The pandemic that began in 2020 was a difficult time for many.

For GRC social studies teacher Jeffrey Barnett, this time period marked a turning point; he became a long-distance runner.

Mr. Barnett, is a great example of how you can do anything you set your mind to. He manages to balance his teaching career with his personal goals and passions.

At the start of the pandemic, in 2020, Mr. Barnett realized he needed a change in his lifestyle to ensure he was active.

“I went into it thinking that I can either continue to sit around and do nothing or get up and go, so really from that moment on, I made the decision to run,” said Barnett.

Mr. Barnett was on a weight loss journey and running races has helped him with the motivation of keeping with it. “When I started, I lost around 50 pounds from running, so definitely the pandemic was a turning point in my life.”

Since 2020, Mr. Barnett has run four mini marathons in Louisville along with other races such as the Ville to Ville race which is a six person relay race between Asheville and Greenville in the Carolinas.

He has completed his second Bourbon Chase, which is around a 200–mile relay race between 12 people in Kentucky.

“I would have never thought of myself as a runner before I actually started running,” said Barnett. “If someone would have told me in 2019 that I would run a half marathon, I wouldn’t have believed them.”

The biggest challenge Mr. Barnett has faced with running is staying consistent. “There will be some days that you get home from work and you do not have that motivation to run, especially when we get into winter, but as long as I get out of the door, I have never regretted going for a run even on those cold days.”

All runners have to maintain a positive outlook to be able to complete the race and make it to the end. “I just try staying positive and not letting a missed day of training or a particularly bad run weigh you down,” he says. “Everyone will have those but you will bounce back from them.”

Getting through a long race is a mental challenge. “I always like thinking, as long as I’m halfway done with the race, you can kind of trick yourself, especially on the ones where it might be hard from temperature or just fatigue in general, and to just keep going until you get to the finish line.”

Like Mr. Barnett, it is never too late to start something new even if you would have never imagined yourself doing it.

As he says, “Set a goal and accomplish it; you may think that you cannot do it, but you can.”