NMOTC XO Goes the Distance
Story by Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael Lieberknecht
Navy Medicine Operational Training Center
Capt. Michael Kohler was seated in an English class in 1994. His instructor asked the class to complete an unusual yet simple assignment. He had the class think of a remarkable accomplishment that would be fulfilled over the next 20 years. Kohler simply wrote down “to visit every state in the U.S.” In May of 2018, Kohler completed his goal from 1994, but with a twist.
“Around this time I had started to pick up running again”, said Kohler. “I thought you know, maybe I should do something even bigger than just going to every state. Maybe I should run a marathon in every state.”
Kohler, now executive officer of Navy Medicine Operational Training Center, grew up in Longmont, Colorado just outside of Boulder. His high school was known for its football team and Kohler played both basketball and football. His basketball coach suggested he try out for the school’s cross-country program. He decided to make a change and pursued cross-country his senior year.
After making the cut, Kohler eventually landed on the varsity team and ‘lettering’ before enrolling in the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program in November 1986. He kept running recreationally after boot camp, mixing in a few 5k and 10k runs, but when he set his goal in 1994, had yet to tackle a marathon.
Marathons get their name from the legend of Pheidippides, the ancient Greek messenger. Legend has it, he was sent from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of the Persians in 490 BC. The story ends with Pheidippides running the complete distance without stopping and shouting “We have won!” before falling to the ground dead.
Whether this tale is true or not, today’s marathons are long-distance running races totaling 26.2 miles and Kohler considers them to be an elite test in distance running to this day.
“Historically, it has been the most challenging distance and a huge accomplishment to complete,” said Kohler.
In the months leading up to his first marathon, Kohler was a Nurse Corps officer stationed in Pensacola, Florida. He was running frequently and was attending the Pensacola McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day 5k, the largest 5k prediction run in America. It was at that race where Kohler met the woman who would one day become his wife.
“After we met, we started running a lot together, and she knew I wanted to start doing marathons,” said Kohler. “The first one we did was the Blue Angel Marathon here in Pensacola.”
Over the next 19 years, the Kohlers began to tackle marathons one state at a time, coming home each time with another step toward the 1994 goal and adding another story.
“Oklahoma City Marathon was pretty cool,” said Kohler, Boston wasn’t my favorite, but I have a lot of respect for it. My least favorite was Atlanta because of the weather. It was on Thanksgiving Day and it rained so hard the whole time and I was so miserable. It was for sure the most challenging, but it wasn’t my worst time.”
His favorite was the New York City marathon because of the enthusiastic crowds. In Wyoming he got very bad cramps. New Jersey also provided rough weather, but Kohler says North Carolina was probably the strangest.
“It was in Boone, and it started at Appalachian State University, which is beautiful,” said Kohler. It was a very challenging course, a lot of hills, and then you finish on a gravel track near these highland games. When we got there, we saw people throwing hay-bales while dressed in kilts. That was one of the craziest ones.”
The Kohlers raised three children while pursuing their 50-state goal, forcing them to get a little more creative with planning out the family vacations.
“When our kids were younger we’d do a vacation around a marathon,” said Kohler. “So they’d ask ‘Dad, why are we going to Deadwood, South Dakota?’ and I’d say ‘well, we’re doing a marathon, but we’re also going to go to Mount Rushmore’.”
When Kohler wasn’t flying or driving to and from marathons, he was working his way up the ranks in the Navy as a Nurse Corps officer. Sometimes the lines of a hectic Navy career and meeting an aspiring goal would begin to blur.
“Alaska was just so far away to get to,” said Kohler. “That was an interesting one. Sometimes it’s more than just the marathon.”
On the way to check Alaska off the list, a passenger on Kohler’s plane lost consciousness. Officials were considering an alternate emergency landing site while Kohler tried to assist a doctor on the ground diagnose the man over the phone.
“They asked, ‘is there anyone who has any medical experience on the plane?’ and I had to go in the back. The flight attendant was panicking while I gave him a sternum rub and trying to wake him up. The guy had just left the bathroom, and his family member traveling with him told me he takes a lot of medication. I think he went in, took his medication, but I didn’t know if he had a glucose problem or what. I’m thinking ‘this guy’s not in good shape’, but I felt a faint pulse. They bring me this little artificial oral airway kit, an IV bag, and a defibrillator and I did what I could,” said Kohler.
Kohler assisted until the plane could finally land and paramedics were able to tend to the passenger.
Kohler keeps the recorded times of all his marathon races and can even recite some from memory. He said his worst time was in Wyoming at about 4 hours and 45 minutes. His best time was Chicago at 3 hours and 3 minutes. During the race in Chicago his career as a Navy nurse once again came into play.
