BALTIMORE (WMAR) — The death of two Baltimore City firefighters is impacting more than just the people who knew or worked with them.
Andrew Altman was inspired by them giving the ultimate sacrifice to add turnout gear to his race day attire for the upcoming Marine Corps marathon this Sunday.
"When I heard about this story, my heart told me, reach out, put something on social media and do something for these guys cause these guys are heroes," said Altman.
Altman's social media post letting people know he was adding the gear made its way to the mother of Rodney W. Pitts III, who called Altman.
"Rodney's mother and sister reached out to me and their hearts are really voided right now and it made them feel better just talking about it, and I couldn't believe I had the opportunity to talk to them," said Altman.
He isn't your typical marathon runner who might train for months before a race, he has no training.
"Sunday it's going to be close to 80 degrees so it's going to impact me right off the start, so I have to keep hydrated. Again I haven't trained for this, I'll mix it up with running and walking and beat the certain times I have to beat by certain points," said Altman.
Instead, he relies on will power and outside inspiration to make it across the finish line.
"Rodney and Dillon were heroes. They were going out, doing firefighting which they loved so when I heard about this story I said I'm going to put this suit on and go out and run a marathon, my nephew's a firefighter and all the firefighter in the world, they are my heroes," said Altman.
Altman believes it'll take him more than seven hours to complete the race with a combination of walking and running — the entire time, two firefighters will be on his mind.
