Sam Norton, Santa Rosa Marathon runner who died, remembered at New York City Marathon

“Go Sam!” spectators of the 2023 New York City Marathon cheered on Sunday as David Chalmers ran past them.

“You can do it, Sam!”

No, they weren’t mistakenly calling Chalmers the wrong name.

For the first half of the race, Chalmers wore two bibs — one intended for his friend Sam Norton, who collapsed and died in August while running the Santa Rosa Marathon, and another obtained after Norton’s death which had the name “Sam” in place of a number.

Chalmers said that as he ran, he heard spectators yell his friend’s name over and over during the race. For a few miles, he even heard watchers yell, “Go Sam!” and “Go David!” at the same time.

“It felt like he and I were together,” he said.

Eventually, Chalmers crossed the finish line with the “Sam” bib prominently pinned onto a shirt hung on a pole carried by himself and Norton’s friend and running coach, Victor Zeitoune.

Zeitoune and Chalmers hugged and cried.

“You did it, Sam,” a volunteer said to them.

The finish line moment, captured by New York City social media personality Nicolas Heller, has been viewed more than 1 million times on Heller’s Instagram account @newyorknico.

‘Sneaky plan’

On Aug. 27, Norton, a New York resident, collapsed as he approached the 23rd mile of the Santa Rosa Marathon.

First responders performed CPR on him as other runners passed. He was later taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

He was 26.

His specific cause of death is still being determined, though it involved his heart, said Norton’s mom, Kristen Caisse.

Before his death, Norton had earned the NYC Marathon bib by raising money for the Herren Project, a national nonprofit that provides resources for the treatment, recovery and prevention of substance abuse disorder.

After, organization reps said Caisse could pass the ticket to anyone of her choosing, and she called Chalmers, one of her son’s best friends.

It was only after Caisse recruited Chalmers that she learned her son had been pushing his friend to run since last year’s marathon.

“Don't tell David,” she said her son said in a text to his girlfriend. “I have a super sneaky plan and I’m going to get him to run it with me.”

Zeitoune also reached out to another nonprofit running organization who agreed to provide the “Sam” bib.

Then the planning for race day began.

Across the finish line

Sunday was both serendipitous and meticulously planned.

“Sam was such a diligent planner,” Chalmers said. “It felt like he was totally pulling some strings to make everything just go really smoothly.”

.

Some runners, on Sunday, wore gear designed by a member of one of the running clubs Norton participated in. The shirts had a “Sam” bib on the front and an outline of him running on with the words “Almost Friday Running Club” on the back.

Sales of the shirt reached about $1,300, all of which were donated to the Herren Project, a Rhode Island-based prevention and wellness initiative that provides schools and communities resources to prevent the misuse of drugs and alcohol, according to its website.

And starting at mile 10.5, When Chalmers reached the 10.5-mile marker in the NYC Marathon, he was joined by different people who took turns wearing the “Sam” bib as they ran portions of the course.

The first person was Caisse, Norton’s mother. She also wore a shirt from one of Sam’s previous races. The words on it read, “We cheer for Sam.”

“It made me so happy to be on the course that he wanted to run,” she said Monday. “Even though he wasn't there, he was there because all these people were saying his name and there was so much energy and so much spirit.”

After running for a mile, she exited the course, signed the bib “Mama” with a heart at the end, and passed it to two of the runners from the “Almost Friday Run Club,” a group Norton helped start.

The others who followed Caisse, including Chalmers’ mom, also signed the bib.

Each time Chalmers heard someone yell encouragement for Sam, he said he felt the presence of his friend, who he described as the master of positive peer pressure.

Chalmers, on Tuesday, recalled a time when Norton coaxed him with offerings of after-run drinks and other kinds of encouragement into running 18 miles — a distance about 10 miles longer than Chalmers had planned to conquer.

Zeitoune, who had paced for the marathon and then returned to the course, caught up to Chalmers in the Bronx.

As they entered the home stretch, the two men put the “Sam” bib on a tank top shirt and then hung it from a metal pole.

With Chalmers carrying one end, Zeitoune holding the other, and Sam’s bib in the middle, they finished the marathon.

“We wanted to feel like we were crossing the finish line together — the way that (Sam) had envisioned,” Chalmers said.

Caisse, who did not know what Chalmers and Zeitoune had planned, instantly became emotional.

“They finally got my boy across the finish line,” she said.

It was over, Chalmers thought after finishing the marathon. He and Zeitoune embraced and then cried.

“We’re just getting started,” Zeitoune said.

Heller, @newyorknico account holder, initially included the secondslong clip of the hug in a video showing an assortment of marathon moments. After multiple requests from followers, he did a second post elaborating on Chalmer and Zeitoune’s moment and Norton’s memory.

“I included a clip in my recap which was heartbreaking even without context. Many of you were just moved as I was and wanted to know more about Sam,” the caption read. “Sam Norton was described to me as a ‘fiercely loyal’ and ‘the kind of friend you would always want in your corner because it meant you would be safe and cared for.’”

Next year, Chalmers and Zeitoune, Caisse said, plan to run another race in Norton’s name.

She said she is happy they are continuing to honor her son, but since her boy died after being in seemingly good health, she has become slightly more cautious.

“Now there's this like aspect of running — this worry about it I just never had before,” she said. “So I worry, you know. I worry about the kids.”

But she wasn’t thinking about that on Sunday.

After every runner finished, they all gathered in a reserved speakeasy and toasted to Norton, the man who brought them together.

You can reach Staff Writer Madison Smalstig at madison.smalstig@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @madi.smals.