Among the more than 28,000 finishers at the 2025 Boston Marathon, no story stood out quite like that of Dan Johnson from Port Dover, Ont. Johnson set out to run the race in three hours and 10 minutes on what would have been his son’s ninth birthday. But misfortune for Johnson at kilometre 17 put even finishing in jeopardy.
Johnson stepped on a dropped hand-held water bottle, severely injuring his ankle. What followed was four hours of hobbling, hopping, and drawing strength from the constant reminders of his late son, who died of brain cancer in July 2024, to never give up. With the help of a mobility device borrowed from a local resident and a paramedic who taped up his ankle, Johnson and his wife, Jill, began a slow and determined shuffle toward the finish line.
The 42-year-old crossed the finish line sixth from last, his ankle severely injured, just before the 5:30 p.m. cut-off. “It was brutal,” he wrote. “I figured I had to run 12-minute kilometres to get in, and I made it with a few minutes to spare.”
Johnson said he wanted to run Boston to honour Luke. “The way I wanted to honour Luke was through running and training as hard as I could, because that’s how Luke played sports,” he told the Simcoe Reformer. “That’s how he carried himself—whether it was sports or even writing a letter to his mom.”
He finished in 6:46:25—only 14 minutes ahead of the cut-off, and side by side with Jill.
Johnson reflected on the race as a glimpse into the daily pain and perseverance his son had to live through. “Luke never quit and fought cancer in his brain every day he lived,” he wrote. “He was honoured, and I guess that’s the way Monday was supposed to go.”
Tears were shed throughout the day—from Johnson, his wife, and the many spectators who cheered him on from the race’s start in Hopkinton to the finish line in Copley Square, all drawn to his lime green ‘Live Like Luke’ singlet. With every painful step, Johnson knew it was determination that carried him through—not for himself, but for his son, Luke.
