David Pharr runs Monday, July 11, 2016, across the Walnut Street Bridge.
David Pharr runs Monday, July 11, 2016, across the Walnut Street Bridge.Residents of several rural towns west of Chattanooga can expect to see dozens of disheveled people trudging through their communities on foot at various times next week as they near the end of a race described by its director as, "one of the most daunting challenges in the running world."
At some point, a Chattanooga pastor is expected to be among them, closing in on the finish line of a daunting journey that will carry an especially symbolic weight.
Just seven years ago, David Pharr weighed 314 pounds and scoffed at the idea of ever completing a marathon.
Today, he'll be among about 90 runners ferrying across the Mississippi River from Missouri to Hickman, Ky., to start the 314-mile Last Annual Vol State Road Race in a grueling physical metaphor of the personal journey that has changed his life's trajectory.
"On my birthday in June 2009, I had an epiphany, or a come-to-Jesus type of moment, about myself," Pharr said. "I had a 6-month-old little girl and I was huge. I thought, 'If I don't change something, I'm not going to see her grow up. I might have a heart attack by 35.'
"So I started trying to work out," said Pharr, now 32 and the lead minister at St. Elmo Church of Christ.
He never stopped.
Pharr joined a gym, got on a treadmill and said, since December of that year, he has run at least two miles every day, even through bad weather, sickness, twisted ankles and the births of three more children.
"More than 2,400 days straight," he said.
Pharr is a rarity in the running world for being both a streak runner and an ultra marathoner who regularly completes long-distance runs.
Now he weighs about 215 pounds, which sits comfortably on his 6-foot-4 frame, and is eyeing perhaps his toughest running challenge yet.
The Last Annual Vol State Road Race is a creation of Gary Cantrell, also known as Lazarus Lake, the director of the internationally known Barkley Marathons held near Wartburg, Tenn, famous for the fact only 14 people have ever finished it.
A much higher percentage of competitors finish the Vol State race, but not with any form of ease. Competitors who take the maximum of 10 days to reach the finish line at Castle Rock Farms in Dade County, Ga., will have traveled more than 30 miles per day.
Pharr's ultimate goal is to finish in fewer than six days.
His first two days are planned out precisely, but he knows from working on another racer's crew in 2013 and 2014 that the plan can go bad quickly.
"It's 314 miles long and there's something that's happening in every one of those miles," said Dallas Smith, a 76-year-old Cookeville resident and two-time finisher of the race who wrote a book about his experience, "Bench of Despair: One Runner's Tale of the Last Annual Vol State 500K."
Many wonder from the race's name if a given year's race is the last, but it's always been called the Last Annual race, Smith said. It's just one of the many quirks in the race that reflect Cantrell's peculiar personality.
Just like the Barkley Marathons, this race starts when Cantrell lights a cigarette. Also similar to that race, is that the Vol State features no official aid stations.
There are two divisions, however: crewed and uncrewed, or "screwed," as race veterans call it. Pharr is running in the crewed division, meaning his family is planning to be close by at all times in an aid vehicle to carry food, water, dry clothes and the other supplies Pharr may need to survive the sweltering July heat.
Pharr plans to sleep a few hours each day and run each night when temperatures are cooler and traffic is lighter.
"Running at night requires less concentration because you don't have to worry about traffic as much," he said. "Some of those country roads, you might not see a car but once or twice during the night," he said. "But during the day, people are flying down the road and you've got to get out of the way.
"That's the plan, but there are still going to be a lot of hot, sticky nights."
The latter stages of the race take participants through the downtown areas of Manchester, Pelham, Monteagle, Tracy City, Jasper, South Pittsburg and briefly into Alabama before concluding at a scenic overlook called "the rock" just across the Alabama-Georgia line.
Considering the ferry ride from Missouri and a brief run through western Kentucky into northwest Tennessee, runners will hit five states on their journey.
"In facing and persevering through the pain and despair, which will stop the majority of those attempting the race short of their goal, the runners who reach the rock will find something inside their selves that they never knew was there," Cantrell wrote in an email. "The emotional reward of overcoming such insurmountable obstacles is a memory that will last a lifetime."
Pharr hopes, after 314 miles, the Vol State will be the latest milestone in a lifestyle change that carried him down the scales from 314 pounds.
"It's a passion," he said. "It's a passion that's somewhat of an addiction sometimes, but it's something that I love and try to promote as much as possible. I try to share my story, especially when I find an overweight person that's trying to get into running. A lot of times when non-runners or new runners look at someone who has done ultras, they assume they've always been a runner.
"I try to tell people that I wasn't always a runner and that you can do it, too, if you want to."
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfree press.com or 423-757-6249.