Four friends from the Class of 2018 used the occasion of the 2024 New York City Marathon to get in shape, have fun, and raise funds and awareness for a worthy cause.

Cole Brown, Will deMuth, Doug Godine, and Teddy Macfarlane teamed up in June to begin the grueling preparations to complete the 26.2-mile race. Will was the point man and visionary for the training. With their professional lives keeping them busy Monday through Friday — Cole is a medical student at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai; Will is an associate director of Integrated Consulting Strategies at Savills; Doug is a business analyst at SSA & Company; and Teddy is a senior associate of client services at AlphaSights — the bulk time to run was on the weekends. But Will made it fun. Doug noted, “Will created a training packet for all of us to follow, and it was a blast.” Joint training, rather than individualized exercise, was the focus, mainly through lengthy Saturday runs. The process produced results and fostered a real esprit de corps. “Having your best friends training by your side made all the training easier,” recalls Teddy.

The group dedicated its efforts to promoting One Love Foundation’s mission: raising awareness for the signs and symptoms of relationship violence. Thanks to Will’s affiliation with the Foundation through the One Love Run Club, a group he helped establish in January 2024, the Hounds made the Club’s infamous 6-mile loop around Central Park the foundation of their training regimen. Over time, the Club’s membership swelled to as many as 100 runners! The Gilman friends generated financial support for the One Love Foundation in the lead-up to the marathon, collectively raising more than $15,000 for the Foundation.

Finally, race day — Sunday, November 3 — arrived, and the foursome was ready to melt some pavement. They aimed to run together as much as possible, recognizing the race’s size ( (more than 55,000 participants —the world’s largest marathon!) would make it extremely difficult. Under clear skies and temperatures hovering in the low 40s, hearing Frank Sinatra's “New York, New York” blaring in the background, the group set off on a steady and purposeful pace. Supporters from NYC and Baltimore cheered at points along the 26.2-mile course that winds through all five boroughs of New York City, beginning on Staten Island and ending in Manhattan. Months of rigorous training paid off; the Hounds all finished in less than three and a half hours — Cole leading the pack with a blistering final time of 2:46! (For context, the average finishing time for men in the 2023 NYC marathon was 4:26:35.)

The team met for snacks, hydration, and photos at the finish line. After some necessary rest, a large contingent of family and friends came together at a bar in Greenwich Village to celebrate. The support from family coming up from home was a big boost, making for an extra special ending to a joyous day that culminated many months of arduous — but mostly fun — preparation. Cole offered a thoughtful commentary on the whole endeavor, start to finish: “It was an incredible experience made that much better by doing it alongside my closest friends from Gilman.”

Addendum: Coincidentally, while the 2018 crew was hitting the pavement, so too was a member of the Class of 2014. Chase Campbell completed the New York City Marathon in 2:52, which earned him a spot in the 2026 Boston Marathon, one of his lifelong goals. “I frequently ran by Will deMuth and some of the other Gilman guys in the city on early runs before work, which was so inspiring,” noted Chase. Upon further reflection, he credited a longtime Gilman faculty member as a source of constant motivation. “One of the people who originally inspired me to make running a daily ritual was Jeff Gouline ’00, who ran every day rain or shine and always demonstrated that you’re never too busy to fit in a quick run.”