Noblesville family to run in New York City Marathon
By STU CLAMPITT
Jamie and Amy Shinneman met at Noblesville High School in 1989. Amy was born with an undiagnosed neuromuscular disease that causes very weak muscles and affects her ability to walk. A rare form of Muscular Dystrophy called Bethlem Myopathy means that she has never had the opportunity to run in her life.
Nonetheless, this November, Amy and Jamie will participate together in the famed New York City Marathon.
The Reporter spoke to Amy and Jamie about checking the New York City Marathon off their bucket list.
“I am an ambassador for the MDA [Muscular Dystrophy Association],” Amy said. “I was the Indiana State Ambassador and I am also an advocate for them. I do a lot of work for them and I also write a blog, so I stay very busy.”
Luke, Jamie and Amy Shinneman are planning to run in the 50th New York City Marathon thanks to this duo chair. (Photo provided)
In October 2019, the Shinnemans completed the Chicago Marathon in a duo bike chair, which is how they will enter the New York marathon this year.
“We did the Chicago marathon in 2019 and we had plans to do other things, but then of course COVID hit, so the only other long one we have done was the Chicago Virtual Half Marathon this spring,” Amy told The Reporter. “This is a big bucket list item for us to do together.”
As a significant bonus, one of their two sons, Luke, will be joining the couple on their run.
“We’re all set to participate in our second marathon together,” Jamie Shinneman said. “Amy and I got a coveted spot in the 50th New York City Marathon in November as a duo team. This is one of our bucket list marathons to run together, and can be hard to get into, so needless to say we are over the moon. We will be running again with MDA’s Team Momentum and raising funds for the fight against neuromuscular disease. The icing on the cake is that Luke is joining our team for this exciting race.”
Their son Luke is a senior at Noblesville High School who runs both cross country and track, and he is the reason his parents are now marathoners.
“My husband was a soccer player, but he was never really a runner,” Amy said. “Our son, Luke, who is doing the marathon with us, started running when he was eight. He was a distance runner at that young of an age. He just had a natural ability for it. He’d want to do these really long runs and we didn’t want him going by himself, so the solution was that my husband would run with him. It just took off from there. He started doing 5ks, then half marathons, then marathons, and now we are running together.”
The 50th running of the New York City Marathon is set for Nov. 7, 2021 with only 33,000 runners instead of the usual 55,000. With a reduced field of runners this year, getting a spot in the world’s most famous marathon means even more. The Shinnemans know there is a possibility that this year’s marathon will be canceled, as last year’s was, due to COVID-19.
“The New York City Marathon is notoriously hard to get into and we entered a lottery this time,” Amy told The Reporter. “Since we are running for the MDA, that’s how my son got in too because he is going to be raising money for the MDA. They only allow a very small number of these duo bikes in these marathons. We will just have to take it day by day and follow whatever precautions they are going to have there. I feel like New York is not going to do it if it is not going to be a safe environment for everyone.”
If you would like to support the Shinneman’s fund raising efforts for the MDA and their upcoming marathon run, you can donate online at this link.
To follow their journey to the marathon, you can visit Amy Shinneman’s Facebook page, where she documents and posts videos of their training runs. You can also follow her on Instagram.