Associate Principal Rob Hays has set amazing distance records in the last month. First he competed in the Prairie Fire Marathon in Wichita and won 1st place with a time of 2 hours, 47 minutes, and 6 seconds. Then exactly 2 weeks after, he participated in the ‘Rails to Trails’ Extravaganza’ better known as the 100 mile marathon and he took 1st place in that as well with a run time of 14 hours and 35 minutes, setting a national record for his age group.

Although Hays won first place in the Prairie Fire Marathon, he didn’t even expect that he was going to win it all.
“My goal was to run a personal best. My goal was to run about the time that I ended with and I met my goal. But winning was like icing on the cake. I did believe that the race was going to have people that could run faster than me, but it just happened to be one of those years where I ran faster enough to win. I was fortunate that there weren’t any runners that were faster because it allowed me to win it, but I would’ve been happy with my results anyway,” Hays says.
Hays has only participated in 4 marathons in his life and has improved more and more through the years.
“My first marathon was the Olathe Marathon and I placed 7th. Then I placed 6th in the Kansas City Marathon my first time, then I did it again and won 2nd place when I was 50. Now I’m 55 and I win the Wichita Marathon. The older I’ve gotten the better I’ve placed and the faster I’ve run. Part of that is just the amount of effort I was able to put into training this time was much better than before,” Hays said.
Hays had spent several months in training to prepare for the Wichita Marathon which benefited him in the end.
“It takes more than just a few days or a few weeks to truly prepare as well as you can as a human, you have to put in at least a few months of training. I was able to train since March of last year for the Wichita Marathon. You have days where you run many, many miles at a time so you let your body know, and your mind knows that you can do it,” Hays said.
Hays also has his family there to support him and motivate him along the way in his training and marathons.
“ I love to challenge myself and I love the sport of running so I combined those two things. So that internal motivation has always been there. But I am blessed that I have a very supportive family that supports my running. Even if it may interfere with them, I try to not let that happen. But they’ve been very supportive and very loving and have allowed me to do my thing,” Hays said.