becoming a crowd favorite in New York last week, according to the BBC.
Lloyd Martin, age 20, became the youngest person in his learning disability category to complete a marathon earlier this year. On April 21, he set a world record as the youngest person in the intellectual impairment category of the London Marathon. He called that achievement “absolutely amazing.”
Last week, he completed the New York Marathon, winning over new fans as he danced his way through the race. Those frequent dance breaks meant he didn’t beat his London marathon time, but it did mean he touched the hearts of countless new supporters.
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“Because he loves to dance, every music stop, whether it was a choir, a band, a DJ, he was stopping and dancing, which is why it ended up taking us so long,” said his mother Ceri Hooper with a laugh. “He was having such a good time, I couldn’t tear him away from the music.”
Growing up, Lloyd enjoyed being active through running, gymnastics, and playing football for Special Olympics clubs. He had told his mother a few times that he would like to run a marathon. but she didn’t take it seriously — at first. Then when the opportunity for him to run the London Marathon presented itself, Lloyd was given the choice of whether or not to participate and he said yes.
“We literally went from a 5k Parkruns to a marathon in four months,” said his mother. “We only did three runs a week. I really didn’t want him to get injured or get fed up with it… he still had his other training, for football and gymnastics.”
After enjoying the London Marathon and setting a record, Lloyd decided to take part in the New York Marathon as well.
“Lloyd was totally excited, he loved the whole marathon experience,” said Ceri. What she didn’t expect was for the crowd to know who he was and to love him as much as they did.
“The amount of people that passed us and said ‘oh, I saw you in London’ or ‘I saw you at the Great North Run,’ it was really really nice,” she said. “He had a lot of support.”
Lloyd completed the New York Marathon in eight and a half hours as runners stopped to film him and dance with him. He now wants to complete the largest marathons in the world.
“I’m so unbelievably proud,” Ceri said. “Never in my wildest dreams did I think he would ever be running alongside me.”
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