Marcus Nuckolls, an eighth-grade teacher at Fairhaven Middle School, is one — albeit long — segment away from running the entire West Coast of the U.S.
Nuckolls, 38, already ran the 421-mile stretch of northern California, ending in San Francisco on April 9. He begins the last leg from San Francisco to Mexico on June 20, with an expected end date of July 6.
“As I’m told regularly, I’m crazy,” Nuckolls said. “But it’s a fun crazy, for me.”
Nuckolls began his journey in 2021 after the Chuckanut 50K race was canceled due to COVID-19. Weeks of training seemingly went out the window — until he settled on a new project: running the 553-mile Washington coast.
At the time, Nuckolls was teaching remotely. He completed the run of Washington in 15 weekends (21 segments), including one 100K (62.13 miles) and three 40-plus-mile runs.
“It was a whole learning process of just seeing what I was capable of,” Nuckolls said. “I’m no extraordinary runner, I just have stuck with this process long enough to see immense returns, at least in my own running.”
After completing the Washington run, Nuckolls began running every day, and his current streak has reached 620 days in a row.
Nuckolls has run 1,482 miles in 2023 alone, with much of those being strides towards his coast-completing goal when he will run 20-40 miles per day, sometimes for up to 12 days in a row.
In preparation for running the 366-mile Oregon coast, Nuckolls increased his weekly mileage to an average of 100 in the spring of 2022. He finished Oregon that summer in 12 days, averaging about 31 miles per day.
Nuckolls also completed that run largely self-supported. Not having anyone there waiting for him each day with food and bedding prepared, he pushed a stroller the entire run that carried all his necessities.
“When I first started, I [was thinking] it was going to take me, like, two-and-a-half weeks,” Nuckolls said. “It continued to open my vision for what was possible.”
Then, he began planning his California run — a 1,050-mile behemoth of a project on its own.
Nuckolls quickly learned it was not going to be possible in one go. So, he broke it up into two, averaging 39 miles each day for the first 10 days of the run. He reserved a shorter, 26-mile leg for the 11th and final day, which was also his 38th birthday.
“It was rad,” Nuckolls said. “That stretch along the California coast was stunning and beautiful; threatening and dangerous.”
As he approaches the final, 630-mile adventure, Nuckolls is thankful for his support system. He calls on the strength of his family connections to push through the inevitable physical discomfort, and they are occasionally with him when he isn’t running self-supported.
“It’s not only the physical support present with me, but my wife is just an unbelievable human being,” Nuckolls said. “Just knowing that she’s cheering me on — psychologically, foremost — she is just making it possible for me to be out and doing this.”
Nuckolls has been inspired by other streak runners, locally and around the world. He has been in contact with Greg Nance, a Bainbridge Island resident who, last year, ran from New York to Washington in 84 days, averaging 37.5 miles each day.
Pete Kostelnick, who ran from the Kenai Peninsula in Alaska to the Florida Keys in 98 days (70 miles per day), among others, has also been an inspiration to Nuckolls’ running journey.
While running the entire U.S. is a goal for Nuckolls, it may remain on the back burner for a while.
“Running is such a passion, and I love it and I learn a lot about myself through it,” Nuckolls said. “But first and foremost, I’m a husband and a dad, and the idea of running for that many days, I have a hard time with it.”
Recovery
Running 30-plus miles every day for a week or more takes a significant toll on the body.
Recovery has been a learning process, but Nuckolls said he tries to maintain a liquid-heavy diet that includes daily smoothies and a balance between water and electrolyte-packed beverages, especially when he is running long distances.
Nuckolls eats a fair bit while he runs, he said, as he averages a calorie burn of 4,000–6,000, depending on the length of the run. When he’s completed a segment, he crams calories by eating high-protein and high-carbohydrate foods, but he almost always remains in a calorie deficit.
But his muscles and joints are what usually hurt the most.
“It’s rough during sleep,” Nuckolls said. “When I’ve finished a run, I’ve got a lot of endorphins for having completed a long run. I feel tight and sore, but not horrible. Then I’d always wake up at 4 a.m., 3 a.m. with just immense, sharp pain in my knees and ankles and hips.”
Nuckolls uses a muscle massaging gun, active stretching and, sometimes, cold water exposure to try and combat these pains, but it’s often a reality of the stress he is putting on his body.
