DC runner has a mission: ‘Running one mile for every day the government is shut down’

A federal contractor D C runner and content creator has been racking up the miles and documenting the shutdown which has now become the longest in U S history as it entered its th day on Tuesday Running long distances is normal for Rob Perez He has run countless races including ultramarathons and -mile races But he didn t know he would be running this much when he set off on his challenge to add a mile to his run for each day the shutdown continued Day was an easy -miler day was nearly a marathon View this post on Instagram A post shared by Rob Perez r oh bee Not only did he add the mileage but the running content creator also gave brief civic lessons during those runs and posted them to social media going viral in D C Running one mile for every day the cabinet is shut down It s day So I ve got miles and in current times I want to break down the idea behind our system and why it s so slow and frustrating to a lot of us Perez can be heard in one of his videos posted to Instagram He has used this challenge to relearn long forgotten civics and governing body lessons and then share that knowledge in a nonpartisan way I needed it to be where in the morning when you wake up when you do your little -second doom scroll I hope you get one little mini civics lesson or politics lesson during that time Perez communicated WTOP Perez mentioned all the stuff he talked about in his videos takes research He would spend an hour every night reading the proposed bills and relearning basic civics on how the cabinet functions and then condense it into an understandable format for his viewers He takes notes and puts them in his phone and when he runs I would reference my note in development I needed to make sure I nailed the talking point because I didn t want to give any misinformation I think that was one of the biggest goals He has discussed the Hatch Act and federal employee involvement in partisan politics soundness care subsidies filibusters and the history of authorities shutdowns Rob Perez has been documenting the shutdown with running and civics lessons Courtesy Rob Perez The challenge and lessons learned have seen overwhelmingly positive feedback according to Perez who explained of the comments are supportive You get the occasional internet troll or someone who s trying to antagonize which is totally fine I ve never felt the need to delete any comments or anything like that because I do want those opinions heard too he disclosed He unveiled that the element of running and his laid-back personality while talking about these basic political science principles have been disarming for majority of viewers Screaming doesn t get people to listen Perez noted adding that viewers liked his level-headed approach They didn t want to turn it off at any point They required more More became quite the challenge for Perez He had to suspend the challenge at day because he was exclusively running out of time in the day to continue running those long distances With a full-time job the added four to five hours of running a day and two-plus hours of research and video editing would keep him up close to midnight He also had other duties such as running multiple marathons including the Baltimore and Marine Corps Marathon He also ran and guided a visually impaired runner at the New York City Marathon this year and wished his legs fresh for that central moment I was spending about seven hours a day It was literally a second job and that doesn t include eating sleeping a little bit of social life Perez reported During this challenge he racked up miles This is not Perez s first time delving into politics His political running began earlier this year during the inauguration He lives in the Chinatown area and decided to run in the days leading up to the inauguration to show what it was genuinely like in the city What a lot of the biggest feedback I got was We re not seeing any of what you just manifested in the news ' Perez stated And that s kind of when a light bulb went off He also ran around D C in August observing the surge of federal police and National Guard in the city Same kind of feedback Hey that s not what we re seeing on the news That s not what is being depicted on either side Each side is kind of focused on their narrative Perez explained While Perez focuses the greater part of his content on running related topics he thinks he will continue his nonpartisan political runs on a weekly basis I want to keep pushing out this information he commented Source