Harvey Lewis is one of ultrarunning’s most accomplished endurance athletes, but the more interesting question might be how a high school civics teacher from Ohio became capable of doing any of this. Badwater, Backyard Ultras, Barkley, 250-mile runs. Harvey has built an extraordinary career without making running his entire life.

I spent a morning with Harvey at his home in Ohio, days before his 16th consecutive Badwater, trying to understand what makes Harvey Harvey. We talk about the dreamer and engineer he inherited from his parents, the teachers who changed his life, how running and teaching grew together, and why the hardest races have become something closer to pilgrimages.

The conversation ends somewhere more personal, with Harvey remembering the person he still imagines waiting for him when things get hard.

Thumbnail photo by Romain Mayambi

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If you’re new to Borderlands, start here.

• 2:17 Harvey Lewis' Origins
• 6:33 Harvey Lewis' Parents: The Dreamer and the Engineer
• 18:39 Running and Teaching
• 30:59 Running as Pilgrimage

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Borderlands explores trail running through culture, media, and the forces shaping it.

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