All photos by @brenden.jpeg
My name is David Kilgore I am an athlete and employee at ON. I grew up in Palm Bay, FL and now reside in NYC. NYC is my community and I couldn’t be more proud to be able to attempt to give back a little during this pandemic. People are the most important thing and we all need to keep uplifting each other during this even though we all separated. Stronger and better together!
What prompted the idea to combine running and fundraising? How did the idea come about?
I was really initially looking for a new way to challenge myself after all of the races got canceled/postponed. A goal of mine this year was to compete in a few 100-mile distances and give a good go at getting after some of the larger ultras. I spoke to my good friend Brenden Clarke about shooting some of it as we were talking about doing a fun project together during this and he thought this would be fun. That day I began to think that during this time I would love to be able to connect people with everyone having to be remote. I was thinking how cool it that be to get tons of people to call in and workout along with me. I thought it would be uplifting and potentially give everyone a break from what is going on in the world. Working as a rep in run specialty I have seen the impact Covid-19 is putting on these people and shops. I wanted to also think of a way to bring the excitement from this run to also aid our partners and friends during this time. I spoke with ON about the idea and friend/Colleague Caroline expanded on the idea of donating what we bought from the specialty shops back to medical workers in NYC. Then three days later we were in action and ready to roll! I am very excited on how everyone has come together on this and what we were all able to accomplish together!
Photo by @brenden.jpeg
How did you select your route?
I made up the route by connecting all of my trails and runs growing up throughout my hometown, while also trying to stay in some more remote areas.
Did you have a pretty nailed down fueling strategy, or was it more eat when you’re hungry, drink when you’re thirsty? What’s your go-to snack of choice for a long distance like this?
Yes, over the years of dabbling in these extreme distances I have formulated certain things I love to eat and drink along the way that keeps me going. Due to the heat index being 92 F and with little shade most of the day I was basically going through as much water as I could all-day whether that was for consumption or continuing to pour it on myself to cool myself off. So I feel most eating and drinking is doing it before you get hungry or thirsty in preparation of maintaining throughout the whole day.
Snack of choice and usual go-to is Snickers bars. I had a bunch of Snickers bars, cliff bars, bananas, fruit, Gatorade, and even a smoothie (huge fan, snagged this at mile 73).
What shoes did you wear?
I wore a pair of CloudStratus in Cobble/Ivey.
Photo by @brenden.jpeg
David’s Go Fund Me: https://www.gofundme.com/f/6s2cf-covid19-community-support