to a heart attack, turned to running to reclaim his health. Photo special to the Journal.
By Emily Williams
Running through the streets of London isn’t something that Hoover resident Jason Zajac dreamed about in his youth. It wasn’t until he ran his first marathon in 2018 that the goal began to take shape.
Running is not only a hobby for Zajac, it’s become a way to give back.
While training for the London Marathon 2020 in April, he joined the Organization for Autism Research’s Run for Autism Team. As a member of the team, he has set a fundraising goal of $5,000 for the OAR.
“OAR is unique in its focus in applied research; research with a high probability of producing tangible and practical benefits to families dealing with the challenges of autism,” he said.
In 2018, it was determined by the Centers for Disease Control that approximately one in 59 children is diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
“As a high school teacher, I have seen the effects of the autism spectrum disorder in our students and with the children of co-workers,” he said.
Zajac serves Hoover City Schools in multiple capacities. At the Riverchase Career Connection Center, he is a Health Science Academy teacher and a Fire Science Academy lead teacher. He is also an athletic trainer for Spain Park High School.
Though he was active in his youth, Zajac says he was never a great runner. As a high school athlete – participating in mainly baseball but also football and golf – he said running was a task left for conditioning or for punishment.
Turning His Life Around
His day-to-day at school is filled with athletics, but seven years ago, he noticed an unhealthy change in his lifestyle.
Rather than continuing that lifestyle, and spurred by the experience of losing his 56-year-old father to a heart attack, he turned to running.
“I struggled to run even 1 mile without stopping,” he said, but with some persistence and training time spent on the treadmill in the Spain Park Athletics Department, he was able to work toward completing a 5K.
“The atmosphere was electric, and that is when I fell in love with the sport,” Zajac said. “Running has become a major part of my life, and I am grateful for what it has done for me.”
Once he was comfortable with the 5K, he took on the 2014 Mercedes Half Marathon. He didn’t love the experience, but as he neared his 40th birthday in 2018, he set a marathon goal.
After running in the 2018 Mercedes Marathon with a time of 4:27, he was inspired to continue and work toward finishing a marathon in under four hours.
He was able to gain a spot in the 2019 Chicago Marathon, held in October, through a lottery system. This time he finished in 3:44:31.
“I have logged a lot of miles since that first 5K, but I never imagined where running could actually take me,” he said.
He said he can feel the positive difference both in his physical shape, having lost more than 60 pounds, and in his mentality. When he sets a goal, he won’t stop until he reaches it.
“I now have a goal to run in all of the six major world marathons,” he said. Those are the Chicago, London, Tokyo, Berlin, New York and Boston marathons.
Having marked off Chicago, and soon to tackle London, Zajac also looks forward to participating in the 2020 New York City Marathon in November.
For the New York marathon, Zanjac will raise money for KultureCity. He will pursue the same $5,000 fundraising goal, and, should all go well, will be halfway finished with his “big six” marathon goal come December.