“Chicago was awesome, I was just flying,” said Kohler. “I would have been under 3 hours, but a guy literally died right in front of me about a quarter mile from the finish. I ran the whole race and I was keeping about a 7-minute pace per mile and this guy just fell. I could see the finish line and the timer was at around 2 hours and 56 minutes. I stopped. All I could do was put him in a recovery position to keep him from vomitting. He was still breathing and everything. But he went unconscious and the medics came, and I got up and finished. I didn’t really do anything but supportive care. It was just the strangest thing how he went down. The next day in the paper I read he died,” said Kohler.
Kohler shares his passion of running marathons with his wife, who he claims is more proficient than he is.
“She’s actually probably cumulatively was better overall because she’s always around 3 hours and 30 mins,” said Kohler.
Kohler has completed 55 marathons. He has qualified for the Boston marathon 5 times. He has run them in stranger places such as Guam and at Disney World. Nebraska was the final state on the list, and now he also shares his passion of running each year on Naval Air station Pensacola.
“Rock N’ Fly is like no other race in America,” said Kohler. “We have jets fly over, big screens, music played on the course. There is no cooler start of any race than the Rock N’ Fly.”
Kohler started the annual Rock N’ Fly half marathon and 5k following the discontinuation of the Blue Angel Marathon, an iconic race which was held for over 20 years before the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 brought the tradition to a stop. Kohler saw a void that could be filled and uses Rock N’ Fly to offer runners a great race and social event while giving 100% of funds raised to the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) and committees for the annual Navy Ball. In the last four years alone, Rock N’ Fly has raised over 150 thousand dollars for the NMRCS.
Kohler said he has started to draw back on running marathons. He is now 49, and still runs, but after completing his 50 states goal, he says it might be time to slow down a little bit.
“As I’ve gotten older I have moved into other things like biking and swimming,” said Kohler. “For me, physical fitness in your life helps your mind, not just your physical health. I have a sense of clarity after I do it and I feel better about myself, I feel like I’m more productive.”
Kohler uses marathons to push the limits of not just his body, but his drive and passion for everything he does.
“It’s accomplishment. There’s been multiple marathons where I’ve been at mile 14 or 18 or 21 and it becomes a mental challenge to just keep pushing forward. You do it more for a sense of accomplishment than you do it for a euphoric feeling. You don’t have to do a marathon to feel good. You can go out and run a 5k and feel good, but you do it because you want to set a standard for yourself. That’s why I do it.”
Now that Kohler and his wife have completed a marathon in every state, his eye is set on the obvious next step beginning next April in Rome.
“Well, there are 10 provinces and 3 territories in Canada,” Kohler said. “Our goal now is to do the continents.”
“Around this time I had started to pick up running again”, said Kohler. “I thought you know, maybe I should do something even bigger than just going to every state. Maybe I should run a marathon in every state.”
Kohler, now executive officer of Navy Medicine Operational Training Center, grew up in Longmont, Colorado just outside of Boulder. His high school was known for its football team and Kohler played both basketball and football. His basketball coach suggested he try out for the school’s cross-country program. He decided to make a change and pursued cross-country his senior year.
After making the cut, Kohler eventually landed on the varsity team and ‘lettering’ before enrolling in the Navy’s Delayed Entry Program in November 1986. He kept running recreationally after boot camp, mixing in a few 5k and 10k runs, but when he set his goal in 1994, had yet to tackle a marathon.
Marathons get their name from the legend of Pheidippides, the ancient Greek messenger. Legend has it, he was sent from the Battle of Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of the Persians in 490 BC. The story ends with Pheidippides running the complete distance without stopping and shouting “We have won!” before falling to the ground dead.
Whether this tale is true or not, today’s marathons are long-distance running races totaling 26.2 miles and Kohler considers them to be an elite test in distance running to this day.
“Historically, it has been the most challenging distance and a huge accomplishment to complete,” said Kohler.
In the months leading up to his first marathon, Kohler was a Nurse Corps officer stationed in Pensacola, Florida. He was running frequently and was attending the Pensacola McGuire’s St. Patrick’s Day 5k, the largest 5k prediction run in America. It was at that race where Kohler met the woman who would one day become his wife.
“After we met, we started running a lot together, and she knew I wanted to start doing marathons,” said Kohler. “The first one we did was the Blue Angel Marathon here in Pensacola.”
Over the next 19 years, the Kohlers began to tackle marathons one state at a time, coming home each time with another step toward the 1994 goal and adding another story.
“Oklahoma City Marathon was pretty cool,” said Kohler, Boston wasn’t my favorite, but I have a lot of respect for it. My least favorite was Atlanta because of the weather. It was on Thanksgiving Day and it rained so hard the whole time and I was so miserable. It was for sure the most challenging, but it wasn’t my worst time.”
His favorite was the New York City marathon because of the enthusiastic crowds. In Wyoming he got very bad cramps. New Jersey also provided rough weather, but Kohler says North Carolina was probably the strangest.
