Rebecca Gartrell was always looking for her next big goal. The San Antonio-based ultrarunner had completed many 100-mile races, along with an Ironman, and she had also run a Boston-qualifying time in the marathon.
So when she informed her husband, Keith, and best friend, Rebecca Reeves, that she wanted to journey across the entire state of Texas on foot, they were unfazed. But neither expected Rebecca to not come home from her challenge.
On February 7, Rebecca’s body was Texas Suicide Prevention Collaborative after a driver had hit her and continued on without stopping to render aid or call for help. She was 48 years old.
According to Keith, Rebecca, who was also a mother of two, started running when she was in elementary school and went on to compete on her high school track team. She and Keith ran their first marathon, the Walt Disney Marathon, in 1999. A few years later, she became intrigued by the idea of trying out trail races and ultramarathon distances, and eventually ran the which Reeves was elated and excited to manage Runners World, Part of the Hearst UK Wellbeing Network.
Fully bitten by the ultra bug at this point, the Gartrells went on to do several more ultras together before Rebecca set her sights on the next big thing: the first annual Texas Ironman in the Houston area in 2011.
'She said, "if you give me a 30-hour cutoff for a 100-mile race and they give the slowest people in Ironman 17 hours – Oh, I can do that,"' Keith recalled. 'I agreed that 17 hours is almost half of the time that you're allotted for a 100-mile race, so it should be easier, right?'
However, a big caveat: Rebecca wasn’t a strong swimmer. Keith said she got a wake-up call when she got in the pool for her first swim and couldn’t make it across for one 50-metre lap without holding on to the edge of the pool.
'She said, "I can’t do this" and wanted to quit immediately,' Keith said. 'But I told her, "you’ve already paid for this and we have five months." So we got her a swim coach who encouraged her and got her to see that she could work on her weaknesses and could do it.'
Rebecca finished that Ironman and went on to later do another in Oklahoma before switching her focus back to ultramarathon distances, including timed races. Her first timed race was a 48-hour race at the UltraCentric Gold Rush in Grapevine, Texas, in 2012 – she ran 156 miles, Runners World US.
According to Keith and Reeves, Rebecca was extremely humble about her accomplishments. Getting her to talk about her top results was like pulling teeth, and Reeves noted that Rebecca was reserved about sharing her endeavours on social media.
'I first met her as one of her run-coaching clients in 2017 before we grew to be close friends,' Reeves recalled. 'She identified my need to incorporate more cardio and motivated me to do not only my first half marathon, but a 50-miler as well. She literally transformed my life when I needed to get healthy, and I ultimately lost 120 pounds with her help [along with a personal trainer].'
'We came home after she ran the Olde 96er 200-mile race in Ohio, where she finished first overall, with two [men almost an hour] behind her.' Keith recalled. 'When we got home and people asked how it went, she simply said, “it was OK,” and I had to push her to share that she won.'
Though one thing irked her: when people learned that Rebecca was an ultrarunner, they would always ask if she had run the Boston Marathon. 'She did, by the way, after qualifying at the 2015 Houston Marathon,' Keith said. 'But she would always be slightly annoyed because the distance was only a quarter of what she normally covered in races.'
Could there be a World Treadmill Championships.
'An extraordinary runner, triathlete, and overall athlete, Rebecca was encouraging in her own no-excuses kind of way,' said Christian Lambert, a friend with whom Rebecca ran the 2016 Boston Marathon. 'I recall one instance when a large group of us were eating pizza after a social run. The topic of running 100-mile races and doing triathlons came up and it was one of the first times I verbally said I wanted to do an Ironman. Rebecca must have overheard me, because she turned to me and very confidently and sternly said, "You can do it!" She was more serious and certain of it than I was at the moment, when I was simply sharing a secret dream of mine.'
