Truett Hanes wasn’t planning to race the Knoxville Marathon.
After hammering three straight 20-mile runs earlier in the week — logging 60 miles in three days — he was supposed to rest, reset, and prep for the Boston Marathon. The goal was 140 miles of training, not a bib number.
Then came the call: “You’d probably place top three if you ran Knoxville.”
It was Wednesday. The race was Sunday. The course? Hilly. The opportunity? Too good to pass up.
“I wasn’t going to say no. Racing’s the fun part,” Hanes said on his YouTube channel.
He booked the flight, shut down his training week, and showed up ready to see what his legs still had to give — even if they were cooked.
Let’s address the elephant on the course.
Truett Hanes ran the Knoxville Marathon in real jeans. Not jeggings. Not joggers. Actual denim.
And he wasn’t jogging. He was pushing the pace, shirtless, bib pinned to said jeans, racing for a podium spot.
It was wild. And weirdly impressive.
As if jeans weren’t enough of a challenge, Hanes hit another snag late in the race: his shoe came untied at mile 25.
With less than a mile to go, instead of stopping to tie it, he did what only someone like Truett Hanes would do: he took the shoe off and ran the final stretch with one super shoe and one bare sock.
“It was annoying,” he said. “But I didn’t want to stop with half a mile left. So I just went for it.”
It’s pure Hanes: chaotic, gritty, and absurdly committed. He finished the race holding the shoe in one hand, legs shot, denim soaked, and somehow still strong.
The Data Behind the Madness
Here’s what Hanes endured:
- Distance: 27.05 miles (he got a bit lost somehow)
- Elevation gain: ~1,200 feet
- Avg Heart Rate: 169 bpm
- Max HR: 184 bpm
- Time in Zone 4: 2 hours 8 minutes
- Zone 5: 40 minutes
For comparison, his Austin Marathon PR in February (2:42) had an average HR of just 142 bpm. Knoxville was on another level — and he knew it.
Hanes is chasing a 2025 goal most amateur runners would consider borderline insane: Run 12 marathons this year. PR in one of them. Run sub-2:30.
He’s done 4 already. Knoxville was just part of the climb.
He’s not training with a coach. He’s doing 100 pull-ups, 100 pushups, and full ab circuits every day. Fueling with oatmeal, Ketone IQ, and — occasionally — gas station fish and chips.
It’s not clean. It’s not structured. But somehow it’s working.
There’s no mystery to this. 1. He’s got the perfect brick s***house body for distance running. 2. He’s young.
Must be missing something, since when was being built like a ‘Brick sh?thouse’ the ideal body for distance running?
He can run in jeans if he wants, though he’d be a lot more comfortable in running shorts. But then he wouldn’t be getting articles written about him.
Said it before – Are we supposed to be impressed when he ‘shoots himself in the foot’, gets lost, hasn’t learnt the first lesson that I was taught in my first race ‘Double tie your shoe laces.
David Holmes guzzling hatorade.