Secret Life of Mr. Brosnan: Ultra-Marathon Runner

When he’s not teaching history classes, Mr. Brosnan is out running for hours. Now he's run just shy of 25 marathons, and recently finished a 50K, 31.07 miles. He's even thinking of running even longer distances, a 100k, 50 miler, or 100 miler in the coming years.

Mr. Brosnan wasn't always so obsessed with running. "In the early days I was just running because I had to, but now I really love running.” Mr Brosnan also shared that he picked up running because he was busy and “it took a lot of time to coordinate sports with other people,” although he played tennis and really enjoyed it, organizing wasn't feasible anymore. Running was easily accessible to fit in his busy schedule, working and taking care of his daughter.

He started running marathons because of a coworker who had also done one. Mr Brosnan was tired of his fellow teacher bragging about his race, and became set on doing one himself. “After my first marathon I was just going to quit running…but then I decided that [my marathon time] was a little too slow.” Mr Brosnan kept doing this until he was deep in the running community, and has continued to run ever since.

Mr. Brosnan on a run in the Dupont State Recreational Forest

These long distance races require lots of training, something Mr. Brosnan is well acquainted with. He works with fellow Jordan history teacher, Mr. Murray to plan runs for each day. Slower, longer runs for building up endurance, and faster, shorter runs for increasing speed.

While training for his 50k, Mr. Brosnan found it fun to push the distance he could tackle. He explained that “[the race] requires a little bit of a different [mindset] because you're running for 40 to 60 minutes beyond what you would run in a marathon,” and that it is a fun challenge to balance pushing both pace and distance over such a long period of time.

Mr. Brosnan with his fellow cross country coaches

Running has also given a fair share of hardships to Mr. Brosnan. The high intensity nature of the sport has left him with at least one injury a year since he turned 50. “I’ll be hurt for a little while, then I will come back and run 6 days a week” he explained. Mr. Brosnan accepts injury as a part of the process with the sport.

He also enjoys the contrast of longer races with the shorter distances he coaches. Instead of running as fast as possible, he focuses on endurance. He also loves the positive atmosphere of the cross country team “it's fun to be around people who are enthusiastic about what you do.. I like that there's a small collective group who understand and appreciate how fun it can be.”

Mr. Brosnan will keep running and tackling new challenges into the future. He hopes he can share his passion with others.