Steve Schwalbach is understandably nervous about his upcoming run.
Mind you now, the 47-year-old Fort Thomas native and current resident has been running for most of his life, since the days he was a track star at Highlands High School. He’s run an ultramarathon, dozens of marathons, including the Boston Marathon, and last month he ran three marathons in two weeks.
But on May 22, he’ll take off from Cleveland and run along several bike trails until, nine days later, he plans to end at Tower Park in Fort Thomas. For those of you counting, that will be 328 miles — in nine days.
Bad at math? That’s an average of 36.4 miles a day. One day, the schedule calls for a run of 52.42 miles. That’s two marathons — in one day.
Steve Schwalbach’s training downtown for his run across Ohio. (Photo provided)
He’s doing it in honor of his mother, Jackie Schwalbach, and to raise money to help fight Alzheimer’s Disease, which she battled for 14 years before dying in March. His website, www.jackiesrun.com tells the story and gives one the opportunity to donate to the Alzheimer’s Association.
It will be the second state Steve has run through. Last year, he took on Kentucky, racing 208 miles from the Tennessee border, up U.S. 127, to Tower Park. That took him seven days, and he raised more than $15,000.
“After I qualified (for Boston), I said it’s time for me to give back,” he told me over coffee at the local Starbucks. “I started pacing marathons. Then I decided I wanted to do something for my mother. I thought, ‘How can I turn running into a benefit for my mom?’ It came to me during long run — I’m going to run the state of Kentucky.”
So he did.
Joining him for a few days on that run was Walt Neubauer of Columbus, Ohio, whom Steve met while running his first ultramarathon, the 50K (31 mile) Blue Blazes run in Loveland. Neubauer suggested a run through Ohio, which he said he would help coordinate and organize. So Neubauer charted a run starting in Cleveland, cutting diagonally through Columbus, and then down in Cincinnati before crossing into Kentucky. The entire Ohio leg of the run will be on bicycle paths.
Using the paths adds miles to the route, but makes it so much safer.
“I ran up (U.S.) 127 last year,” Steve said. “At times it was very dangerous. And Walt didn’t like it. He said if we do Ohio, we’re going to make it as easy as possible. The bike trails are longer, but you don’t have to worry about traffic.”
Walt has friends dealing with Alzheimer’s or the loss of loved ones due to the disease. He was the one who suggested they find someone from Cleveland to join them on the Ohio run, to round out the three major metropolitan areas in the state. After noticing Joshua Strzala’s performance in the Burning River 100, Walt asked Joshua to join the team.
“I was honored that the guys picked me to run with them, and immediately accepted the challenge,” Joshua said on the Jackie’s Run webpage.
“‘To understand the meaning of life is to help others.’ I have lived by this statement for the last couple of years, and believe that if you have a skill you are obligated to help others with it in any way possible,” he said. “This is why I was so intrigued with the idea to run 324 miles across Ohio to support the Alzheimer’s Association.”
Joshua Strzala, Steve Schwalbach, and Walt Neubauer (Photo provided)
The plan is for the run to start in Cleveland at 7:30 a.m. on May 22. After running a few warmup miles, they’ll stop for a few minutes to eat breakfast — perhaps a banana and bagel. They’ll make a few short stops daily, but hope to finish running each day around 1:30 or 2 p.m., depending on the number of miles planned for that day. Steve said they hope to maintain a sub-10-minute-per-mile pace. He notes that during his Kentucky run, he ran several days at a 9:30-pace or below.
After the running is complete, he’ll eat a sandwich. Dinner generally will be pasta or something similar. Then it’s relaxation and early to bed — he hopes to get eight hours of sleep a night — and repeat everything the next day.
The group expects to have some guest runners join them along the route, and will stay at hotels in the evening — Walt arranged for a special discount rate at Hampton Inn. That beats camping after a long run, Steve said.
“You can have ice baths at night,” he said. “You can sleep in a decent bed. You have a more relaxing atmosphere than camping. For nine nights, that would be extremely hard.”
Steve said training for the run has been difficult. He’s been running and pacing marathons. Last year, for the Kentucky run, he’d run a marathon, then go out for a 20-mile run the next day.
“I’m nervous. I’m not going to lie to you,” he said. “I was very nervous last year when I did Kentucky. But by the time I hit the Kentucky River (at 100 miles), I picked up the phone and called my wife, and said I could do this in three days. She thought I was crazy. But at that point, I felt it was almost all downhill.
“This is what Walt told me: The first two days, you feel (bad). The next day, you’re recovering from the first day. So if you don’t feel bad on the third day, it’s all downhill. When I did Kentucky, when I hit the Kentucky River, it was my third day, and I felt like a million bucks. I knew then I could do it.”
Paul Long, on the road (Photo by Kris Payler Staverman)
Paul Long writes weekly for the NKyTribune about running and runners. For his daily running stories, follow him at dailymile.com or on Twitter @Pogue57
