Born and raised in the small town of Williamsburg, Kentucky, Army Staff Sgt. Chad Terry started running during his sophomore year of high school.
When I asked what got him into it, he responded “that’s the benefit of going to a small school, they take all the athletes they can get.”
Terry then went on to run at Union College from 2010 to 2012 before he joined the Kentucky National Guard.
He commented “I will say it has opened a lot of doors for me. Before I joined, I was kind of stuck trying to figure out what I was going do with my life.”
He finished “Once I got in the Guard, it seemed to point me in the right direction to where I wanted to get in life.”
After joining the Kentucky National Guard, Terry continued to train his passion: Running.
He recently finished the Chicago Marathon, a prestigious world-class race, with a very competitive time of 2 hours, 45 minutes and 6 seconds. That is a 6:18 min pace for each mile!
I asked him about his training for such a high-level race and he had this to say:
“I was just doing 50 miles a week, but this last training block I upped it to 60-80 miles a week ending with 80 at peak week. It was a lot of time taken out. At the end of the day, it was worth it but, what’s the word for it, it was very straining.”
In addition to running, Terry finds enjoyment in his work at the Kentucky Counseling Center, helping new families integrate into the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
When asked if he had any closing remarks, Terry stated that “If you are a Kentucky National Guard Soldier and you like to run long distance, look for Lt. Col. Durham, give him your number, and come and try out for the team.
Terry is currently assigned to the 307th Support Maintenance Company as a Technical Inspector and has served in the Kentucky Army National Guard for over nine years, with most of those years spent in 1-149 IN Battalion as an Indirect Fire Infantryman part of a mortar platoon.