Interview: Dave Cottrell, Northeast Ohio I-CAR Volunteer Committee Chair

Cottrell details the 200+ mile ultra-marathon he will run starting April 25 to raise funds for collision repair schools in Ohio.

Over six days starting April 25, I-CAR Northeast Ohio Committee chair and instructor, Dave Cottrell, will be competing in the Coast to Coaster ultra-marathon race where he will be running across the state of Ohio from Sandusky, in the northeast, to Cincinnati in the southern part of the state.

In our video interview embedded below, Cottrell from Crash Champions, explains what ultra-marathons are, why he started running them, and how he hopes to raise funds to benefit collision repair schools in Ohio. during the 209-mile race.

More information about the race, including a link to sponsor Cottrell on his run, either by the mile or as a one-time donation, are available on a website created for the event.

Net proceeds raised during the run will go to support collision repair schools in Ohio through the Collision Repair Education Foundation (CREF).

According to Cottrell, he will have to run an average approximately 35 miles each day of the event from Thursday, April 25 through Tuesday, April 30. This is the first time he has competed in a 200-mile race, saying, “. I always said, ‘I’ll never run a 200 miler.’ Well, that changed, obviously, with what I’m doing this year. The furthest I’ve ever run is 103 and this one will be a 209 miler.”

Asked how he is training for the increased distance, Cottrell said, “You just get on your feet as often as you can and run as many back-to-back days on the weekends especially, whenever you can get out and get on your feet. But the thing is to put miles on your feet.”

“If you’re starting to feel pain or something, you need to know when to take a break and relax,” Cottrell continued. “This is a different kind of race, like I said, because there’ll be walking involved and normally you don’t think of walking when it comes to running a race, but the distance that you have to make, you have to manage your body and keep it physically healthy along the training path and the race itself.”

Discussing the idea to turn his participation in the event into a fundraiser, he thought the benefit to the industry would serve as an extra motivation to complete the event.

“As an I-CAR committee, we’re always looking for ways to help support the local schools,” said Cottrell. “The one thing I like about the donations is it’s going to be a motivator for me. The more support I get, the more it’s going to energize me, provoke me, to get to the very end.”