Michael Wardian has spent his running career breaking records. Earlier this year, for example, he set the record for running seven marathons on seven continents in seven days. Then he went home and ran three more marathons in D.C., setting the record for the fastest 10 marathons in 10 consecutive days.

But for years there was one particular challenge calling to him: The Capital Beltway—bane of commuters the region over. The idea came to him some 20 years ago while he was (surprise!) stuck in traffic on the Beltway.

“I was just sitting there for like 45 minutes, and I was like, ‘It would be so cool, I could run so much faster than this,’” he said. “Then a lightbulb went off and I was like, ‘I wonder if I could run around the whole thing.’”

Wardian finally did it on Saturday, which happened to also be the hottest day of 2019 so far. It took him 17 hours, 54 minutes and 59 seconds to run the 89.9 mile route. He didn’t run on the actual Beltway. That’s illegal. Instead, he followed a route a friend came up with, weaving together local roads and trails following the contours of the freeway.

Wardian started at 1:30 a.m. at the American Legion Bridge, and headed counter-clockwise through Fairfax County. He ran for hours by the light of his headlamp. “That was kind of neat to kind of see the city sleeping,” says Wardian.

He circled back around to the Potomac River, and the Wilson Bridge, just as the sun was rising.

“There was actually a 5K getting started, so I ran through that,” says Wardian, noting that by then he’d already run about 30 miles, or the equivalent of 10 5K’s.

Then he ran many more hours under the beating sun and sticky humidity. “Everybody started packing me with ice. I was putting ice in my arm sleeves and on my neck,” Wardian says.

He had friends running with him part of the route. Others cheered him at points along the way.

Besides the heat, another challenge was navigating. Wardian says one of his friends counted 172 turns on the course.

“You’re dealing with crossing traffic, and some of the roads don’t have shoulders or really sidewalks.” While a few sections were a little scary, he says, “it was a pretty cool route.”

So why did he choose to do it during the hottest time of the year? Timing. A week or so ago, he realized he had an opening in his packed schedule, juggling work (as an international shipbroker), family life (with two young kids) and an insane number of races.

“My wife Jennifer and our kids, Pierce and Grant, were headed to the beach, and I had a free day to do it. So I was like, ‘Ah, I’ll take advantage of it.’”

His dad, Richard Wardian, was available to help out with a support vehicle, and his mom, Vivian Wardian was free to take care of Wardian’s dog.

“I just realized it’s going to be probably a bit slower and I’m going to suffer a bit more than if I chose a cooler day,” says Wardian. But: “If you wait, sometimes things don’t happen.”

While many of Wardian’s running feats have taken him across the globe (in March he set the record for running an off-road trail the length of Israel) he’s also fond of exploring the D.C. region by means of crazy running challenges. In February he beat the record for running the length of the W&OD Trail, 45 miles from Purcellville, Virginia, to Arlington, and last fall he beat a 40-year-old record for the fastest run of the almost 185 mile C&O Canal.

“I’m lucky that I get to explore the world, but I also want to know where I live and get a feel for it,” says Wardian, who lives in Arlington and grew up in Northern Virginia. What better way to get to know the region, than spending nearly 18 hours on (or next to) the Beltway?

“It’s a thing that connects us all,” says Wardian. “Everybody has to deal with it. It’s something we all know and hopefully love.”

Wardian hasn’t run out of ideas for local long-distance runs. Next, he’s thinking about running from his house in Arlington to the beach in Rehobeth, Delaware, where his in-laws live — about 125 miles. At least at the end of that run, he’ll be able to take a dip in the ocean to cool off.

This story first appeared on WAMU.

Previously:
This Arlington Ultramarathoner Keeps Breaking Records