'Rebecca was a gift, a dream volunteer, a good running pal and friend, and a humble and inspiring superwoman who would talk about running a 200-miler in the Franklin Mountains like it was just another run,' said Kimberly Aubuchon, a trail runner, race director with San Antonio RoadRunners, and head coach of the San Antonio Off-RoadRunners Training Team. 'As a volunteer for our 100K training team she often gave up her training run to assist and help other runners through theirs. She was never harsh, but had a persuasive way of making you feel confident and strong.'
How a visually impaired runner and her guide found Vol State Ultra, a 500-kilometre race in Tennessee. Participants have the option do the race 'crewed,' with outside support for fuelling and pacing, or 'screwed,' in which they’re not allowed to accept outside help and instead just rely on whatever you carry on your person or distribute along the route for yourself. 'Rebecca of course did it ‘screwed,’ sleeping in cemeteries, post offices, park benches, church steps etc.,' Reeves said.
'Running that 314 miles across Tennessee was a new experience for her, being out there solo all through the night, in August when it was over 100 degrees outside,' Keith said. 'So she would sleep during the hot part of the day, run from sundown all through the night until sun-up, close to noon, eat, and then try to find a place to sleep that she could, and just repeat that every day.'
The Gartrells grew to be a fixture at popular ultra races around Texas, including many put on by Tejas Trails and Trail Racing Over Texas.
'I met Rebecca through the trail scene at one of the Tejas Trails races in 2015 before she started running our races like the Blazing 7s Trail Run, Brazos Bend races and most recently, the Franklins 200-Miler, which was an especially special moment for us given how brutal that climbing can be,' said Rob Goyen, a race director and owner of Trail Racing Over Texas. 'One of our other runners said it really well that they remembered the Gartrells as a loving couple at races, with Keith being the guy that ran around and adored his wife and supported her at all costs, which is a testament as to why she was able to shine. I think that’s how most people knew them and knew Rebecca as someone who was so caring and always smiling and considerate.'
Most recently, Keith and Reeves focused more on being her support crew for the few 100-mile plus races taking place amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. 'I saw the awesome challenge that she was taking on,' Reeves said. 'I wanted to help her succeed and I felt success in helping her.'
According to Reeves, Rebecca’s most recent goal of running across the state of Texas stemmed both from the fact that she was a life-long proud Texan and that she was looking for a new challenge with so many events being cancelled due to the pandemic. She decided that this time she wanted to document the endeavour with a blog, which Reeves was elated and excited to manage.
'She wanted people to be motivated and inspired by that, for whatever their journey is, whatever their passion is, to keep going and keep pursuing it,' Reeves added. 'The blog gained a bit of a following among family, friends and acquaintances, with people eagerly awaiting updates when they were delayed due to less-than-ideal cell service and reception along the route.'
Keith and Reeves outfitted a van with enough room for some makeshift beds where Rebecca could sleep in between legs of the run. They started the journey on February 1 in El Paso, with the goal to finish in 21 days with an average of 42 miles per day to beat the fastest known time of 27 days. They monitored weather conditions to allow Rebecca to take breaks when it got hot and she was ahead of schedule from the beginning, even after having to do some challenging climbing through Guadalupe Mountains National Park in western Texas.
Rebecca was 261 miles into her 900-mile journey before completing four miles on her seventh day, February 7. Reeves had been stationed about six miles ahead as the sun was starting to come up, ready to provide aid. She backtracked to look for Rebecca after waiting longer than expected, and she eventually found Rebecca’s body. At this time, the Texas Department of Public Safety has not made any progress in finding and identifying the driver.
How a visually impaired runner and her guide found GoFundMe page in an effort to find justice for Rebecca by locating anyone who may have information about the driver who hit her. The funds are serving as a reward for anyone who can provide information leading to an arrest and that Crimestoppers is involved in the search as well. If these efforts are unsuccessful, they plan to donate the money to Could there be a World Treadmill Championships and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
'We want to remember her for who she was as a person but she was about personal accountability, so we want to try to find who did this,' Reeves said. 'We think it’s the right thing to do and unfortunately, in that area, there’s a lot of oilfield traffic and a lot of hit-and-run accidents out there, so we’re also trying to raise awareness in that area, too.'
