James Redding hasn’t always been a runner.

A hockey player in high school, that was his priority, but he knew that development rested on becoming more athletic. 

So Redding decided to start running.

In August 2019, Redding, MCAS ’27, and his mom made a pact: run one 5k a month for one year. Six months later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, forcing the world inside and cancelling organized races in the process.

Redding and his mom, however, didn’t let that stop them. The pair continued to run, and before long, Redding wanted to make the leap to a 10k. Then a half-marathon. Then a marathon.

Redding had caught the racing bug.

Six years later, Redding would become the youngest man to ever run all six world major marathons by completing the Berlin Marathon on Sept. 21, 2025. And two days after that, the Boston College junior was back on campus, making up missed exams.

Without his own grit and discipline, Redding would never have been able to achieve what he has.

On the running end, he went from out of shape to a marathoner, all before reaching college. But what is perhaps even more impressive is that Redding has been able to balance marathon training with his responsibilities as a full-time student and a part-time hockey coach at both  Brookline High School and Warrior Ice Arena.

For Redding, running is all about self-accountability. Planning out his school work with training a month in advance, Redding knows that one part of reaching lofty goals is staying on top of things. 

The other part lies in finding a strong and ceaseless motivation. 

“It’s all about how much you want it and what your true ‘why’ is,” Redding said. “Because each time I run and it gets hard, I think about, ‘well, why am I doing this?’ Am I going to stop right now, or am I going to keep pushing through because of the ‘why?’”

Redding has travelled around the world to earn his Six Star Medal, and in each marathon, he’s met people with incredible stories of how they got to the start line. 

When people with different motivations are brought to the same place, running becomes just as much a group activity as it is a personal one.

“Being in that community of people from all over the country, all over the world, all brought to the exact same place just because of their ‘why,’ was something that was incredibly inspiring for me,” Redding said.

When it came time to run Berlin in September, Redding knew that his “why” would bring him across the finish line. It had carried him through Tokyo and London without fail, and now it was time to finish off the goal he had set just a few months before.

Even in moments of doubt—moments where easy runs felt too hard and bibs seemed out of reach—Redding kept going because of that “why.” 

That kid that couldn’t keep up, who was out of shape, who was never the star in hockey or in gym class, who never wanted to put himself on display—that’s who Redding keeps running for. 

And he wasn’t just doing it for himself. Redding also felt an obligation to finish for those who had supported him since the beginning. 

Even when the Berlin Marathon was the hottest Berlin ever recorded, Redding thought back on just how fortunate he was to be in that situation. 

And just 17 months after his first major marathon, Redding became the youngest person ever to be a Six Star Medalist.

The accomplishment came from his own determination, but Redding still has his support system—the other part of his “why”—to thank for getting him to where he is now.

“Yes, I did the running, but without my professors at BC helping me reschedule things, without New Balance helping me out with getting some numbers, without my mom helping me plan these trips—just, without my family and friends’ support, there would be no way that I would have been able to get done,” Redding said.