Courtesy Jonathan Basalyga // Hearst Owned

As far back as he can remember, Jonathan Basalyga has always loved to run. The 53-year-old from Atlanta fondly recalls being one of the fastest kids in his elementary school. As he got older, pounding the pavement was his preferred way to get to and from his friends’ houses. “My childhood consisted of a lot of running and a lot of movement,” he says. “Early on, my mind associated running with a level of freedom .”

But life caught up to him, and running fell by the wayside in his 20s as he prioritized starting a family and a career in sales—until a colleague asked if he wanted to train for a marathon . Basalyga was living in Maryland at the time, and ran the 2005 Baltimore Marathon—his first attempt at the distance—in 4:52.…