“I love to run, but even more than that, I love to help others. I never really considered trying to combine those loves until after I ran my first Boston Marathon in 2013,” Ibarra-Espinoza said. For the runner, it can seem hard to believe that a year has passed since that experience. “With all of that tragic context that surrounded it, I found myself seriously questioning why I ran,” he says.
Having finished that fateful Boston Marathon hours before the bombing that killed three people and injured 248 others near the finish line, Ibarra-Espinoza found the answer he sought in another, more personal, tragedy.
“I decided I wanted to try running for more than just myself, which led me to embark on, quite frankly, the most amazing journey of my life,” he said. With help from friends and family, Ibarra-Espinoza raised more than $4,500 on behalf of the American Cancer Society, dedicating his participation in the New York City Marathon to one of his youngest supporters—a close friend’s 7-year-old brother, who had recently succumbed to the disease.
For his most recent challenge, the former HSU all-conference track and field standout completed the Muscular Dystrophy Association’s “Worth the Hurt” event on July 27, running a double marathon that was supported by a variety of sponsors.
For Ibarra-Espinoza, the endurance race was ‘worth the hurt.’ Despite being under-prepared because of injuries that had limited his training, Ibarra-Espinoza lined up at midnight with 99 other participants. All 100 entrants in what was officially titled 52.4 San Francisco Ultra Marathon were required to solicit a minimum of $1,000 in pledges for a charity of individual choice.
The race format sent the runners out on the San Francisco Marathon course, running the opposite direction of the actual path. When they completed the first 26.2 miles, they reversed the trek, running amongst the 5,500 participants in Sunday’s main event, eventually finishing on the Embarcadero.
Ibarra-Espinoza surpassed his objective of bringing in $2,000, though he sacrificed the time goal he set for himself. It was the same competitive nature that led to success as a Lumberjack, however, that allowed him to achieve the more important desired result.
“It turned into an ordeal, especially the last 13 miles, but I made it through my first ultra marathon,” Ibarra-Espinoza reported shortly after Sunday’s finish. “I battled a lot of knee issues in the run-up to this, so saying my training was spotty and inconsistent would be euphemistic at best.
“Consequently, my goals had to shift from the reasonable time I originally had in mind to just finishing. I was genuinely a bit worried that might not happen, but with over $2,200 raised for the MDA, there's no way I wasn't going to do everything I could to finish up, even if I had crawl the last stretch.”
Upcoming life changes might delay Ibarra-Espinoza’s next charitable effort. In August he begins a four-year stint in the U.S. Army, where he’ll serve as a Physical Therapy Specialist.
“It may be a long while, if not four years, until I am once again in a position to train for something like a marathon, much less a double marathon,” he said. “I see this project as a last chance, for a while, to team up with my communities and do something exceptionally special to benefit others.”