Running ‘caveman-like,’ he’ll surpass 8,750 miles (half marathon a day) at Miami Marathon
Mika Shevit has never run an official organized half marathon.
But the longtime Sunny Isles Beach resident has spent the past 663 days, most of them beginning in the dark at 4 a.m., running a GPS-documented 13.1-mile half marathon distance — as of Monday an 8,685-mile feat that began April 1, 2021, and will be extended to 669 days and nearly 8,764 miles on Sunday at the Life Time Miami Marathon and Half Marathon.
“I just run like a beast — caveman-like,’’ said Shevit, 48, an upbeat, affable, loquacious real estate agent who at 6-3, a muscular 225 pounds with giant hands and size 14 shoes, is not your typical distance runner. “I have no rituals, I’m not scientific, don’t take supplements, eat whatever I want, never get injured and never get sick. My recovery is instantaneous.’’
He’s not alone.
Helen Ryvar, a 42-year-old single mother of three, is a self-employed cleaner in Wales of the United Kingdom. By 7 a.m. daily she has run more than 25,000 steps, and by the end of the day after cleaning “big farm houses” has reached about 50,000 to approach the 26.2-mile marathon distance. Already the female world-record holder for running a half marathon for 111 consecutive days, Ryvar started another streak at Shevit’s urging and will stretch that to 274 days —3,589 miles — running alongside Shevit on Sunday.
Count Shevit and his long-distance buddy Ryvar — they communicate through social media and have never met in person — are two of the oddities, but ultimately inspiring worldwide running community members known for some sort of extraordinary achievement or streak.
“Mika and I have been chatting for almost a year,’’ said Ryvar, who usually finishes her half marathons in about two hours (give or take 15 minutes) and runs about five hours ahead of Shevit because of the time difference. Shevit finishes his runs in about 1:45 to 1:53. A two-hour half marathon pace is 9 minutes 9 seconds per mile. A 1:45 pace: 8 minutes 1 second.
“It’s a virtual thing but we help each other keep going,’’ Ryvar said. “It’s like a game of chess. You play your piece, I play my piece. He’s like a bulldozer that keeps going. I’m looking forward to my family meeting his family, and I’m excited about seeing Miami for the first time.
“We’re not obsessed,’’ she added, when the word was mentioned during a Miami Herald interview. “‘Obsessed’ is kind of a strong word. I would say I’m committed. I’m a Leo, a lion, fierce and proud. If I commit to something, I do it. That’s just how I roll.’’
Running sensations
The sold-out Life Time Miami Marathon and Half Marathon, which was capped at 18,000 registrants and has its 21st running at 6 a.m. in front of the Miami-Dade Arena on Biscayne Boulevard, has a history of running sensations. Among them: a commercial pilot who ran marathons on all seven continents, including over a glacier in Antarctica; South Floridian Dennis Marsella, known as Coatman, who has run hundreds of marathons in a coat and dress shoes; a 71-year-old man who completed 1,604 total marathons and a world-record 239 in one year; a man who ran 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days; a 36-year-old who ran 151 miles over seven days across the Sahara Desert with heat rising to 135 degrees, cold plummeting into the 30s at night and the desert dunes hiding scorpions and snakes.
Judging by those folks, Shevit and Ryvar seem relatively normal.
Shevit is married to Andrea, who was born in Brazil and licensed to teach Zumba (promoted as a fitness program that involves “Latin-inspired dance’’). They have a 14-year-old daughter Julia and 17-year-old son Ryan.
“People think he’s amazing, but it took a long time to build up to this,’’ Ryan said. “My friends think he’s buff — and intimidating. The streak gives him a lot of pride.’’
Ryvar, who arrives in Miami on Friday with her 16-year-old daughter India and 14-year-old twins Marcus and Persia, is a widow who came closest to ending this second streak about a week from hitting her 100th consecutive half marathon. She got the phone call that her sick father was failing, and by the time she reached the hospital a couple hours later, “he had passed.’’
“The next day I ran and it was excruciating,” Ryvar said. “It was raining and the water was mixed with my tears. I was upset, grieving, angry, beating myself up for not being there.”
But she still finished, and the running, as usual, became cathartic.
Shevit’s close call
The closest Shevit came to ending his current streak, though he insists “it was never an option,’’ was on Day 77, the morning after he had his second Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. Shivering from “cold chills,’’ feeling as bad as he ever has during a run, he said “it took an out-of-body experience” to push through the pain.
An out-of-body experience and his mother.
Shevit called his mother Ester, who lives on another floor in the same condo, at about 5:30 a.m. and implored her to meet him at Mile 8 near a CVS with Gatorade.
“I told her I was in a bad way,’’ Shevit said. “She got in her car, drove to the local CVS and was there with the Gatorade. Probably five times she got in that car and proceeded down Collins Avenue to meet me with more Gatorade. She’s a wonderful lady. I was thinking, ‘When is this misery going to end?’ And she just wanted to make sure her baby was OK.”
