Legs churning, 28-year-old Dustin Hucks repeats the motto of his coach: Run strong, run long. Run strong, run long.
Next month, the screenwriter from Lubbock, Texas, will take off from Burbank and run home to reunite with his aunt, Debbie Yoakum, who has Stage 4 lymphoma.
“Most people his age probably wouldn’t even think about doing this for someone else,” said Yoakum, 53. “I still have a lot of living to do. I am not ready to go anywhere.”
On paper — and certainly off — the 30-day journey is physically daunting, made up of 35- to 40-mile days. But Hucks’ monetary ambition may outpace the physical. He organized the trip through the America Cancer Society and set a goal to raise $1 million for cancer research by the time he reaches home.
Propelled by a handful of sponsors — Nike has so far pitched in 30 pairs of running shoes and a rack of clothing — and trailed by an RV, Hucks plans to leave Burbank on Aug. 15 and head for Interstate 10, run through the desert to Phoenix, Ariz. and take Interstate 40 to Flagstaff.
The run from there will take him through New Mexico and across northern Texas. From Amarillo he’ll hit the plains before arriving in Lubbock exactly one month after his 29th birthday.
“I am probably a little more ambitious than my coach,” Hucks said. “My plan is to wake up and run about four hours before the worst heat of the day. Then, I’ll sleep all day, eat, ice my knees and run four or five hours at night.”
In gearing up for the dash of his life, Hucks has hit several walls. He began running again on stationary exercise equipment about eight months ago, sticking mostly to shorter jaunts until he began doing laps around his neighborhood park.
Then his body began to give out at the 12 mile-mark.
“I was running through it until finally I hobbled the whole time and I had to quit,” he said. “At the bookstore, where I was looking for magazines on form, I stumbled across the ‘Born to Run’ by Christopher McDougall.”
