Sophomore Chris Eckart spent part of his holiday break running as fast he could through Disney. No, he wasn’t trying to find Mickey, he was running in one of this country’s most famous races for distance runners: The Walt Disney Half Marathon. Chris finished 118th out of thousands and third in his age group.

The Walt Disney World Marathon is an annual marathon that is held in January in Orlando, Florida. The first annual Walt Disney World Marathon was in 1994. Today the marathon has 26,700 runners. The 13.1 mile run goes through Magic Kingdom Park and Epcot.

Junior Joey Runge, another ODA runner, spent one of his recent weekends preparing for the 40 yard dash. No, he wasn’t running the it for fun. He was running the famous sprint to improve and develop his speed. He did. Joey ended the 40 yard dash with a 4.6 seconds.

Not impressed by the numbers? Consider this: According to Thud.Fan in Yahoo Answers, if you “Divide 40 by 4.6 will give you yards per second (8.7)…Multiply 8.7 by 60 (seconds) = 522 yards per minute…Multiply 522 by 60 (minutes) = 31,320 yards per hour…31,320 divided by 1760 (yards per mile) = 17.8 mph.” That means our guy, Joey, was running nearly 20 miles an hour during that sprint.

Another person, “Dave,” on Yahoo Answers points out that “if you want to know how fast they’re running at the end of 40 yards, you need to “trap” the person in the last yard and calculate how long the last yard took to run and then do the math to calculate miles per hour. It’s going to be a lot faster than the entire 40 yards.” So, OK, faster than 20 miles an hour, maybe!

Since the electronic timing in 2000, according to “Static Brain,” Chris Johnson holds the fastest 40 yard dash at 4.24 second. As a junior in high school Joey Runge runs a 4.6 second 40 yard dash, he is about three tenths of a second off the record for this run.

How did these two super runners get started?

Chris discovered running in sixth grade. He needed a sports credit for his school. He decided to pick cross country because of a couple of friends.

Chris likes to run because his friends positive motivation makes him want to work harder and become the best running athlete that he can be.

What he soon learned was that improving one’s time and performance involved a number of other variables to which he would not realize until he was older.  Chris “sought to compete in a sport which reflected binary improvement. Which means if your time was higher than the last time, you didn’t improve.”

What makes Chris Eckart run fast for not only long distance but for any distance is that he “will finish and feel a sense of accomplishment.” It’s a feeling he never experiences doing anything else.

On ODA Cross Country team, it was the camaraderie and unbreakable bond that kept him going. This is a mind of a true athlete.

Joey Runge first discovered that he liked running at the age of seven when he ran his first 5K, the Boo Run in Lakewood Ranch. He placed fifth out of his age group.

What motivated Joey Runge to become a runner was that his dad, former ODA College Counselor Joe Runge, was his coach. Mr. Runge pushed Joey to become the best he can be. Runge saw potential in his son and knew that he would do whatever it takes to become a better athlete.

Joey Runge joined the track team his freshman year. He participates in Track because it helps him with football as well. Running keeps him in shape so he can perform to the best of his abilities.

Joey recently ran the 40 yard dash for football because ODA Personal Trainer Rod Miller thought it would be a great idea for him given his background with running. All of his coaches and teammates encouraged him to do the 40 yard dash, because they thought it was time that he improves his stats as an athlete.

As personal trainer Rod said, “it is very important so coaches, and scouts have documentation of his speed and development.”

As one of Joey’s football coaches, Coach Chris Hill, said, “it’s no surprise to me that Joey Runge ran a 4.6 forty. He has consistently put the time and effort in required to achieve such a time. With continued work and some ‘form improvements’ there is no doubt in my mind that Joey can run a 4.40 forty. We, the coaches and his teammates, are really proud of him.”

What next for Chris? More long distance. Last year, Eckart along with several friends handed out water with other friends at the Music Half Marathon. He got the idea that he would like to be a participant instead of a volunteer in 2016. The Sarasota Music Half Marathon on Sunday, February 7 at 7 a.m.