- Eric Johnson, ultramarathon runner and physician assistant, has overcome poverty and cancer.
- Johnson has run over 13,000 miles, including the challenging Wasatch 100 and Bear 100.
- Despite prostate cancer, he recently completed the Bear 100 in under 30 hours, proving his resilience.
OGDEN — Ultramarathon runner Eric Johnson has come a long way — more than 13,000 miles on foot — and then some.
Johnson grew up in Independence, Virginia, in Appalachia, with five brothers and sisters and a single mom.
"There's a difference between being poor and being impoverished," Johnson said. "Like, we were impoverished."
They got their water from a spring in the backyard. They lived on food stamps. The floor of his home was cement. Only "rich" people had carpet.
"Like, they got money. They got carpet,'" he said.
Still, he had a happy childhood.
"We lived down in the middle of the woods and had a hard time putting food on the table, but we were all like that," he said.
Things changed when he was 12, and his mother moved the family to Logan to try to improve their lives. In Logan, he stood out.
"I talked different, acted different, looked different," he said. "For, like, two years, I didn't have any friends. It was very painful."
He vowed he was going to work his way out of poverty. "I'm out of this. I'm getting out of this. I am going to prove people wrong," he said.
Johnson is now a physician assistant at a medical clinic in Ogden.
But that's only part of the story. You can see the rest in the dozens of framed marathon numbers in his exam rooms.
In 1991, Johnson, after running three marathons, decided to try an ultramarathon, the 100-mile Wasatch 100, one of the hardest in North America.
"I really didn't know what I was doing … and I got destroyed," he said.
It wasn't until he tried a 50-mile race a decade later that he really fell for the sport, and once he did, and began running race after race. Nothing could stop him.
Not a swamp: He ran a 100 miles race through a swamp in South Carolina — and lost eight toenails.
Not the cold: He raced in minus 41-degree Minnesota, and he ran the 1000-mile Iditarod trail in Alaska, twice.
And not hallucinations: He challenged himself to run across the Grand Canyon and back three times. On his third trip, a rock formation by Phantom Ranch morphed into a giant rabbit.
He didn't stop running, even for prostate cancer.
In 2022, Johnson was diagnosed with advanced high-risk prostate cancer. He underwent radiation therapy, two surgeries and an 18-month course of hormone blockers.
"It was pretty rough. It was hard," he said.
But he kept on running.
"To me, there really wasn't ever a question. Like, I'm not stopping. Why?" he said.
In fact, he challenged himself to run the Bear 100 in under 30 hours, something he hadn't done in eight years.
With 25 miles to go, he "just put the hammer down, and was committed." He fell twice, but got up and kept running.
"There's, like, skin flying with skin and rocks and sand," he said. "I was just 100% determined I was not gonna stop."
He crossed the finish line in 29 hours, 59 minutes, 27 seconds.
"You kind of just want to go out swinging," he said. "If you're going to go down, you go out swinging."
"I struggle with the fear of failing, like, I got to prove stuff to myself. I think that stems from just, you know, growing up in poverty," he said.
The cancer is now gone, although it's not yet considered in remission.
And Johnson figures he's run the equivalent of more than 100 100-mile marathons, about 13,000 miles.
He has come a long way, in more ways than one.