Ester Shevit, 74 and a daily beach-walker, said she wasn’t nervous when she got the call because “5:30 isn’t so early for us.”
“We’re all early risers in this family,’’ she said. “We do the most important things early. I understand it’s a big effort and he’s putting stress on his body. But he’s a happy person, so what do I know about what’s right for someone else? He was always an easy child. I’m telling you, when he was a little boy he’d giggle in his sleep. And he has grown up to be a hard-working, happy man.
“What do I know? I’m just his mother.’’
How it began
Shevit grew up in Long Island, graduated from Jericho High School in Nassau County, where he played baseball, basketball and football, and graduated from the University of Miami in 1996. He never left. He said he has been lifting weights pretty much since he was a teenager, but when he was about “39 or 40 got sort of sloppy and out of shape.’’
“I went to New York to visit friends and they barely recognized me, like, ‘Mika, what happened?’’’
Shevit, who was 265 pounds, began to run, and said he could barely go a mile. “I felt my belly flopping up and down,’’ he said. “I could hardly breathe. I realized I had to take control of the second half of my life.’’
It took him several years to work to the point of being able to do the half marathon distance daily. His first attempt at a streak about three years ago ended on day No. 75 when he got shin splints. His second attempt also ended on Day 75 when he strained his right quadriceps. He began again on that April Fool’s Day in ‘21 and said he has been injury-free ever since.
He starts his runs in front of his condo and has “eight or nine” different routes, including heading north on Collins Avenue to the Hollywood Broadwalk and back, or south to Surfside and Miami Beach and back. With a half mile to go, Shevit breaks out his Starbucks app and orders a 31-ounce “Trenta” cold brew “with eight pumps of white mocha and whole milk,’’ he said, “so it’s waiting for me when I finish. I get ice water, too. It’s beautiful.’’
Diet-wise, Shevit said he eats anything he wants, and a lot of it. “I can eat a whole pizza,’’ he said. “But the only diet rule I have is I stop eating at 5 p.m.’’
He’s asleep by 9 p.m. or 9:30 p.m., sets his alarm for 3:30 a.m. and is out the door at 4 without stretching or taking any supplements. “If I wanted to, I could literally lie down in the middle of Collins Avenue with no problem,’’ he said. “That’s how empty it usually is at that time — except for Jan. 1 when I was passing people with champagne bottles. The police officers know me and sometimes give me siren lights just to say hello, like ‘Hey, What’s up?’ It’s wonderful.’’
Honored by city
The City of Sunny Isles Beach, population 22,342, has honored Shevit twice for his running feats. The most recent occasion was when he reached Day 365 and was greeted at the finish line by city commissioners and friends and family. Shevit was presented with a certificate acknowledging his accomplishment.
City commissioner Jeniffer Viscarra read a statement prepared by commissioner Alex Lama, who was out of town at the time but has been friends with Shevit since their children played youth soccer together. “Now, instead of saying, ‘Be like Mike,’ in Sunny Isles Beach we say ‘Be like Mika,’’’ Viscarra proclaimed.
“He’s so humble and so grateful, the nicest guy,’’ Viscarra told the Herald. “He just keeps going, and that’s a beautiful example for all of us.’’
Said Lama: “He’s incredible. You’re talking about a span of almost two years running a half marathon every day. Some days you don’t feel well, maybe you have a cold, maybe you ate something that didn’t sit well. Just amazing and super cool.’’
‘He’s legitimate’
Though Sunday’s event will be Shevit’s first half marathon with thousands of fellow participants, he has run 10 full marathon races — five in Miami and the others in Fort Lauderdale — before the streak began. He said his best time was 3:59:26 in Fort Lauderdale.
“Every day I battle with this distance,’’ he said. “But the course is spectacular. You see the cruise ships go by, the sun go up, the melting pot of South Beach. Helen will get the greatest tour ever of Miami.’’
Miami Marathon co-founder and race director Frankie Ruiz, 44, heard about Shevit awhile back when told about his streak. They have run a 5K together.
“I looked him up on Strava, the social media site where avid runners and endurance athletes log their mileage and daily runs,’’ Ruiz said. “I said, ‘No way this guy is doing this every day.’ I dug into it harder. He’s legitimate. He has 300, 400 people giving him kudos on Strava. With the GPS and sweaty photos and course-mapping [electronically], it’s hard to cheat these days.
“He’s not just walking a half marathon or shuffling his feet,’’ Ruiz continued. “This guy is doing full-on 9-minute miles. Your body definitely has to be built for it. Most people wouldn’t roll out of bed and commit to doing that every day.’’
There is no documented Guinness men’s world record for most consecutive days running a half marathon, but Shevit will own it when he eventually stops and turns in his documentation.
Two months ago, Shevit decided he would end his streak at 1,000 days — on Dec. 26, 2023. Now, he’s reconsidering.
“Who knows?’’ he said. “I might not stop. I feel really great.’’
This story was originally published January 23, 2023 at 12:41 PM.
