Tom O'Keefe
Tom O’Keefe is the founder of Stride for Stride, and the former founder of: Heart to Cart, Bostontweet, Flutter, Research Connect, and WiredAlumni.
Tom is the author of Why I Run, his autobiography about receiving a kidney transplant on January 10, 2024, and then running the Brooklyn Half Marathon four months later, and the New York City Marathon ten months post kidney transplant.
Within two years and three months of his kidney transplant, Tom ran and finished four out of six Abbott World Marathon Majors: NYC (2024), Boston (2025), Chicago (2025), and London (2026).
Tom is registered to run the Berlin Marathon on September 27, 2026. Berlin will be Tom's 5th World Marathon Major in two years and eight months since his transplant.
Tom's goal is to complete all six Abbott World Marathon Majors (London, Berlin, Tokyo, NYC, Boston, Chicago) and become the first kidney transplant recipient from the United States and the Americas to earn Six Stars. Tom will become only the second kidney transplant recipient in the world to earn Six Stars.
I run to give hope to kidney patients waiting for a life-saving kidney donation. I run to show kidney recipients that you can do hard things. I run marathons to show 50-somethings that you’re not too old to run marathons.
Read more about why I run and my personal story in my book, Why I Run.
Tom is based in Brookline, Massachusetts, and is available for speaking and consulting engagements.
Why I Run
by Tom O'Keefe
On January 10, 2024, Tom O’Keefe received a life-saving kidney transplant from his Stride for Stride teammate, Jorge Rosales. Ten months later, on November 3, 2024, Tom and Jorge ran the New York City Marathon together—the first time a kidney donor and recipient has ever run the NYC Marathon together.
On April 21, 2025, Tom and Jorge ran the Boston Marathon together—another first.
On October 12 2025, Tom ran the Chicago Marathon, followed by the London Marathon on April 26 2026. Tom is now only two marathons away—Berlin and Tokyo—from becoming the first kidney transplant recipient from the United States and the Americas to run all six of the World Marathon Majors.
Why I Run is Tom’s memoir on how running and life has taken on new meaning since being given a second chance at life.
Kidney Donor and Kidney Recipient Run the NYC Marathon and Boston Marathon together.
An Extremely Rare Accomplishment.
I’ve scoured the internet trying to find another example of a kidney donor and his/her recipient running a marathon together. I couldn’t find any previous occurrence in the United States. Never had it previously happened in the NYC Marathon, the Boston Marathon, the Chicago Marathon or any other World Marathon Major. The only other occurrence throughout the world, in which a kidney recipient ran a marathon with his donor was in Israel (2023).
What Jorge and I accomplished in the NYC Marathon and the Boston Marathon is extremely rare, and they will not be our last marathons together.
Additionally, as far as I've been able to discover, no other kidney recipient has ever run a marathon within ten months of their transplant. I went into my transplant in tremendous shape, which allowed me to recover quickly—quick enough to become the first kidney recipient to run a marathon so soon after surgery.
I didn’t run NYC to be the first. I ran because running is my recovery, both physically and mentally. Running is social, and solitary. Running is fun, and exhausting. Running can be joyful and awful at the same time. Running pushes the limits of what you thought your body was capable of. Running leaves you in awe, and in pain.
New Year's Day 2024
It was only two hours into 2024 and I had already vomited a few times, and it had nothing to do with New Year’s Eve celebrations.
My kidney transplant was just ten days away, and up until this weekend I had very little symptoms or side effects of Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD), other than extreme fatigue. I just ran the B.A.A. Half Marathon in November with a GFR of 10, and I went on 5 mile walks every day in December. However, on New Year’s Day my luck was starting to change.
After a sleepless night, and a rough morning, I finally told my wife, Bridget, that I needed to go to the ER. We arrived at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) around 5pm and they quickly started running a number of blood tests on me. They soon discovered that I had an extremely high buildup of urea nitrogen in my blood, uremia—the reason for my vomiting. And I would have to go on dialysis immediately to get my body stable for surgery.
