Victim of Hawaii wildfires runs Chicago Marathon to raise money for his community
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Race weekend is nearing and tens of thousands of runners are getting ready for 26.2 miles on their feet. Getting through that takes some serious motivation.
CBS 2's Noel Brennan met one runner who finds that motivation more than 4,000 miles away from Chicago.
"New York was my first marathon," said Nate Kahaiali'i. "I'm doing Tokyo in March."
Kahaiali'i will run his first Chicago Marathon on Sunday.
"I'm learning that it's not about running fast every single time," he said.
He already has his race packet from McCormick Place and motivation for every mile.
"I'm running for my community," he said.
He only needs to think of home.
"It's just hard to see. There's other parts of Maui that got hit by wildfires, but Lahaina was definitely the most devastated," he said.
The wildfire that took at least 98 lives destroyed Kahaiali'i's childhood home.
"It hits you like a brick because you don't prepare for things like this," he said. "No one really does. I've never cried so hard in my life before."
Before he left to evacuate, he grabbed his running shoes, knowing he'd need them in Chicago, where he'll find renewed purpose in each step.
"They're the only thing I saved from my home, so it's a little more, these shoes mean a little more to me," he said. "These are the shoes I'm going to run in the marathon."
With cushion under his feet, he'll find comfort running for a cause.
"I'm running with the Red Cross," he said. "That's why this race is a little more important to me because the Red Cross has helped out as much as they can."
Kahaiali'i knows recovery on Maui is not a race.
"It's about the long term not the short term. It's not about how you start, but it's about finishing," he said.
It's a reason as good as any to keep running.
"We just gotta endure. We gotta be resilient. We gotta be strong," he said.