Several mornings each week, Isaac Owusu-Frimpong rises with the sun to complete a morning run before heading to work at the UCR School of Medicine. But these are no leisurely jogs. The Division of Biomedical Sciences FAO recently completed two marathons in six weeks and is training for more.

In truth, running marathons seems like a natural fit for Owusu-Frimpong, who is used to dedicating himself to a task and seeing it through. He has worked at UCR since 2007, first in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering for 12 years and then in the School of Medicine. “That could also be compared to a marathon because you have the commitment for the long haul and that's pretty much what I've done in my UC career," he said.

Although Owusu-Frimpong now runs over 25 miles per week, he never thought of himself as a runner. Years ago, he participated in his first 5k in Montreal just for the free t-shirt and had a hard time reaching the finish line. “I had to muster all the energy in me to be able to get that done,” he recalled.

Since he frequently needed to stop and catch his breath when running, he focused on cycling and other sports instead. Last year, though, Owusu-Frimpong accompanied his son, now 13, on a 5k for a school activity. Matching his son’s slower pace felt manageable, and when he later received an email from one of the run’s sponsors, the Loma Linda Lopers Club, he read their pitch about helping people train to run marathons.

 

After meeting one of the club’s members by chance at a local event and hearing about their experience completing a recent marathon, “I kind of got excited and said, well, let me give it a shot and see,” he said. “I thought that would be a good way to stay active and keep my body in shape.”

 

Owusu-Frimpong joined the club in September 2022 and started training with the attainable goal of completing a marathon by age 50, about five years away. By October, after increasing his miles each week per the club’s training schedule, he had run his first half marathon and signed up for another in December.

 

“I just felt like wow, I probably will be able to do the marathon before I turn 50,” he said.

 

By age 45, half a year after he started training, he’d completed two.

 

Owusu-Frimpong ran his first marathon, the Surf City Marathon in Huntington Beach, in February 2023. His farthest distance at the time was 18 miles rather than the recommended pre-marathon training distance of 20, so he decided to use the event to prepare for the upcoming LA Marathon in March. “The last three miles were really, really tough,” he said.

 

The crowd’s energy and inspiration from his friends and family helped him complete that first long run. "You have the crowd lined up, people are cheering you on, so you feed off that energy as well,” he said. “And you've put in a lot of work to get that far, so at that point, just giving up really doesn't seem like a very good option.”

 

He also didn’t want to disappoint people who were excited to see him run. “I felt accountable in some sense to all these people who were looking at me and cheering for me and wanting me to succeed,” he said. “So that kind of got me going as well."

 

He completed his first marathon in just under four hours. “All of a sudden I felt like I was just getting addicted,” he said—and he stuck to his plan of running the LA Marathon next.

“It was a life-changing experience for me to be able to do this,” he said. "I was doubtful when I started, I thought maybe in a few years if I stick with the plan I will be able to run the marathon. But it was like magic, just sticking with the training schedule of running three  to four times every week, it builds your endurance and it was amazing."

Owusu-Frimpong achieved his goal of running not one, but two marathons well before age 50, but he’s just getting started. "I feel like I've been bitten by the marathon bug,” he said, adding that his eventual goal is to complete a marathon in 3 hours and 40 minutes, or perhaps even faster. “I really want to do it at a much better time and a much faster pace. It still feels like unfinished business, there's still something more out there to achieve and the goal that I still need to meet.”

 

He might not be running alone. His son plans to start training with Owusu-Frimpong in the next year or two. Owusu-Frimpong said he looks forward to running together and to bringing his journey full circle, as it was running with his son that led to his marathon training in the first place.

 

Inspired by other club members who have completed 40 marathons and are still running in their late 70s, Owusu-Frimpong’s new plan is to run two marathons per year and to keep it up until he’s 80. “85 if I'm in good shape,” he added with a smile. He hopes to travel to events like the Boston Marathon and, eventually, to complete over 50 marathons. “If I'm able to stay active for that long, it's good for me and it's good for my health,” he said.

Besides his friends and family, Owusu-Frimpong said he’s grateful for the support from colleagues in his department. “I think that really helps in any situation, doing my work here and even my journey with the marathon, I've shared that with them and they've always been very supportive," he said. Running, in turn, helps him with his work. “It starts the day, it gets me refreshed and rejuvenated and I feel like once I do that, I'm ready to tackle all the challenges of the day."

 

A year ago, he wouldn’t have foreseen his marathon achievements and new life goals. "It's like they say, a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” he said. “That's how I started and I feel like if it’s your passion, you can do it."