He also plans on running the Boston Marathon backwards.
One California man ran an entire marathon backwards over the weekend — and it won't be the only one.
Loren Zitomersky ran in reverse for the more than 26.2 miles of the L.A. Marathon Sunday morning, and will do the same thing for the Boston Marathon on April 16.
Zitomersky ran in the unusual way to raise awareness and funds for epilepsy research in honor of his brother, Brian, who died from the neurological disorder when he was just 7 years old.
"I feel like in a certain way, Brian’s memory lives on," Zitomersky told Inside Edition.
To run backwards for such a long distance, he has a forward running spotter who runs beside him and calls out navigation instructions and warns him of any runners who may be behind him.
"It absolutely destroys my body, it's tough on the mind because unlike running forward where you can sort of zone out," he said. "When you're running backwards you have to be really self-aware."
Zitomersky's family and friends linked up on the sidelines to cheer him on and even strangers joined in. One runner even ran backwards for a little while with him.
In April, Zitomersky, an attorney, will attempt to break the Guinness World Record when he runs the entire Boston Marathon backwards.
His time to beat is 3 hours, 43 minutes and 39 seconds.
"I told myself I can do that,” he declared.
Zitomersky has run seven previous marathons before the weekend and even has also done an Ironman Triathlon event to raise awareness and money for epilepsy.
When Zitomersky was 12, he and his father biked from San Francisco to Los Angeles to raise money for epilepsy, and he has always remained committed to the cause.
RELATED STORIES
