Running Nonstop for Hermosa Schools

Hermosa Beach resident Christian Burke, 44, will attempt to set a new world record by running on the beach for 24 straight hours to raise money for the Hermosa Beach Education Foundation.

Burke, an ultra distance sports athlete, is calling the event the Hermosa 24, and will run between the Hermosa Beach Pier and Manhattan Beach Pier on Sunday.

Burke spoke with Patch in a two-part interview about how this fundraising effort came to fruition.

Hermosa Beach Patch: How did you get the idea to do this?

Christian Burke: I was doing a lot of marathons… then I got injured in March or April, and I still had to run through a few more marathons to get it done and it got really bad so I pretty much had to lay on my back for the month of June.

Usually when I'm not training that's when my worst ideas come out. And sure enough, right toward the end of June, the school district sent out a letter to everyone saying we're way short, and we're going to be losing programs, and we're going to be dropping teachers … and I go, I have an idea.

I can write a check, but I certainly can't write a check for everything. I'd rather take the little money I have and parlay that into something, more money, a fundraiser, an attention grabbing, inspiring fundraiser with a small investment of mine I can turn into something big.

Patch: What's your state of mind for the race? Are you nervous?

Burke: I'm nervous for one reason, and I'll tell you why. I've done events tougher and longer and crazier than this, more remote, with less support, less everything and way more danger and so on.

But everyone I go to compete against, or everyone who knows about these races, all know the inherent dangers and problems and difficulties. So I'm down here doing this event and everyone is like, "Oh my God, that's crazy! That's unbelievable!" And it's kind of getting in my head a little.

Everybody around here is saying, "How are you going to do that? You're going to go how long?" And my race friends go, "Yeah, cool, good for you, that's cute."

The pressure of a lot of people watching and lot going on changes things a little bit. It means it has to get done. A few people have asked me, "Well, what if you don't finish?" I look at them like, "That's not an option."

Failure is not an option in this case. There are a lot of people kind of counting on this now, and it's kind of exciting. There are a little bit of nerves, but not much. My training is moving really well right now. So I'm feeling good.

Patch: Is attempting to set a world record making you nervous?

Burke: The world record is kind of an esoteric thing for this, because if I were really trying to set a world-world record I would be doing it on a lot different sand than this. This is really hard sand to run in, very tough, and it's very soft and very deep. But that's not the impetus for this. No one has ever recorded this before, which is running nonstop in sand for 24 hours under my own power on foot.

Patch: Are you going to run barefoot?

Burke: I'm going to run barefoot. Now there's one thing depending on the weather, I'm going to from about 12, 12:30 p.m. to about 3, 3:30 p.m. I'll probably have to put a sock or something on my feet. There are some designed for sand that I've been testing, but then after 3:30 p.m. or so I'll take them off and go barefoot the rest of the way … the sand gets scorching hot.

Patch: Tell us about your background when it comes to these kinds of events and your own fitness.

Burke: In my late 20s, early 30s, I discovered ultra distance sports, primarily adventure racing. I saw it on TV, actually, the very first eco-challenge. And I went, "That's me."

So I just started and grew and grew and grew. In not a very long time, I was competing on a world stage in adventure racing primarily, in expedition lengths, so multi-day racing.

Adventure racing in particular is primarily those three sports: kayaking, trail running and mountain biking. They usually give you a course and you have to find your way through it. Expedition length means three or more days. I've gone as long as 11-and-a-half days through southern Chile, and the world championships in Scotland and Greenland twice. You know, all sorts of remote locations that humans really just don't go to.

A year and a half ago I kind of took off from it just to try and focus on doing a non-team sport and do it solo, and so I kind of did some different things, like ultra distance stuff, a hundred miler or more endurance runs.

I did one last May out in Riverside. It was a one-mile loop for 24 hours and I did that. I got 111 miles in. It was great. I won that. That was a surprise, because that was my first true ultra marathon, 100 miles or more.

Coming up next on Hermosa Beach Patch: Burke talks to Patch about his training regimen for the 24-hour run, and how much money he hopes to raise.