Harvey Sweetland Lewis (born April 1976) is an American ultrarunner.

Early life

Lewis was born in Wheeling, West Virginia and spent much of his childhood in

Berea, Ohio Berea ( ) is a city in Cuyahoga County in the U.S. state of Ohio and is a western suburb of Cleveland. The population was 19,093 at the 2010 census. Berea is home to Baldwin Wallace University, as well as the training facility for the Cleveland ...

Running career

Lewis represented Team USA at the

International Association of Ultrarunners The International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) is the world governing body of ultra running, race events longer than the marathon distance of 42.2 km. It regulates and sanctions the World Championships for various ultramarathon distance ...

(IAU) 24 Hour World Championship in 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2017. Lewis's qualifying run for the 2017 championship was 157.9 miles on September 19, 2015, when he won the NorthCoast 24-Hour Endurance Run in Cleveland, OH. Lewis has competed in well known events such as the

Badwater Ultramarathon The Badwater Ultramarathon describes itself as "the world's toughest foot race". It is a course starting at below sea level in the Badwater Basin, in California's Death Valley, and ending at an elevation of 8360 feet (2548 m) at Whitney Portal ...

Arrowhead Region The Arrowhead Region is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, so called because of its pointed shape. The predominantly rural region encompasses of land area and includes Carlton, Cook, Lake and Saint Louis counties. ...

Ultra and the

Marathon des Sables ''Marathon des Sables'', or MdS, (French for Marathon of the Sands, also known as Sahara Marathon) "Facing Africa NOMA : The Marathon des Sables", FacingAfrica.org, 2010, webpage: -->pages/mds/default.asp FA8. is a six-day, ultramaratho ...

, as well as lesser known endurance events such as the Ultra Gobi, where part of the challenge for the 50 participants is in self-navigating and self-supporting the 400 km course (250 miles) through the Gobi Desert in western China, with temperatures ranging from below freezing to 100 °F. In July 2014, Lewis won the Badwater Ultramarathon near

Death Valley Death Valley is a desert valley in Eastern California, in the northern Mojave Desert, bordering the Great Basin Desert. During summer, it is the Highest temperature recorded on Earth, hottest place on Earth. Death Valley's Badwater Basin is the ...

, CA, in just under 23 hours and 53 minutes. This race is touted as the world's toughest foot race due to extremely hot temperatures and immense elevation changes throughout the course. Six months later near the Canada–US border in International Falls, MN, Lewis tied for second place at the Arrowhead 135. Runners must qualify and apply to compete at Badwater, and only 100 runners are invited each year. In 2014, the field included runners from 25 different countries, including the 2013 winner from Portugal, Carlos Sá. Badwater is cited by

National Geographic Adventure Nat Geo People was an international pay television channel owned by National Geographic Partners, a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company (73%) and the National Geographic Society (27%). Targeted at female audiences, with programming fo ...

as Number 1 for the Top Ten Toughest Races. In the same National Geographic Adventure listing, Arrowhead (referenced above) comes in at Number 7. Lewis has a legacy with the Long Haul 100 Mile trail race in Land-o-Lakes, Florida having won the event on two occasions. He won the 2022 Long Haul 100 Mile with a time of 16:07.24. He also won the 2020 Long Haul 100 with a time of 15:55:19, that year he won by over two hours. He placed second in 2021 with a time of 14:49:07, behind Keith Lundquist. In 2019, he placed third overall with a time of 18:19:29. In October 2023, Harvey broke the Backyard Ultra record by completing 108 laps (450 miles) over five days of running.

Race results

Winner

Winner, Big Dog's Backyard Ultra (450 miles) October 2023 Winner, FANS 24-Hours, Minnesota, June 4, 2022: 148.68 miles Winner, Long Haul 100 (100 Miles) January 2022 Winner, Big Dog's Backyard Ultra (354.16 miles) October 2021 Winner, Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles) 25:50:23 July 2021 Winner, Long Haul 100 (100 Miles) January 2020 Winner, Badwater Ultramarathon (135 miles) 23:52:55 July 2014 Winner, SC24, Spartanburg, SC, March 16, 2014: 154.590 miles Winner, Stone Steps 50K, Cincinnati, OH, Oct. 27, 2013: 4:15:33 Winner, NorthCoast 24-Hour Endurance Run, Cleveland, OH, Sept. 21, 2013: 150.58678 miles Winner, FANS 24-Hours, Minnesota, June 2, 2012: 142.86 miles Winner, Tie Dye 32M, Apr 28, 2012: 4:01:32 Winner, Sulphur Springs 160 km, May 29, 2010: 17:12:37

Course records

Sulphur Springs 100 (Ontario, Canada) on the "old course" at 17:12:37, in 2010. Backyard Ultra, World Record of 108 laps completed (450 miles) over 5 days, October 2023.

Retracing historic marches

In 2008, Lewis earned a grant to retrace the steps of

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (; ; 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948), popularly known as Mahatma Gandhi, was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalist Quote: "... marks Gandhi as a hybrid cosmopolitan figure who transformed ... anti- ...

's famous 1930

Salt March The Salt March, also known as the Salt Satyagraha, Dandi March and the Dandi Satyagraha, was an act of nonviolent civil disobedience in colonial India led by Mahatma Gandhi. The twenty-four day march lasted from 12 March to 6 April 1930 as a di ...

: a nonviolent protest to the salt tax, which had provided a British monopoly resulting in extreme pricing of salt to colonial Indians, who were prohibited to manufacture salt on their own. Gandhi, who started with 80 followers called ''

satyagrahi Satyagraha ( sa, सत्याग्रह; ''satya'': "truth", ''āgraha'': "insistence" or "holding firmly to"), or "holding firmly to truth",' or "truth force", is a particular form of nonviolent resistance or civil resistance. Someone wh ...

s'', or "truth-force," walked 241 miles from his home (the

Harijan Ashram Sabarmati Ashram (also known as Gandhi Ashram) is located in the Sabarmati suburb of Ahmedabad, Gujarat, adjoining the Ashram Road, on the banks of the River Sabarmati, from the town hall. This was one of the many residences of Mahatma Gand ...

) to the coastal city of Dandi, where Gandhi picked up some grains of salt, thereby sparking the civil disobedience movement which eventually led to India's independence. In 2009, Lewis retraced Dr.

Martin Luther King Jr. Martin Luther King Jr. (born Michael King Jr.; January 15, 1929 – April 4, 1968) was an American Baptist minister and activist, one of the most prominent leaders in the civil rights movement from 1955 until his assassination in 1968 ...

's historic Selma to Montgomery march. Lewis also met with the 99-year-old Amelia Boynton Robinson after his run. Robinson (then known as Boynton) was a nonviolent protester who helped organize the 1965 march, and was one of several marchers beaten unconscious by state troopers and county officers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge six blocks from its start. "I believe God kept me alive 99 years so I can share my story with young people," Robinson told Lewis.Curnutte, Mark. "From India to Selma, teacher reruns history." The Cincinnati Enquirer. November 8, 2009.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lewis, Harvey Sweetland Living people American male marathon runners 1976 births People from Berea, Ohio Sportspeople from Cuyahoga County, Ohio