Justin Gillette got his start running marathons thanks to the Y2K hysteria. Now, he’s won 100 marathons and run countless others.
He broke the tape for the 100th time on March 23 at the Quarter Horse Marathon in Richmond, Kentucky, finishing in 3:03:42. This particular race appealed to him because the course was multiple loops, which meant his four kids could watch him run by more than once.
Calling from his home in Goshen, Indiana, the 36-year-old told Runner’s World that he trains with a cheap watch from Walmart and wears Nike Air Zoom Pegasus shoes. The only running-related data he tracks is the date he starts running in his shoes, which he writes on the shoe with a permanent marker. He gets a new pair about every five weeks.
His passion for running marathons started when some people thought the world was going to end on January 1, 2000. At the time, Gillette wanted to be sure to get a marathon checked off his bucket list just in case the apocalypse happened. So, as a somewhat impulsive and determined 16-year-old, he skipped class with his friend, drove from his hometown of Ironton, Missouri, to Wynne, Arkansas, and lined up to run the Midsouth Championship Marathon on November 20, 1999.
The friends decided it was going to be a weekend of firsts: their first time skipping school, their first time eating frog legs, and their first marathon. After that experience, Gillette decided it wouldn’t be his last marathon, either—he just kept running.
The following year, he went back and ran that same marathon, during which he qualified for Boston. He ran the Boston Marathon as a senior in high school.
He went on to run at Goshen College in Goshen, Indiana, where athletes could specialize in running marathons. “They had the marathon as an event, so that’s why I picked that level of school. I wanted to run marathon in college,” Gillette told Runner’s World.
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Once he graduated in 2005, he kept running marathons. Gillette has run so many races at this point that he has lost count, but he said the number is in the ballpark of 180 marathons in around 30 states.
“I purposely don’t keep track of the amount of marathons I run because I don’t want to feel like I’m wearing out,” he said.
Gillette has raced in Hawaii seven times, and has completed several marathons in the Bahamas. He said he prefers marathon courses by oceans or beaches, rather than mountains, since he doesn’t have any nearby hills to train on.
All of those races have paid off over the years: Gillette now supports himself by running full-time, thanks to prize money from races and sponsors such as Ford Motor Company, which recently had a commemorative bobblehead made for his 100th win.
Gillette chooses what race he’s going to do based on the schedules of his wife and kids. If he knows he can get away a certain weekend, he will find a race he can sign up for. The most marathons he’s done in a year is 25.
He clocked his personal best time of 2:25:44 at the 2011 Steamtown Marathon in Scranton, Pennsylvania, which was his fifth marathon in six weeks.
“If I run back-to-back weekends, I feel more focused, and I can put more attention to details on each race,” he said. “I’m constantly training, so I’m ready to run. I can manipulate my training in the last week or two before a race, so it works out well.”
For training, he pushes two kids at a time in a running stroller, and even does his speedwork while pushing his kids, sometimes running more than 20 miles with them. He loves the stroller because it allows him to spend more time with his kids, plus it doubles as a carrier for his water bottle and fuel.
Despite occasional hiccups in his training—like health conditions (he developed a problem with his esophagus in 2015, which makes swallowing difficult), his kids’ events, or other situations that keep him from lacing up—Gillette still races a remarkable amount. He said he plans to keep to keep running as long as he can.
“[My esophagus issue] took away ability to train hard, but I’m learning how to manage it,” he said. “I feel like I’m going to have a second life at running.”
