National Running Day: Keeping Pace with Gary

On Nation­al Run­ning Day, we fea­ture our very own Gary Hack­mann, ath­let­ic train­er with Quin­cy Med­ical Group (QMG) and long-time run­ner. Over the years, his love of pound­ing the pave­ment has evolved into an incred­i­ble jour­ney of per­son­al growth, explo­ration, and mem­o­rable moments.

Hackmann’s run­ning sto­ry began in high school when he dis­cov­ered cross coun­try in his senior year. How­ev­er, it wasn’t until after col­lege, when he set­tled in Quin­cy, that his pas­sion for run­ning tru­ly took hold.

“I start­ed cross coun­try my senior year in high school, then got out of run­ning dur­ing col­lege,” he shared. ​“After col­lege, I moved to Quin­cy and start­ed doing the Bridge the Gap to Health Race and that’s when I real­ly start­ed get­ting more seri­ous and ded­i­cat­ed to running.”

Run­ning not only serves as a means of exer­cise but also pro­vides Hack­mann with an oppor­tu­ni­ty to take in the sights around him.

“I love to run because it’s a way of explor­ing dif­fer­ent places that I may not see oth­er­wise and I can do it basi­cal­ly any­where with just my run­ning shoes and my music. It’s also a good way to stay phys­i­cal­ly fit,” he said.

But run­ning isn’t just about soli­tary jour­neys for Gary; he enjoys the com­pe­ti­tion as well. ​“I do races because I love to com­pete and col­lect the bling!”

Hack­mann shares that it’s hard to pin­point a sin­gle biggest accom­plish­ment. Instead, he high­lights sev­er­al mem­o­rable moments: win­ning the Bridge the Gap to Health Race half marathon, con­quer­ing a 25k and 15k trail race with water cross­ings and chal­leng­ing hills on back-to-back days, and even com­plet­ing a marathon while injured.

For aspir­ing run­ners, Gary has some valu­able advice. ​“Hav­ing the prop­er attire, such as shoes, socks, and clothes, is impor­tant for suc­cess and injury pre­ven­tion,” he advis­es. ​“And remem­ber, the more con­sis­tent you stay with run­ning, the eas­i­er it will get.”