This Man Is Running a Marathon in All 59 U.S. National Parks—And He Wants You to Join Him
Here are 18 things you need to know about Bill Sycalik.
by Jenny McCoy
Bill Sycalik, a 45-year-old former New York City-based management consultant, quit his job last year in pursuit of a new challenge: running a marathon in all 59 U.S. National Parks, a journey spanning 1,546.9 miles across 29 states.
“Two things can happen in New York—you can either be fed by the energy or it can feed on you.” Sycalik told Runner’s World. “I was not in a good space. I was not happy with my job, and I had unnecessary stress and limited access to the outdoors.”
He tried various methods to cure his growing malaise—a sabbatical, a 10-day meditation retreat—to no avail. “After that, I just decided that it [the stress] wasn’t worth it and life was too short,” Sycalik says. So upon reading about the 100th anniversary of the National Parks Service, Sycalik came up with the idea to bid adieu to the Big Apple for good and combine his love of long distance trail running with his desire to explore our nation’s natural protected lands. Thus, the National Parks Marathon Project was born.
He took action in May 2016, resigning from his job, moving out of his Long Island City, Queens, apartment and tackling his first National Parks marathon in Maine’s Acadia National Park the next month. Fast forward 13 months, and Sycalik has completed 48 marathons in 48 National Parks. He’s been logging his runs on Strava and his website, and invites anyone—and everyone—to join him on all or part of each marathon by simply messaging him on Twitter.
With just 11 National Parks to go, Sycalik reflects on his relationship with running and what he’s learned from this expedition—and also shares memorable anecdotes from the road.
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Bill Sycalik
He didn’t start running until age 33. Sycalik didn’t pick up the sport until he was living in Detroit, Michigan. Wanting to get into better shape, he signed up for the 2006 Detroit Marathon. His rationale: “If Oprah can run a marathon, so can I.” He trained with the Hal Higdon program and surprised himself by how much he enjoyed it. “After the marathon, I thought ‘I can do better than that’ and kept on running,” he says. He’s since run multiple marathons, a number of 50Ks, and two 50-milers.
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Jennifer Weiss.
This project has helped him become a minimalist. After moving out of his NYC apartment, Sycalik stored just a couple boxes at his brother’s house in Oxford, Pennsylvania, and packed the rest of his belongings into his 2008 Subaru Impreza, which he’s been living out of for the past year. “I’ve really been embracing the idea of minimalism and just having the things that are required,” Sycalik says. “When I decrease the amount of physical stuff I have, I feel lighter. Once you start to rid yourself of things, you physically feel better.”
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Bill Sycalik
He’s a vegan athlete. Sycalik went vegan five years ago, a lifestyle change that he says has improved his running performance. His typical day of fuel during the project: overnight oatmeal for breakfast, a vegetarian sandwich for lunch, bananas and gels as snacks, and Minute Rice and canned beans for dinner. “I don’t mind eating the same things over and over again,” Sycalik says. “I try to eat as much fresh produce as possible and get in more than enough protein.”
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Bill Sycalik
He’s found camaraderie among strangers. “I’ve always found that runners tend to be pretty nice, friendly people,” Sycalik says. Before arriving at each park, he tries to find running groups in the local area and posts about his plans on Facebook, inviting anyone to join him for part (of all) of the marathon. To date, he’s had company on 19 of his 48 runs, including 12 runs where others ran all 26.2 miles.
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George Rehmet (pictured on the left), Western Regional Director for the Road Runners Club of America, caught wind of Sycalik’s project and joined him for the marathon in Pinnacles National Park. A mountainous expanse in Central California, Pinnacles is the youngest of the parks (it was founded in 2013), and houses some of the most physically challenging trails. The duo’s 26.2-mile trek took more than seven hours—a grueling feat that Sycalik says was made easier by the company of a stranger-turned-friend.
