Back in high school, Alex Jackson was overweight so he never thought he’d be a runner.
“I was 297 (pounds). I had a motocross accident, broke basically everything from the knee down on the left side. Got up to 297 and I was like, ‘I’ve got to do something different.’ I started working out, but I never started running until about October of last year,” the now-33-year-old from Syracuse said in an interview Tuesday.
Jackson always told himself he wasn’t a runner, but it dawned on him that he wasn’t one because he never tried it before. In his first attempt at running, he made it about a half mile, but he kept working at it.

    In the races Alex Jackson enjoys running, there’s also obstacles like this multi-rig obstacle in Michigan. Photo Provided
  

“It definitely takes some build up, then you just kind of hit a breakthrough and make progress, keep doing it,” he said.
His personal breakthrough came around the beginning of this year.
“So I signed up for a race in August and it was just going to be one race for the year. That turned into six races with a marathon being the last one,” Jackson said.
The August race was a Spartan race in the mountains of West Virginia, which included an obstacle course.
“We’ve done them in the past ... we liked the obstacles but we never really did the running much,” he said.
In total, so far, Jackson has done three Spartan races - a Sprint, a Super and a Beast. The Sprint is a 5 kilometer, the Super is a 10K and the Beast is a half marathon.

    Alex Jackson (C) poses for a photo with Winnie (L) and Remi (R) Jackson after the Nashville Spartan Sprint. Photo Provided
  

“We did a Tough Mudder 15K down in Columbus, Indiana, and the Mudtastic Classic was the first race I did last year, in Syracuse,” he said.
Jackson enjoys the challenge of the races that include obstacle courses and weights.
His first Spartan Ultra race will be in May, which is a 50K. “Just for fun. Kind of push the boundaries. It’s a healthy outlet,” he stated, adding that he plans to finish it.
Asked what he wants his time to be for the 50K, Jackson replied, “Each course is going to be different because it’s not like road running. There’s the terrain and every course is going to be different. Like the half marathon in West Virginia, we had several thousand feet of elevation gain. So that’s a lot, it’s going to slow you down a lot. But, I would say for the one in May, we’re aiming for around 10 hours to finish it.”
During that 10 hours, he’ll have to overcome 60 obstacles.
“The obstacles are like a break, per se. You will have water stations. Halfway through the Ultra you have a transition where you can pick up more gear you got to get - your electrolytes, carbohydrates, stuff like that,” he explained.
It’s definitely a competitive race and runners are ranked.
“You have a baseline and you can kind of see where you line up and try to get better,” he said.
The Ultra will be his longest race at that point. However, he’d like to work toward 50 mile-, 100 km- and 100-mile races.
“So I ran into a guy on the trails down here at Winona. He was talking about how he did a 100-mile race here in October that was in Chain-O-Lakes. He said there’s a marathon there in December, so I signed up for it. So that was the longest I’ve ran so far,” Jackson said, noting he’s still working up to the Ultra in 2025.
When he’s running, he said he tries to get in a “flow state” where he’s contemplative and thinking about things in life.
“I always loved the woods. I don’t really do much road running. You see the deer out there, squirrels, every thing. It’s just cool to be out in nature. Basically, just being able to see where your feet can take you,” Jackson said.
Mostly when he’s running, he’s flying solo, but he’ll go with friends when their schedules work out.
“I like getting other people involved in it because I just thinks it lets you see how capable (you are). I’ve lived my whole life and I thought I wasn’t a runner until I started running. So there’s a lot more potential there than most people realize, I feel like,” Jackson said.
Running the races isn’t about breaking records or winning awards for him, but it’s about personal development and becoming better.
One of the things that has become better for him with all the running is his weight has dropped down to about a healthy, fit 215.
“It just kind of empowers people really. I let my daughters do it with me, too. They’ve done two this year, two Spartan races with me,” he said. His daughters are 12 and 11 years old. “They have a kids division. It’s a whole different course, but it’s at the same event.”
His advice to others is, “Whatever it is that you’re working towards, just take that chance and push through. See what you’re capable of.”