The sun slowly rises over College Station, casting a soft glow on two runners meandering through the quiet streets near campus. As they fall into a consistent pace, their strides align, creating the illusion of one unit. Their breaths sync up, slowing their heart rates and easing their nerves.

With every step, they find their rhythm. The siblings are bound by the same pace, the same purpose and the same determination that has dragged them out of bed before sunrise since the summer.

To most in Aggieland, it’s just another early Saturday in September. To kinesiology senior Jack Davis and marketing sophomore Josie Davis, it’s another step — 17 miles, this time — toward 26.2 miles through the streets of New York City for the TCS New York City Marathon.

For fourth-generation Aggies Jack and Josie, running has become just as much second nature as rooting for the Maroon and White. After running the Bryan-College Station half-marathon together last December, they decided the next step would be a full-fledged marathon. 

With their father, Will Davis, turning 50 this year, he wanted to challenge the family to run a marathon and Will thought what better than the TCS New York City Marathon — considered to be one of the seven major world marathons — and, of course, Jack and Josie were up for the challenge. 

“The half-marathon last year was a pretty big step for me as far as a longer race and this will be a big step as well — first marathon,” Josie said. “It’s exciting to go all the way to New York City for it.” 

More than a race

They began by applying through the marathon lottery, where only 2-3% of over 200,000 applicants are accepted — a statistic Will noted is lower than admission to Harvard. After facing rejection, Will found an alternative option for his family: raising money for an official charity partner. 

“We found this one called the James Blake Foundation … what the James Blake Foundation does is they raise money for cancer awareness and that’s something that’s pretty personal to us because our grandma passed away from cancer in 2012,” Jack said. “So we thought it’d be cool to run for this foundation, in her honor, and so we got in contact with them, and they let us join the team.”

Partnering with the foundation required each participant to raise $5,000 for the foundation’s fund benefitting Memorial Sloan Kettering, which focuses on early cancer detection research. Both Josie and Jack created accounts through GivenGain, a not-for-profit platform that sends money directly to the foundation. 

Starting in late spring, the siblings reached out to family, friends and other Aggies to meet their goal, surpassing $4,000 each by the beginning of October. 

“We first created a fundraising page and just started sending it out to lots of people,” Jack said. “We sent letters to family members, to friends, just tell them about the cause and how we were running for our grandma. We also put it on some of our social media. … We’ve gotten a lot of generous support from friends and family.”

The family is running alongside 50 other competitors for the James Blake Foundation. Over the summer, they joined several Zoom calls to meet the other runners. Jack said he looks forward to meeting them face-to-face for the first time when they line up for the race on Nov. 2.

“And we’re excited to get to meet the other members,” Josie said. “The day before the race and then at the race, we’ll get to meet with the other members of the team and then the people that helped organize it and walked us through the steps of joining the fundraising team. So that’ll be exciting getting to meet them in person and establish connections and friendships with those running for the same cause.”

Finding their stride

With this being Josie and Jack’s first marathon and Will’s first marathon in about 25 years, preparation began early this year. In August, the foundation passed out training materials to runners to prepare them for a successful race. Spanning across three months, Will said they each wound up running over 359 miles.

“I’m kind of ready for the training to be done, just because it’s been hard,” Will said. “But now we’re tapering down, so that part is nice and you know, we got our longest runs out of the way.”

The duo cherished Saturday mornings leading up to the race when they would call their dad to pass time during their long runs. Designated as their weekly catchup, Will would start his run at 5:30 a.m. with Josie and Jack starting around 7 a.m.

“It’s fun how a lot of our long runs kind of correlate to when our dad is running too,” Josie said. “So getting to call him and see how he’s feeling is good. We’re following the same training plan that we got from our fundraising team that they sent out to everyone on the team.”

For Josie, the most difficult part of training came with the mental wall — pushing herself, both physically and mentally, past what she believed to be her limits. Josie said remaining grounded in her faith and adjusting her mindset has been imperative for her success. 

“I think maybe that’s kind of been the hardest just pushing past the thoughts of, ‘I don’t know, if I can do it,’ and just like focusing on the joy. We get to run and getting to do it together and we are getting to do it for a reason that is really near to our hearts,” Josie said. “I think just replacing some of those thoughts with more positive ones helped.”

For Jack, consistency — despite his demanding class schedule and extracurriculars — proved to be the most challenging aspect of preparation. The rigorous training plan suggested daily runs, and often Jack found the best time to get his runs in was early in the morning or late at night. 

“Consistency is hard when you’re feeling sore and feeling like the race is just never going to come,” Jack said. “Just being consistent but disciplined about getting a run in every day, and it can sometimes feel monotonous doing the same thing every week, but remembering the goal and remembering why we’re doing it and why we’re training … kept me going.”

With roughly a week until the race, the two are focused on classes and the mental preparations of the race. Though nerves are high, Josie and Jack said running the race will be a rewarding individual accomplishment and a family accomplishment in honor of their grandmother.

“It will be a huge blessing getting to complete it after investing a lot of time and effort into training for it with Jack and my dad,” Josie said. “ [I am] so grateful for running. It is something that I feel like I can do really my whole life, whether it’s training for races like this or just doing it as something to stay in shape and to maintain a healthy lifestyle. … Even when it’s hard and my body doesn’t feel that great, I am thankful for an opportunity to do this and to train for something like a marathon has been cool.”

This story was originally published on The Battalion on October 29, 2025.