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George Rehmet (pictured on the left), Western Regional Director for the Road Runners Club of America, caught wind of Sycalik’s project and joined him for the marathon in Pinnacles National Park. A mountainous expanse in Central California, Pinnacles is the youngest of the parks (it was founded in 2013), and houses some of the most physically challenging trails. The duo’s 26.2-mile trek took more than seven hours—a grueling feat that Sycalik says was made easier by the company of a stranger-turned-friend.
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Bill Sycalik
He’s had trails disappear on him. He encountered this issue twice in the Guadalupe Mountains National Park, which wraps through the Chihuahuan Desert of western Texas. After just half a mile into his planned loop, the trail seemingly evaporated. Sycalik consulted his map and selected a backup route that would add several miles to his run. That course somehow disappeared, too. He spent 20 minutes looking for it and decided rather than having a problem, he’d just backtrack. “I’m always about trying to be safe and not about being a hero,” he says.
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Bill Sycalik
A herd of buffalo re-routed his run. While charting through North Dakota’s Theodore Roosevelt, which knits together the Great Plains and the rugged Badlands, Sycalik stumbled upon a herd of buffalo grazing smack dab in the middle of the trail. “I had to bushwhack up and over a bluff to give them a wide berth,” he remembers, a detour that added several miles to his marathon. He describes the experience as one of the most “wild” of his journey so far.
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Stephen Guo
He’s had to adjust to a lot of solo time. One of the most challenging parts of Sycalik’s journey is the excessive “me” time. Spending hours—and sometimes days—in solitude has been a tricky transition from the always-buzzing metropolis of NYC. To combat loneliness, he’s stayed in hostels where possible and relied on his phone to stay connected with loved ones.
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Nick Danielson
He doesn’t listen to music while running. Sycalik has never favored running to a soundtrack. “You need to know how different paces feel, how different breathing feels, and understand your cadence,” he says. “Listening to music distracts from all of that. It’s about enjoying the beauty of the experience and your surroundings.”
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Bill Sycalik
He’s encountered multiple bears. While running in Voyageurs National Park, which covers forests, waterways, and island-dotted lakes in northern Minnesota, Sycalik heard a loud crashing sound come from behind him. He whipped around to see a black bear cavorting away from him. “No one warned me about bears in Voyagers,” Sycalik says. “I got plenty of warnings in Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.” Fortunately, the creature seemed more frightened of him than vice versa. He also spotted bears (from a safe distance) in Grand Teton National Park and Glacier National Park.
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Bill Sycalik
He discovered a new type of animal in South Dakota. While running through Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, Sycalik encountered a herd of pronghorns—antelope-like creatures with curly horns. He’d never even heard of the animal before. As he approached, the herd split in half and scampered off. Sycalik learned later from a ranger that the splitting up is the herd’s defense mechanism—select members of the group serve as decoys while the rest make a run for it.
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Bill Sycalik
He’s writing a haiku about each National Park. Seeking a creative outlet into which he could channel everything he was seeing/experiencing, Sycalik began penning haikus—one for each park—back in March. (He publishes them on his website.) To date, he’s written 24 poems and is now working his way backward to write one for every completed park. (His favorite, so far, is in the photo shown above.)
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Bill Sycalik
He’s forged close friendships along the way. When planning his Mount Rainier National Park marathon, Sycalik connected with a group of three Seattle-based runners embarking on a three-day run on the 93-mile Wonderland Trail that circles the mountain. Sycalik joined them for the last leg and describes the experience as his most memorable National Parks marathon so far. “We had a blast together,” he says. “We chatted the whole time and ended up running on glaciers and down into valleys. It was exactly what I want this project to be about—running with people you like and exploring beautiful places.” He’s since visited the group in Seattle, solidifying friendships that go beyond just running.
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Bill Sycalik
He’s run across glaciers, on a volcano, through swamps, and over sand dunes. Prior to this challenge, Sycalik had visited just four national parks. “My preconceived notion of a national park was just what I had experienced,” he says. “The reality is they are drastically different. There are a lot of mountain parks, but there are also a lot that have different terrains and wildlife.”
