74.5 miles into his ultramarathon, WashU play-by-play announcer Jay Murry was still up to date on WashU’s sports.  

“No, men’s soccer lost,” he said about the game that finished just hours before, back when he was somewhere in the 60-mile range. In the past day, he had taken just one power nap that lasted 22 minutes. Earlier that morning, he may have hallucinated bugs on the glossy green floor, but even after walking for 27 hours, Murry knew the latest WashU news.  

Murry walked 100 miles in the WashU Sumer’s Recreation Center in support of Rett Syndrome, a rare genetic mutation affecting brain development that presents itself mostly in girls. He started on the outdoor track before transitioning indoors as night set in, beginning at 9:36 a.m. on Saturday and finishing on Sunday afternoon. The experience, he said, melded his love of ultramarathon efforts and his fundraising goal to support a cause that he was so passionate about. 

Around mile 16, as the midafternoon sun beamed down on the turf field, Ellie McCool and her caregiver spent time on the track with Murry.  McCool was the inspiration for the fundraiser; the two met at Fort Zumwalt West High School, and Murry was immediately struck by how impactful Rett Syndrome had been both on McCool and her parents’ lives. He was impacted by how the illness completely altered her life and her physical ability to be independent. In the later miles, when things started to get hard and his drive started to waver, he could remember his personal connection with McCool.  

“She’s been through so much more than I could ever think of,” he said in a video posted by WashU Bears in 2018. “She’s the inspiration to keep me going until the end.” 

The analogy Murry used for Rett Syndrome was a Charlie Brown reference: “It’s like Lucy pulling back the football,” he said. Children born with Rett Syndrome don’t initially present symptomatic. But at 12-18 months, the children start to lose skills that they once had. The metaphor of Charlie Brown landing on his back encapsulates the helplessness that the children — and their parents — feel. The non-inherited neurological disorder strips infants of their ability to speak and communicate, forcing them into wheelchairs for the rest of their lives.  

By mile 40, Murry had reached a familiar state of exhaustion, his plantar fasciitis flaring up a bit despite his bright orange Hokas that he’d hoped would keep him blister-free. It takes 10 laps to walk one mile on the Rec Center’s indoor track — students sometimes stroll one mile, maybe two — but never more than 10. Murry was intimately familiar with long-distance treks, having completed years of races prior to 2022. He still had never reached triple digits, though — in previous years, he imposed a 24-hour limit instead of a mile goal, and in 2020, he reached 86 miles before tapping out. That year, he raised $7,065.07. 

There were various logistical considerations that he had to prepare for. His meals took the form of Honey Stinger waffles and premade sandwiches. He has to conserve his phone battery, so his music was on a Walkman with headphones — he brought at least 33 CDs, one for each hour. It was a wide range of artists that he could list, no problem: Billy Idol. Rolling Stones. Dua Lipa. Bruce Springsteen.  

 “It’s music that’s from different parts of my life,” he said.“When I go and run long distances, I can unhitch my fretful mind and kind of drift.”  

By mile 65, Murry had been visited by a stream of WashU student-athletes. Former baseball player John Howard stopped by, also bringing a coffee. Members of the athletics community kept on stopping by, a rotating set of companions to loop the track with their play-by-play announcer. Murry has narrated WashU games for over a decade, and he was used to seeing the athletes in uniform lining up on a start line or running down the field. Now, they walked beside him.  

Still, like a parent asked to single out a favorite kid, he refused to pick a favorite sport to commentate. “It would be unfair to single out one team or one sport,” he said. “I always say that my favorite sport is whatever season it is.”  

Beyond mile 80, the laps started to blend together. He had to keep track of his progress on a clipboard, with sheets that would count the laps in groups of five. One thin line inked across the pages, proof of the thousands of steps that he had taken. 

“Plantar fasciitis became painfully tiresome, and counting laps took a backseat to wonderful conversations among my many guests,” Murry tweeted.  

After the walk, there was food on deck. Then, it was time to get horizontal — after his last overnight walk, he slept for 14 hours. After one day off, Murry will be back to work.  He has to prepare for the men’s basketball matchup against the University of Missouri, and then he’ll announce the high-stakes men’s football matchup against Wheaton College three days later. His voice will stretch over the airwaves, overlooking the site that he circled for hundreds of laps just days before.