Run, teach, eat,
sleep, repeat
To say that Walnut High teacher and alumnus Jerry Knox is
passionate about running might be an understatement. He laces
up his running shoes five days a week, clocking five to eight miles
a day, and 15 miles every Saturday.
Knox usually runs a marathon each
month, and in the past 11 years has
crossed the finish line more than 80
times. Every medal is displayed in his
classroom, and the AP geography, bio-
ethics teacher and cross country coach
has been known to wear the event T-shirt
to school on Mondays following a race.
In 2009, the 23-year veteran educator
decided to up the ante and go for a world
record “just to make it interesting.” Knox
said he always liked the Guinness Book
of World Records as a kid.
When his son Alex was 8, he
announced, “Dad, you can beat that”
after reading that someone held the
world record for dribbling a basketball
during a marathon. And he did. Knox
crossed the finish line at the London
marathon in 3 hours, 42 minutes, 20
seconds.
Knox didn’t begin running marathons
until he was 36 years old and fellow
teacher SoHee Tan mentioned that she
had just completed one. “If she can do it,
so can I,” he said.
That also began his transition to eating better. “Every year I
seemed to click off something different,” he said about first giving
up ground beef, then fast food, fried food and soda. He recently
went vegan.
Knox doesn’t actively recruit fellow educators and students to join
his healthy lifestyle, he prefers to quietly lead by example. Snacks of fresh fruit and vegetables and a “Want to get fit?
Join cross country – no experience necessary” recruiting flier can be seen near his desk.
The coach also joins the student cross-country team for their daily training runs. “It’s better when he’s out on the
course with us,” said junior Jason Yen. “He understands our pain.”
Knox broke four additional world records in 2017: running the fastest marathon while jumping rope, with a time of
4:20:31 on Feb. 19, and the fastest marathon wearing German lederhosen at the Los Angeles Marathon on March
19. At the OC Marathon May 8, he crossed the finish line wearing a graduation cap and gown. He smashed another
record by 35 minutes while skipping an entire 26.2-mile race in 4:49 on Dec. 3 in Sacramento.
Yen says his marathon-running teacher is setting a good example for fellow students. “He has a goal and achieves it
by practicing and not giving up,” he said.
Kelli Gile, Office of Community Resources, Walnut Valley USD
January | February 2018
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