Running CT for Medals4Mettle and CT Children's Foundation

We’re excited to announce that we’re starting a Connecticut chapter of Medals4Mettle (M4M)—with Shan leading the charge. During a recent meeting with our friends at the Hartford Marathon Foundation, someone casually suggested a wild idea: what if we kicked things off with a running tour of all 169 Connecticut towns?

Naturally, we said yes.

We added it to the 2025 calendar almost immediately, because it was perfectly crazy and perfectly us.

You might not know this, but Medals4Mettle holds a special place in Shan’s heart. His first-ever multi-day charity run was for M4M, way back in 2008, when the organization was expanding from its founding chapter in Indianapolis to Chicago. He ran 195 miles in 51 hours—from Chicago to Indy—raising money and awareness for the cause and blogging the journey as Windy2Indy.

Today, M4M has chapters in 25 U.S. states, as well as Canada and Japan.

Each chapter—powered entirely by volunteers—partners with hospitals and other nonprofit organizations to award endurance medals to children and adults fighting serious illness. These donated medals symbolize mettle: courage, resilience, and bravery in the face of enormous challenge.

We’re especially proud to be working with the Connecticut Children’s Foundation, who helped coordinate our first donation event at Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford. Their team brings a shared spirit of community, compassion, and strength to this effort—and we’re honored to join forces with them.

Introducing CTM4M 2025

Our goal is to use the 2025 CTM4M run to kickstart a sustainable M4M chapter here in Connecticut—one that builds community, inspires human connection, and carries forward the organization’s mission. The run will also benefit the CT Children's Foundation who is also a charity partner of the Hartford Marathon Foundation.

The route: Starting in New Haven, Shan will run through every one of Connecticut’s 169 towns, covering 1,100 miles before finishing with a celebratory lap at the Eversource Hartford Marathon. He’ll average 40 miles per day, moving through 4–8 towns daily. If all goes according to plan, he’ll complete the journey in just one month.

The crew: Behind the scenes, his amazing, loving, beautiful (and spreadsheet-wielding) wife, Josh, will be supporting him every step of the way—planning, coordinating, crewing, and improvising as needed.

The teaser: A little birdie told us there might even be a CTM4M bike tour in the works ahead of the main event. Stay tuned on our social media for updates!

We'd Love Your Help!

This is a community effort, and we’re going to need a village. Here are a few ways you can get involved:

🏅 Donate a Medal: Help us gather endurance medals for patients at Connecticut Children’s Medical Center and other partner hospitals across the state.

🎉 Support a fundraising event to help cover the costs of ribbons, certificates, and general operations.

👟 Join us for a group run (or ride!) for part of Shan's run.

🎙️ Know a journalist, podcaster, or photographer who might want to help share our story? Please connect us.

🌄 Have insider tips on food, scenic views, or historic sites in any of the 169 towns? Let us know—we’d love to include them!

Footnotes:

Medals4Mettle: Medals4Mettle® (M4M) awards medals to kids and adults fighting debilitating diseases and illnesses to spread love, kindness, and encouragement. These endurance medals are donated by athletes from across the country and acknowledge the mettle (courage, bravery, resilience) of the recipient. Our M4M team and the donated medal, enable a human connection that symbolizes the compassion and kindness spread from one human to another during a time of crisis. 

CT 169 Towns Society Check out their website for more information. Here is an excerpt from their homepage.

Mission Statement: Run 169 Towns Society, is a group of runners formed by individuals who aspire to run a race in every town in the State of Connecticut.  Realizing that racing successfully in every Connecticut town may be a lifetime accomplishment, provided below is a set of definitions to recognize and validate runners’ attempts to achieve this goal. Ultimately, it is the runner, not the Society, which determines the obtainment of this achievement.  

Shan's Windy2Indy: "In the middle of all this running, I met Dr. Isenberg through my work one day. I was touched by his story of starting up a small non-profit and was happy to volunteer to do my small part in Chicago. So far in Chicago, we have organized a small group of runners and donors through the Chicago Marathon and have donated medals to the Children's Memorial. Since I started volunteering for M4M, I have wanted to do something to raise awareness and funds for the organization. Since I was from the Indianapolis area, doing a Chicago to Indianapolis run seemed like the right idea."