North Thurston PE teacher runs 72 miles in 24 hours to raise money for food bank, NAACP
About two months ago, local physical education teacher Micah McBride and State Farm Claim Team Manager Doug Martin decided to run 72 miles in 24 hours starting at 9 a.m. June 20.
McBride, who teaches PE at Chinook Middle School in Lacey and coaches club volleyball, came up with the idea. He took up running after COVID-19 hit and schools, gyms and golf courses shut down, he told The Olympian. Until this, the most he’d run was 13.1 miles at Olympia’s Capital City Half Marathon several years ago.
Martin, on the other hand, ran competitively in college, coached college runners, has run over two dozen marathons, and began running long mileage on trails after moving to the area several years ago. Now, he said he runs 30-plus miles on trails regularly.
“I texted him and asked what it would be like, running three miles every hour for 24 hours,” McBride said. “He said it’d be awesome.”
The plan: Start at 9 a.m. Saturday and complete the mission by 9 a.m. Sunday. Run a flat, three-mile loop around Martin’s neighborhood on Olympia’s east side at a 10-minute-mile pace at the top of every hour, then spend the second half of every hour recovering in Martin’s garage.
Martin deemed the feat “Loopfest.” The idea grew — they started talking about raising money through the effort, asking people to donate per lap or a flat rate.
“It’s more than two old guys running,” McBride said, it’s “about giving back.”
That quickly became their principle motivation to run: To raise money for the Thurston County Food Bank and the NAACP.
Martin put out a call on Facebook, and as of the start of the run Saturday, he said donations totaled over $2,000.
Martin gave McBride a training plan of sorts, which included how many miles he should run per week. But, Martin said, no matter the shape you’re in, your body can be unpredictable in these situations.
Before the run, McBride told The Olympian that another motivator for him was to feel what it’s like to push himself “completely out of his comfort zone.”
As a PE teacher and coach, McBride tries to get kids to “find their greatness,” he said, by trying to do things that are scary or make them nervous. After preaching it to his own children and the kids he’s coached and taught, he wanted to show them you can still find ways to do that as you get older.
The message has certainly resonated with Grace Vahey, 14, who plays on the volleyball team McBride coaches and is in his PE class. She and her parents came to watch part of the run with a sign that read “Find your greatness.” She said she thought what her coach and Martin were doing was “crazy, really cool, and fun.”
David Vahey, Grace’s dad, was who initially told The Olympian about “Loopfest,” He said it was awesome to see “the PE teacher who’s doing kind of what he’s telling the kids to do: Come up with creative ways to exercise.”
It’s for a “great cause,” Vahey said, and it’s cool to see two people in their upper 40s who keep pushing themselves.
“I think I’m going to start running,” Vahey said.
For miles 22 through 24 — far and away his personal record for distance — McBride was feeling strong and showed no signs of stopping. The hardest part, said both runners, was the sitting and resting between runs.
Loved ones gathered in front of the Martin’s house, and a group on bicycles tailed the runners. Julie McBride, Micah’s wife, said people had been filtering by all day to show support.
But 24 miles was only a third of the way to the runners’ goal. Did Grace think he would finish it?
“Yes,” she said. “I would be shocked if he did not finish, because it doesn’t seem like something Micah would do.”
Reached by phone call and text message about 9 a.m. Sunday, McBride and Martin confirmed: They both completed all 72 miles. Each encountered challenging moments along the way, got each other through it, and finished at 8:30 a.m., as planned.
Martin wrote in a text message he was looking forward to enjoying “a fantastic Father’s Day.”
“I believe today, as I’m driving home now, I can said I found my greatness,” McBride said.
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