Among the varying terrain: Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, where Sycalik ran on top of a volcano; North Cascades National Park in Washington, with “angry, pointed” mountains and glaciers; the swamp-infested Congaree National Park in South Carolina; and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, where he stopped often to empty sand from his shoes.
Among the varying terrain: Lassen Volcanic National Park in California, where Sycalik ran on top of a volcano; North Cascades National Park in Washington, with “angry, pointed” mountains and glaciers; the swamp-infested Congaree National Park in South Carolina; and the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado, where he stopped often to empty sand from his shoes.
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Nick Danielson
He carries an iPhone, GoPro, and 10-pound backpack on his runs. With a phone in his left hand and GoPro in his right, he usually takes between 400 to 500 photos of each park, and sometimes upwards of 1,000.
His backpack contains a mix of hydration, fuel and safety gear, including a three-liter hydration bladder, Hammer gels, Hammer Endurolytes, two Ultimate Direction bottles with Hammer Endurolyte Fizz, toilet paper, a GPS safety beacon, a first aid kit with materials to start a fire, his driver’s license, $20, an emergency blanket, a rain shell and a topographical trail map.
His backpack contains a mix of hydration, fuel and safety gear, including a three-liter hydration bladder, Hammer gels, Hammer Endurolytes, two Ultimate Direction bottles with Hammer Endurolyte Fizz, toilet paper, a GPS safety beacon, a first aid kit with materials to start a fire, his driver’s license, $20, an emergency blanket, a rain shell and a topographical trail map.
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Bill Sycalik
He doesn’t care about his time. Sycalik, whose marathon PR is 3:13.43, has broken 4 hours on just one of his National Parks marathons—and that’s perfectly fine by him. “It’s not about a time,” he says. “It’s about taking a joy run through some of the most beautiful, unspoiled places in the world.”
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Bill Sycalik
He ran 44 laps around the largest brick structure in North America. Upon arriving at Dry Tortugas National Park in Florida, a chain of seven islands plus protected reefs about 100 miles west of Key West, Sycalik realized the only feasible running route was an 1/8-mile paved walkway that bordered Fort Jefferson, a massive 19th-century compound that’s the largest brick structure in North America. He ran 44 laps—22 in each direction—to reach his marathon goal. “I’ve learned that you can always figure things out if you give yourself the chance,” he says.
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He’s still plotting his eight Alaska marathons—and wants to do something epic. Sycalik completed his marathons in the lower 48 this month, and is now beginning to plot logistics for the Hawaii, American Samoa, and Alaska marathons. “The Alaska part of this trip is going to be the most logistically challenging and expensive,” says Sycalik. Four out of the eight national parks in Alaska are only accessible via bush plane. For safety reasons, he’d like to hire an Alaskan guide, persuade other runners to join him, and perhaps even rope in a sponsor or two. His one thought is doing eight marathons in eight national parks in eight days. “It’d be neat to highlight in a week the beauty of these places and how much unspoiled wildness is up there.”
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Bill Sycalik
He doesn’t believe in “impossible” anymore. “I was very depressed and felt like I was on a trajectory where I didn’t think it was possible to leave and do something different,” he says regarding his thought process before the trip. “But the truth is that just about anything is possible, and you don’t need to wait for a major tragedy or some dramatic event in your life in order to make a change.”
Contributing Writer
Jenny is a Boulder, Colorado-based health and fitness journalist. She’s been freelancing for Runner’s World since 2015 and especially loves to write human interest profiles, in-depth service pieces and stories that explore the intersection of exercise and mental health. Her work has also been published by SELF, Men’s Journal, and Condé Nast Traveler, among other outlets. When she’s not running or writing, Jenny enjoys coaching youth swimming, rereading Harry Potter, and buying too many houseplants.
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