“It was in Boone, and it started at Appalachian State University, which is beautiful,” said Kohler. It was a very challenging course, a lot of hills, and then you finish on a gravel track near these highland games. When we got there, we saw people throwing hay-bales while dressed in kilts. That was one of the craziest ones.”
The Kohlers raised three children while pursuing their 50-state goal, forcing them to get a little more creative with planning out the family vacations.
“When our kids were younger we’d do a vacation around a marathon,” said Kohler. “So they’d ask ‘Dad, why are we going to Deadwood, South Dakota?’ and I’d say ‘well, we’re doing a marathon, but we’re also going to go to Mount Rushmore’.”
When Kohler wasn’t flying or driving to and from marathons, he was working his way up the ranks in the Navy as a Nurse Corps officer. Sometimes the lines of a hectic Navy career and meeting an aspiring goal would begin to blur.
“Alaska was just so far away to get to,” said Kohler. “That was an interesting one. Sometimes it’s more than just the marathon.”
On the way to check Alaska off the list, a passenger on Kohler’s plane lost consciousness. Officials were considering an alternate emergency landing site while Kohler tried to assist a doctor on the ground diagnose the man over the phone.
“They asked, ‘is there anyone who has any medical experience on the plane?’ and I had to go in the back. The flight attendant was panicking while I gave him a sternum rub and trying to wake him up. The guy had just left the bathroom, and his family member traveling with him told me he takes a lot of medication. I think he went in, took his medication, but I didn’t know if he had a glucose problem or what. I’m thinking ‘this guy’s not in good shape’, but I felt a faint pulse. They bring me this little artificial oral airway kit, an IV bag, and a defibrillator and I did what I could,” said Kohler.
Kohler assisted until the plane could finally land and paramedics were able to tend to the passenger.
Kohler keeps the recorded times of all his marathon races and can even recite some from memory. He said his worst time was in Wyoming at about 4 hours and 45 minutes. His best time was Chicago at 3 hours and 3 minutes. During the race in Chicago his career as a Navy nurse once again came into play.
“Chicago was awesome, I was just flying,” said Kohler. “I would have been under 3 hours, but a guy literally died right in front of me about a quarter mile from the finish. I ran the whole race and I was keeping about a 7-minute pace per mile and this guy just fell. I could see the finish line and the timer was at around 2 hours and 56 minutes. I stopped. All I could do was put him in a recovery position to keep him from vomitting. He was still breathing and everything. But he went unconscious and the medics came, and I got up and finished. I didn’t really do anything but supportive care. It was just the strangest thing how he went down. The next day in the paper I read he died,” said Kohler.
Kohler shares his passion of running marathons with his wife, who he claims is more proficient than he is.
“She’s actually probably cumulatively was better overall because she’s always around 3 hours and 30 mins,” said Kohler.
Kohler has completed 55 marathons. He has qualified for the Boston marathon 5 times. He has run them in stranger places such as Guam and at Disney World. Nebraska was the final state on the list, and now he also shares his passion of running each year on Naval Air station Pensacola.
“Rock N’ Fly is like no other race in America,” said Kohler. “We have jets fly over, big screens, music played on the course. There is no cooler start of any race than the Rock N’ Fly.”
Kohler started the annual Rock N’ Fly half marathon and 5k following the discontinuation of the Blue Angel Marathon, an iconic race which was held for over 20 years before the devastation of Hurricane Ivan in 2004 brought the tradition to a stop. Kohler saw a void that could be filled and uses Rock N’ Fly to offer runners a great race and social event while giving 100% of funds raised to the Navy Marine Corps Relief Society (NMCRS) and committees for the annual Navy Ball. In the last four years alone, Rock N’ Fly has raised over 150 thousand dollars for the NMRCS.
Kohler said he has started to draw back on running marathons. He is now 49, and still runs, but after completing his 50 states goal, he says it might be time to slow down a little bit.
“As I’ve gotten older I have moved into other things like biking and swimming,” said Kohler. “For me, physical fitness in your life helps your mind, not just your physical health. I have a sense of clarity after I do it and I feel better about myself, I feel like I’m more productive.”
Kohler uses marathons to push the limits of not just his body, but his drive and passion for everything he does.
“It’s accomplishment. There’s been multiple marathons where I’ve been at mile 14 or 18 or 21 and it becomes a mental challenge to just keep pushing forward. You do it more for a sense of accomplishment than you do it for a euphoric feeling. You don’t have to do a marathon to feel good. You can go out and run a 5k and feel good, but you do it because you want to set a standard for yourself. That’s why I do it.”
Now that Kohler and his wife have completed a marathon in every state, his eye is set on the obvious next step beginning next April in Rome.
“Well, there are 10 provinces and 3 territories in Canada,” Kohler said. “Our goal now is to do the continents.”
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