On The Trail with Ultra Running Champion Patrick Reagan

Growing up skateboarding and listening to punk rock, Patrick Reagan didn’t focus on running until his senior year of high school, leaving basketball and other team sports behind. He began to traverse the loops of Masontown Pennsylvania, his home on the banks of the Monongahela River. Beginning to show promise his freshman year at West Virginia Wesleyan College, transferring to Slippery Rock University—his new teammates pushed him beyond what he thought possible. Hard training and dedication yielded rapid improvement, including academic and two-time All-American honors in cross country. After graduating with a degree in exercise science, a bout with anemia shelved his running, while opening a new path into the music world. Playing washboard percussion and tenor guitar with several ragtime bands, over a two-and-a-half-year period, busking his way across thirty-six states. He then relocated from New Orleans to Savannah where he worked seven days a week as a tricycle cab operator for the Savannah Pedicab company (an occupation that helped equip him with colossal leg strength from pedaling tourists around Savannah, eight to ten hours, seven days a week). Volunteering at the Savannah College of Art and Design turned into a full-time coaching position. Surrounded by his aspiring student-athletes, he renewed his love of running, while training with the team as a SCAD head coach. Reagan coached two NAIA All-Americans in cross country and six in Track and Field and was named Sun Conference coach of the year six times during his eight-year tenure. He soon realized his proclivity for running long and fast after a breakthrough third-place finish at the IAU 100k world championships in Los Alcazares, Spain. He then went on to become a two-time Javelina Jundred 100-mile endurance run champion and course record holder in 13:01:14. When not burning up the trails as a professional ultra runner for Hoka One One, Patrick enjoys mentoring athletes at Patrick Reagan Running, and playing old-time music with his current band—Doctor Raygun and the Future Times.  We are super excited to welcome this ultra-running superstar to this episode of Intrinsic Drive™. 

Intrinsic Drive™ is produced by Ellen Strickler and Phil Wharton. Special thanks to Andrew Hollingworth, our sound engineer and technical editor.  For more information on this and other episodes visit us at www.whartonhealth.com/intrinsicdrive. Follow us on socials (links below) including Instagram  @intrinsicdrivelive