Merritt Island 16-Year-Old Takes on Chicago Marathon to Support Veterans
Merritt Island High runner Justin Gregoire is preparing for his first 26.2-mile race while raising $2,500 for injured service members, veterans and their families.
At 16, Justin Gregoire is already preparing for a distance most runners never attempt. The Merritt Island High School student plans to run the Bank of America Chicago Marathon on October 11, making the 26.2-mile race his first marathon.
He is not only running for a finish line. Gregoire has set a goal of raising $2,500 for SALUTE, INC., a nonprofit that provides practical financial assistance to injured service members, veterans and military families.
A first marathon at the minimum age
Gregoire runs cross country and track for the Merritt Island Mustangs, but a marathon is a different kind of test. It demands months of carefully increasing mileage, learning how to eat and drink during a long run, and staying healthy through week after week of training.
In an interview with Space Coast Daily and Friday Night Locker Room, Gregoire said Chicago was the marathon he found that would allow a participant his age. The race's official rules permit runners who are at least 16 on race day, with parental or legal-guardian permission required for anyone under 18.
Chicago will be the 48th running of one of the world's best-known marathons. The route carries runners through the city's neighborhoods before finishing in Grant Park, with an official time limit of six hours and 30 minutes.
Turning the miles into help for military families
Gregoire is running with Team SALUTE. The organization helps veterans and their families cover everyday expenses such as rent, utilities and car payments during difficult transitions or periods of injury.
SALUTE's 2026 Chicago Marathon team requires a $2,500 fundraising commitment. Gregoire chose the organization after looking into its work and deciding its support for veterans was something he wanted his first marathon to benefit.
Readers can follow or contribute through Justin Gregoire's official SALUTE fundraising page. A donation there is not simply a cheer from the sidelines. It helps turn each training mile into direct assistance for a military family navigating a hard season.
A Brevard student taking on something much bigger
There is an appealing simplicity to this story: a local teenager found a challenge, attached it to a cause and started doing the work. Gregoire's teammates may think the idea sounds a little wild. That is understandable. A first marathon is ambitious at any age.
But youth sports are often at their best when they teach that endurance can be used for more than a personal record. By the time Gregoire reaches Chicago's starting line, he will have spent months representing Merritt Island High, the Space Coast running community and families he may never personally meet.
The race is one day. The preparation—and the help raised along the way—is the larger accomplishment already underway.
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Claire Szewczyk
Claire has called Florida home for a decade, but her love of the Space Coast goes back further — to the beat-up Kennedy Space Center coffee table book she found in a thrift store when she was five. She writes about the people, places, and history that make Brevard County great, and those stories are where Brightside Brevard began.