In just two weeks from my last nephrologist appointment my numbers plummeted. What I hoped would be smooth sailing to the transplant, turned into emergency dialysis.
Dialysis is something that I desperately tried to avoid, and I almost did, but my body finally gave out one week before my transplant. Now, for the first time, I finally saw how severe CKD can be, and it terrified me. I would start my first dialysis session on January 2nd, eight days before my surgery.
Spring 2022
Up until Spring 2022 I was doing great. CKD didn’t slow me down one bit. I was running a lot, Stride for Stride was growing, and Bridget and I got married in June 2021 at the Harborview Hotel in Edgartown. Life was good, very good.
Then something happened; my GFR (glomerular filtration rate) plummeted from the 60s in early February to the mid-20s in May. That’s an incredibly fast decline. GFR is a formula that measures, and estimates, how well your kidneys filter blood based on your creatinine, age, sex, and other blood test results. Your GFR declines with age, but generally falls within three levels; 90-120 is a normal GFR, below 60 could indicate kidney disease, and less than 15 is kidney failure.
As my GFR dropped into the 20s, I immediately felt the decline in my running. What used to be an easy ten miles, now became a difficult two miles. And a nap was now required after running just two miles. My first symptom of end-stage renal disease, fatigue, had settled in.
I had weekly nephrologist appointments and we tried a few IV sessions of a monoclonal antibody to stop the decline, but that didn’t work. In May, I was admitted to BIDMC and they hit me up with a heavy dose of IV steroids. After a few weeks, and 15 additional pounds, that didn’t work either.
One beautiful day in May, my nephrologist called to say it’s time to start preparing for a transplant. I was devastated, and shocked. How did this happen? In just two years I went from not thinking about CKD to needing a kidney transplant.
Your health can change on a dime so please live each day to the fullest. Don’t stress or fight over the minor things in life.
After receiving the transplant news I thought I could no longer run. I took a week off from running because I assumed I had to. There was absolutely no reason to assume this other than I was feeling down, I was being pessimistic. Nothing had changed physically since my last run. The only thing that changed was what I believed to be true. I quickly discovered that it’s easy to give up when you receive a diagnosis like end-stage renal disease. It’s a great excuse for not doing things: I can’t run today, I have ESRD. I can’t get out of bed today, I have ESRD.
However, these are all excuses and nothing else. This is giving up, and I didn’t want to give up. I didn’t want to sit around all day—I wanted to continue running. If I was to get through kidney disease and receive a transplant then I would need to be as healthy and as active as possible—for me that meant continuing to run.
One week after that call, I went on an incredible 10-mile run along the Merrimack River in Newburyport, MA. It was incredible not because of the pace and distance, but because it gave me the confidence to never give up. After that day, I never stopped running, and I quickly focused my thoughts and emotions on optimism. I was determined to find a donor, and determined to be myself again.
Topics and Races Discussed in Why I Run
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Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD)
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End Stage Renal Disease (ESRD)
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Anti-Rejection Medications for Kidney Recipients
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Tacrolimus
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Mycophenolic Acid
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Prednisone
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Timing of Immunosuppressants
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Becoming a Kidney Donor
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Receiving a Kidney Transplant
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Finding a Kidney Donor
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Mohs Surgery
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Skin Cancer
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Squamous Cell Carcinoma
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Radiation Therapy
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Inequity in Illness
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Recovering from a Kidney Transplant
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Food Precautions after a Kidney Transplant
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Medications: Eliquis, Hydroxyurea, Allopurinol, Carvedilol, Bactrim, Nystatin
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Glomerular Filtration Rate (GFR)
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Polycythemia vera (Poly Vera, PV)
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Proteinuria
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Uremia
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Dialysis, Hemodialysis
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Falmouth Road Race
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BAA Boston Half
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BAA 10K
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BAA 5K
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Boston Marathon
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New York City Marathon
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Chicago Marathon
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London Marathon
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Brooklyn Half Marathon
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Boston Run to Remember
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Cambridge Half
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NYC Half
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305 Half Marathon
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Kidney Donor Athletes