Devin Golden
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One person called it “crazy.” Another called it “unbelievable.” A third called it “beyond human.”
Gregg Ellis just thinks of it as his “talent” and a way to help an organization that had a major effect on his life.
The Calhoun resident and Dalton native completed his “24 Hours of Hope” fundraiser, a 24-hour run at the Rush Fitness Center in Dalton’s Walnut Square Mall. His first running step on the treadmill was at 5 p.m. Friday and he stepped off for the final time at the same time Saturday.
The run raised money for Dalton’s Carter Hope Center, which is a non-profit, residential drug and alcohol recovery program. It has 38 beds, 35 for residents, and “stays full,” said Chuck Smith, the center’s director.
Ellis, a former client of the facility, had a goal of 131 miles, which equals around five marathons. At the 21st hour, around 2:30 p.m., he had 120 miles and almost certainly would complete his goal.
Just the idea that he could run for 24 hours, no matter how much distance he traveled, is astonishing to many of his supporters.
“I think it’s amazing that he can do it,” said Smith, who ran alongside Ellis and clocked around four hours total during the 24-hour window. “I think it’s insane that he tries.”
One of the center’s residents, who wished to stay anonymous, ran for around 90 minutes.
“It’s unbelievable,” the resident said. “Anybody can do anything when they put their mind to it.”
People were able to participate alongside Ellis — either running, cycling or exercising — for a maximum of 30 minutes at a rate of $1 per minute. Sandie Bohannon, Ellis’ girlfriend and a volunteer at the event, said it raised around $20,000.
“We had people just donate and not even run,” Bohannon said.
Ellis did an indoor Ironman triathlon in 2010 for 12 hours and ran for 24 straight hours on a treadmill at Bradley Wellness Center in July 2011 to raise money for Carter Hope Center. The amount raised for each was around $6,000 and $12,000, respectively.
No one running by Ellis’ side and giving their symbolic running support said they could match the 24 hours of running. Ellis, who only took stops to use the bathroom and eat and drink, said he puts in a lot of miles in preparation.
“I run anywhere from 80 to 120 miles a week, eating everything in sight,” he said. “I got injured a lot this year. I tore two ligaments about eight weeks ago.”
Ellis is a runner. He won the Tasty Donut Dash, a fundraising event at the Boys and Girls Club in Dalton that consisted of running as many times around a 1/3-mile track in 30 minutes while eating a glaze doughnut after each lap.
This time, it was more about stamina than stomach, and he said talking to people while running helps forget about the pain.
“Every step hurts right now,” he said with only three hours to go. “I burn around 15,000 calories in these 24 hours. ... I’m an ultra runner. I do ultra races, like 50 miles. This is my talent and I thought it was a good way to combine my talent with my love for the Carter Hope Center. If you do a fundraiser, you want to get people’s attention. This gets people’s attention.”
Ellis, a 1989 graduate of Dalton High School, played football at Georgia Tech but dropped out because of poor grades. He then turned to drug and alcohol abuse and then entered the center’s program. He has been clean for about three and a half years.
“They helped me turn my life around three years ago,” he said.
Smith remembers how the event started as a 12-hour Ironman triathlon.
“He succeeded, and we thought that was wonderful,” Smith said. “He came back and said he wanted to up the bar and run for 24 hours. We thought he was crazy.”
Smith agreed that an out-of-the-box event like this works better than more common fundraisers. The center’s main source of funding comes from fundraising events like Ellis’ run, along with the United Way.
“We were absolutely amazed,” he said. ‘We had done a couple fundraisers in the past that were 5K races, and they never really did anything.”
It inspired one person to hit the treadmill again. Randy Mulkey, another Calhoun resident, started his run with just more than two hours remaining before Ellis finished. Mulkey did not know how long he would last.
“This is the first time I’ve ran in a long time,” Mulkey said. “I’ll run as long as these legs let me.”
He was sure of one thing. He was in awe at the task Ellis was about to finish just three treadmills to his left.
“I can’t explain it,” he said. “It’s beyond human.”
