Chris and Amy Compston in Chicago.
CHICAGO – Amy For Africa was present and accounted for in the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on Sunday afternoon.
Chris and Amy Compston and Jennifer Mault represented AFA in style with strong finishes.
The Chicago Marathon, the third-largest in the world, greeted 45,000 runners on a perfect day for runners.
Amy was the first of the three AFA runners to finish, completing the course in 3:33. Her husband, Chris, came in at 4:03 and Mault finished in 5:14.
AFA was not only represented with runners but plenty of supporters, too. Amy’s family came out in big numbers to support the organization’s trio of runners.
“We’re so proud of Chris, Amy and Jennifer and thankful to have such a great support team everywhere we go,” said Mark Maynard, the president of AFA. “Not only did Team AFA have a great day of running on Sunday but the AFA Team passed out more than 2,500 gospel tracts and 500 flyers on Saturday in the span of an hour.”
Chris, who broke his finger the last Sunday of September, battled through the pain of it throbbing throughout the race.
“We are especially proud of Chris for not only fighting through the pain today but doing so well throughout the marathon season,” Maynard said. “He’s a tremendous athlete who kept getting better and better. It was simply awesome watching him improve.”
It was the sixth marathon in six months for Chris, who took on the challenge with his wife back in February. Amy was running her seventh marathon with No. 8 still to come in the New York City Marathon on Nov. 2.
She began her marathon season by running in the Boston Marathon for the second time. The Chicago Marathon and NYC Marathon are also part of the world series of marathons.
Chicago is one of the fastest-growing marathons in the world. They have gone from 4,200 runners in 1977 to more than 45,000 runners for this year’s event.