Step Up for Scholars 2022: Dan Futrell

Welcome to Step Up for Scholars, the second event in the 2022 Pat’s Run Challenge Series! We’re celebrating all 14 classes of Tillman Scholars over the next 14 days. Each day, we’ll share a story from one of our scholars to inspire you to push a little harder tomorrow in your step challenge. Today, we bring you 2011 Tillman Scholar and PTF CEO Dan Futrell. Check out Dan discussing how he turned a 10-minute daily commitment into a marathon best:

Transcript: 

Hi my name is Dan Futrell, 2011 Tillman scholar and CEO of the Pat Tillman Foundation. I thank you so much for joining Step Up for Scholars this year and being part of this awesome event. I wanted to share a little story with you. In college, I was a competitive runner and over a period of 10 or 15 years, I’d kind of fallen out of the habit of running consistently and so in late 2019, just before the pandemic, I challenged myself to run every single day for only 10 minutes. 

Ten minutes slowly built into 20 minutes, 30 minutes, 40 minutes, a mile stepped and grew into two miles, five miles, 10 miles, 20 miles, and eventually, at the end of 2020, I ran my fastest marathon ever. 

I was able to improve my marathon time by 12 minutes. I offer that as a story of how small steps and small commitments to a challenge can lead to a big goal, so I invite you to see where 10 minutes can take you as you continue in this Step up for Scholars challenge. Thank you.

Want to join the challenge? It’s not too late! Register by Aug. 14 at StepUpforScholars.org and you’ll get a commemorative t-shirt and hat.