South Carolina Man to Run 72 Hours Straight for American Cancer Society

“Some people host bake sales and some want to run for three days." That's what Brandi Steward, senior manager for the American Cancer Society's Relay for Life in South Carolina, told The Post and Courier.

Steward was referring to Masumi Herota, the 41-year-old North Charleston, S.C. native profiled in a piece on the paper's website. Herota is an "ultra" runner—a sort of elite class of runners who specialize in solo runs covering distances greater than a marathon—whose résumé includes multiple 50K's and two 24-hour runs of more than 90 miles. And now, he wants to go even bigger.

On Thursday, Sept. 10, Herota plans to begin a continuous, 72-hour run around North Charleston's Park Circle to raise funds for the American Cancer Society. It's a departure from his normal philosophy—“The purest essence of an ultra is doing it outside of organized events with no spectators, no T-shirts, none of that," he told The Post and Courier—but it's for a good cause: He's set a $10,000 goal for the event.

It's not Herota's first time running for a cause. In 2013, he completed a 24-hour run for the Challenged Athletes Foundation. But this one will be tougher. Via the story in The Post and Courier:

Herota, whose only anticipated breaks in the run will be short naps after 45 hours, invites locals to join him in running the almost half-mile laps around Park Circle to honor loved ones with cancer.

“I want people to come out and run or walk, whether it’s one loop, a 5K or 12 hours,” says Herota, who anticipates logging 250 to 300 miles during the event.

Let's break down those numbers a bit. For Herota to hit his 300-mile projection, he'll have to log 600 laps around the park and maintain a pace of almost 4.2 miles per hour (more if you account for breaks). And he'll be in elite company if he completes the run—according to the Daily Mail, ultra runner Kim Allan set a women's world record in 2013 when she ran 301 miles in 86 hours with no sleep. It's a tall order, but for Herota, it's nothing. "What I will endure during those 72 hours pales in comparison to the battles that those with cancer have endured," he writes on his fundraising event page. "My hope is to bring attention, donations and a community together in the fight against cancer."

He'll need help with the donations—he's raised just $755 of the $10,000 goal. But at minimum, he's succeeded in bringing attention.

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