Spencer Levine and his wife, Amanda Tam, have been training for months for the Montreal marathon. This weekend, Levine will be pushing his wife, who suffers from ALS, in a special wheelchair. The high school sweethearts, married in 2024, are often seen running the pathways of their St-Laurent neighbourhood together. Levine and Tam have run 622 kilometres since June, sometimes doing 122 kilometres a week. Levine said “80 per cent of my training has been done with her.” Tam says she’s ready to be in the race rather than watching from the sidelines. “I’m really excited. I’ve spectated a few of his races and it will be a new perspective to be in the race and not in the stands,” she said. Tam is just 25 years old and has been living with the neurodegenerative disease for five years. She and her husband have decided not to let her diagnosis slow them down. “You don’t want to stop living life. I feel like I’ve lived more now than ever before ALS,” Tam said. Levine added: “You can participate in their activities. So, I’ve always been a runner before Amanda’s diagnosis, and now I get to share that passion with her.” Their quest is also a fundraiser for ALS Quebec. “The causes are still unknown as to why people get ALS and which is why funding is crucial to understand the causes and develop treatments to really stop and cure the disease,” said executive director Claudine Cook. It’s a disease that has been dragging on Tam, a McGill University grad, for years. “I don’t have a lot of independence anymore. So, really, I do rely on people around me,” she said, namely her husband and primary caregiver. Levine seems unstoppable, even with surprise obstacles like the metro stairs leading to Sunday’s starting line. “There are at least one flight of stairs that are mandatory to carry Amanda. And so my dad and I have carried Amanda down with whoever else is around to help us,” Levine said. “ALS is a fatal and incurable disease and they’ve taken the path to live with the disease to the fullest. Most people pass away between two to five years,” Cook said. “Amanda and Spencer, they want to celebrate that she’s exceeded that five years. That five-year anniversary is coming up. And they wanted to do something special. And they really are.” This weekend’s marathon is Levine’s 10th marathon event, but the most meaningful one. He usually runs a marathon under three hours, but on Sunday he’ll aim for 42.2 kilometres in four hours with Amanda leading the way. He said “we’ll have a conversation together for the entire time.”
