“I’m not a fast runner. I’m not an elite runner or a marathon maniac. I’m just a dad.” While humble about it, Dillon TenBrink is no stranger to marathons; he’s been running them for the past 15 years. This spring, he’ll run the 2025 TCS London Marathon as part of the RUN FOR AUTISM team. He admits that, in many ways, running marathons is a little crazy, but he has his reasons. “If you’re going to run a marathon, do it for a reason and for something you believe in. For me, it’s my daughter and running for [autism] awareness and resources.”
TenBrink is running for his 14-year-old daughter who was diagnosed with autism as a toddler. “It’s been a learning experience these last 14 years,” he said. “How do we help her in the best way possible?”
Over the last few years, the TenBrink family has worked with their daughter’s schools to ensure she gets the support she needs. TenBrink and his wife are pleased by how accommodating and helpful her schools have been in creating a 504 plan and tailoring resources. It’s been a collaborative process, with both the TenBrinks and the schools contributing resources. “One of the keys to success is getting resources into schools and colleges to help them understand what levers they can pull so they can help support someone.” TenBrink has helped in this process to ensure resources are available not only for his daughter but for others.
“She’s an intelligent, strong young woman,” TenBrink says proudly about his daughter. “She’s a world traveler with more stamps on her passport at 14 than some people collect in their adult lives; she’s been around the world with us.” For the TenBrinks, travel is a way of life. TenBrink is an FAA-certified private pilot and owns a small plane. “It’s in the pursuit of exposing her to the broader world and seeing how people live, how different cultures operate, and how many opportunities there are in the world.”
From Baton Rouge to Berlin, marathoning has given the family a reason to go on trips to places they usually wouldn’t consider. When TenBrink was accepted into the Tokyo Marathon in 2019, he and his family used the race to explore Japan.
Participating in the 2022 BMW Berlin Marathon was a significant achievement for TenBrink. “I’d never been to Berlin, and the history of the city and part of the world was so fascinating to dive into and live in for a week.” On race day, Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record for the marathon. “I crossed the halfway point and heard that he’d broken the record. It buoyed the rest of us,” he says. Running the same streets that Kipchoge ran earlier that day, running under the Brandenburg arch, and running a marathon personal best time made the race even more memorable.
Afterward, he and his family spent a couple of weeks exploring Europe. Among the places they went was London, where the 2022 TCS London Marathon was taking place in the fall instead of the spring due to COVID. After seeing the race, TenBrink thought, “I really have to run this race someday. When I had the opportunity to run for OAR and get to go to London, I decided this is the year to scratch it off my bucket list.”
While his daughter won’t be in London to cheer him on, she’ll be cheering from afar. “When people line up on the start line, everyone has a reason they’re there. For me, that’s my daughter and doing good things in the world to support her,” TenBrink says. “I’ll be thinking of her!”
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