Matthew Futterman is a well-respected name in the tennis community. He is an award-winning, veteran sports journalist who has covered tennis for years and has also authored the book “The Cruelest Game: Chasing Greatness in Professional Tennis.” If Futterman isn’t covering any sporting events or writing books, then he may be found following his other passion, which is running. He has competed in the famous New York Marathon on 16 occasions. Futterman participated in the marathon that was held on November 1, just months after his life was turned upside down.

Earlier this year, Futterman’s wife, Amy, was diagnosed with Triple-Negative breast cancer and had to undergo a double mastectomy in April. It is an aggressive form of the disease that takes the lives of around 40,000 women in the US every year. Though the illness was indeed quite serious, Amy still made one difficult request to Futterman.

“In the early days after the diagnosis, Amy had made me promise her that I was not going to let this illness get in the way of my routines, my daily runs or swims, and a work schedule that involves a silly amount of travel. Letting that happen would make her feel worse,” Futterman wrote for The Athletic.

Amy underwent eight rounds of chemotherapy, which caused her nausea, fatigue, mouth sores, throat rashes, and many other side effects. It took a month for her to recover before she underwent reconstructive surgery. During this tough period, Futterman was her primary caretaker. While it was quite hard for him to see his wife suffer, he kept his promise and continued following his daily routines as he always did.

And so Futterman ran and swam as hard as he could and continued training for the New York marathon. At this point, he was rigorously training to divert his attention and was trying to escape from everything that was going on in his life. But sometimes the sadness became too much for him to handle. The first weeks of Amy’s treatment were quite painful for the whole family, including their three children.

But all of this didn’t stop Futterman from preparing for the New York marathon. He first participated in the event in 1996, just after he got married to Amy. She also participated the next year and crossed the finish line. They pushed their three kids to pursue running as well when they were little. Futterman has run in the New York marathon every year since 2011 and has also participated in half-marathons with two of his kids.

While Futterman’s passion for running is evident, it turns out that Amy isn’t far behind either. She showed that passion just two days before her chemo treatment, on August 16.

Matthew, Amy, and their kids participated in a five-mile race before her chemo treatment

Matthew and Amy were accompanied by their three kids as they decided to participate in the Dog Day Five-Mile race on Long Beach Island. Though she was clearly not in great condition, Amy gave her best during the race.

She alternated between running and walking as the rest of her family members went ahead. Futterman and his three children finished the race well before Amy, but they ran back along the course to join her for the rest of the way. The five of them crossed the finish line together, hand in hand, about an hour after Amy started the race.

Amy appeared to be very happy with how the race panned out. It felt like she had left the painful days of the double mastectomy way behind her. With her condition visibly getting better, it wasn’t a surprise that she attended the New York marathon to cheer for Futterman.

Amy was standing in the middle of the brutal hill up Fifth Avenue, the same place she has always occupied since Futterman started running the race again in 2011. He spotted her while running and stopped to give her a kiss before asking her to run the marathon alongside him next year. It is safe to say that both of them are now in a much better place than they were a few months ago.