Steve Schwalbach: Running Man

On the anniversary of the death of a loved one, it’s common to do something to honor the deceased. For Steve Schwalbach, this meant running across the entire width of Florida.

From March 11 to 18, Schwalbach, 48, who owns a vacation home at Beachplace, ran 234 miles from Daytona Beach to Lido Beach to honor his mother, Jackie, a Longboat Key resident, who died from Alzheimer’s disease March 15, 2015.

“Back in the 70s and 80s, my family would pack the car up and go to spring break in Daytona Beach, and then in the 90s, they bought a place on Longboat, so I really wanted to try to connect all my memories of my mom,” Schwalbach said.

Florida is the third state Schwalbach has crossed. In 2014, he ran 210 miles across his home state of Kentucky, and last year, he ran 328 miles across Ohio. In those two runs, he raised $38,000 for the Alzheimer’s Association. His goal running Florida was to raise an additional $10,000.

“I loved Florida, but between mile 20 to 30 each day, I was struggling because of the heat,” Schwalbach said. “I didn’t expect the heat to be a major factor in the springtime. It reached 90 (degrees) at least one day.”

During his run across Florida, Schwalbach was a creature of habit. Most days while en route, he would eat part of a six-inch sub from Subway. At the completion of each run, he would eat pasta. He would also take a 20-minute ice bath each night in his hotel room to rejuvenate the muscles in his body.

“If something works one day, I don’t care what it is, I will repeat it and repeat it and repeat it,” he said. “It is like that groundhog movie.”

Jackie Schwalbach was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2001, and the idea for Schwalbach’s run across Kentucky came to him while training for a marathon.

“To see my mother like this was heartbreaking,” Schwalbach said. “I knew I had to do something to help.”

His mother died in Sarasota 45 days before he ran across Ohio, which was when he formed the idea to run coast-to-coast in Florida.

“I have so memories of her here,” he said. “I knew it had to be my next state. This is just a way I can give back to my mom and bring awareness to Alzheimer’s.”

Schwalbach ran in both high school and college but quit shortly after. He picked up the sport again in 2009 after his wife challenged him to lose weight.

“I blew up to a frame of about 250 and wanted to lose weight, so I started training,” Schwalbach said. “In the spring of 2010, I ran my first marathon and when I ran it, I thought ‘This was neat. I like this.’ By the end of 2010, I did four already.”

To date, Schwalbach has completed 45 marathons and has potential plans to run across Indiana next year, finishing in his hometown of Fort Thomas, Ky., or South Carolina.

“If you would’ve asked me this last year, I would’ve said Florida is my last state, and I was planning on retiring, but I had a ball doing this,” Schwalbach said.

To donate to Schwalbach’s cause and the Alzheimer’s Foundation, visit jackiesrun.com.