Jack Stradinger, 27, finished his first-ever 100-mile run on the Katy Trail, raising more than $20,000 for Hill Country families recovering from deadly floods.
DALLAS, Texas — The longest journeys start with a single step.
For 27-year-old Jack Stradinger, that step came Monday at 6 p.m., when he set out on the Katy Trail to run 100 miles in 24 hours — his first time attempting such a feat. He crossed his finish line just before 6 p.m. Tuesday, raising more than $20,000 to help victims of the deadly flooding in the Texas Hill Country.
“I want to suffer and go to the deepest place of suffering I can go — for those suffering more than me,” Stradinger said as he ran, his voice cracking from exhaustion.
Stradinger, who has endured hip and knee surgeries in the past, admitted this was the most he had ever physically pushed himself.
“I’ve never emptied myself like this before,” he said at mile 95. “I’m hurting really bad.”
For Stradinger, every step, every blister, every ache, every mile of pavement was meant to support another journey unfolding hundreds of miles away: recovery.
His grandfather lives in Kerrville, where families he knows lost everything in the floods there. And the faces of the children lost at Camp Mystic reminded him of his 2-year-old daughter.
“All I’m doing is just trying to take one step at a time and fight,” he said.
Along his route, a poster displayed a QR code so others could donate to the cause.
“When someone comes by and they see the QR code,” said his brother Whit. “We just share what’s on our hearts and why we’re here.”
If interested, you can still donate to Stradinger’s Venmo: @Differencemakerpro. All of the proceeds will be passed along to the Kerr County Flood Relief Fund.
Family, friends, and even strangers joined him on the trail for stretches — running alongside as his body began to fail him.
“This is mile 97,” Stradinger said through gritted teeth. “I’ve got a couple more miles to go. I feel like I can’t even think until I finish. I’m just trying to fight and not give up and remember why I’m doing it.”
When he finally crossed the finish line Tuesday evening, he called it “one of the greatest achievements I’ve ever gotten to be part of.”
But the pain in his legs, he said, didn’t compare to the suffering of the families he ran for.
“I couldn’t get close to the level of what people in Kerr County are going through,” he said. “We’re praying for them… and we’re rooting for them.”
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