41. Chris Eck - Marathoner by 8th Grade, 100K Ultra Runner by High School

Faster Forward with Troy Busot

Think back to Junior High. What were your highlights? Your accomplishments?

Today's guest was introduced to running by his elementary school's P.E. coach who organized a daily run and jog for his students. Being somewhat socially awkward, this young man spent his lunch hour running laps and eventually logging over 60 miles as a 6th grader.

Before moving on to High School, he finished his 8th grade year by writing his own training plan for and completing the Eugene Marathon.

He spent his High School years on the Dean's list - maintaining a near 4.0 GPA, and managed to establish himself as a respectable 3K runner in Track, completed several other marathons and finished two 24 hours runs - each time passing 100K.

He earned himself an academic full ride scholarship to college - where he is now - saving money for his first home with a goal of graduating on time, debt-free, and in control of his future.

That P.E. teacher, incidentally, was none other than the guest from episode 28, THE King of FKTs, Jason Hardrath. And the Student, and today's guest, is Chris Eck. A truly humble and inspirational young man with whom I was honored to spend a Saturday afternoon speaking with.

And that's the show! Hope you enjoyed it. I am Troy Busot and thanks again to Chris Eck for joining us.

We do a special post for each episode on Instagram, so look for the post for episode 41 with a picture of Chris if you have comments or questions - shoot me a message @troybusot or shoot us an email to [email protected].

Share it with friends far and wide - give us a review if you dig it - and, until next time, happy racing everybody.