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Longtime local teacher Mark Jimenez recently retired from coaching cross country at Shadow Ridge High School after nine years and three state championships. If that sounds like a career worth celebrating, it’s probably important to point out that for most of those successful coaching years, Jimenez was also operating Red Rock Running Company, one of the Valley’s most popular running stores, and expanding its footprint and impact on the community.
That deserves a celebration as well, but last week, on February 8, Jimenez and the RRRC team threw a party for a different reason. That was the day the 44-year-old hit the mark of 3,000 consecutive days of running.
Don’t worry, he’s not planning on retiring from running anytime soon. Or probably ever. “It’s one of the best things you can do for yourself,” Jimenez says. “I tell people when they start running that it’s going to suck for two weeks, or maybe a month, and then something happens along the way and it turns into something beautiful. It’s social, it’s personal, and it can be something different to everybody. For me, it’s a way to let my mind go, and let things come to me.”
The Weekly recently caught up with Jimenez—which was easier than we thought, since he’s always running—to learn about his impressive running journey.
How did this begin?
I went to Western High School and joined the track and cross country team, but I was not very good at it. The team would do a 5k, 3.1 miles, and I heard, “We’re running a bajillion miles.” After I graduated college, I gained a lot of weight. On my 29th birthday, when LVAC [Las Vegas Athletic Club] had opened up and I’d signed up for a membership but never gone, I was getting dressed and looked in the mirror and thought, I’ve got four kids, if I don’t make a change, I’m not going to see them graduate high school. I weighed over 240 pounds. So I went to the gym that day, they scanned my card and said, “Happy birthday,” and that kind of started my journey. I ran on elliptical machines a lot, and one day a friend suggested we do a half-marathon, and I laughed, but he kept asking.
How did your routine evolve into this incredible streak?
It was social to me. I wanted to do the best I could, but I never had goals like qualifying for the Boston Marathon or anything like that. I started doing triathlons and had some fun with that, and it was actually at the Ironman Arizona triathlon in 2017 or 2018 where I had an injury and I did not finish the race. I could swim okay, but riding really hurt. I was so bummed after that, I got home and told myself I was going to run every day that week. I did that, then decided to try every day that month, and did it. It turned into a habit. I’ve struggled with mental health for a long time and always found that running was the best medication for me, better than any antidepressant I could take. If I start with a run, the rest of my day goes better.
You were teaching high school math when you decided to buy the Red Rock store. What was that new experience like, and what has it been like to connect with the local running community in a different way?
Red Rock Running Company just turned 20 years old last month and we’ve had it seven of those years. It’s been a blast. When I bought the store I didn’t know anything about running a small business, and for many years I still taught high school and ran the store. And it grew—we had two stores when we bought it, in 2019 we moved the original location to the Centennial shopping center, in 2022 we opened a third store in the southwest, in 2023 we remodeled the Henderson location and doubled its size, and it 2024 we opened the fourth store in North Las Vegas. It’s been so much work but very rewarding, especially when you get a five-star review [online] that says, “This changed my life,” or “They treated me so good.” You get to see how you’re making a difference in the community, just helping Vegas be healthier.
Are Vegas runners extra tough because they train through the hot summer?
When we first bought the store, I was concerned about the seasonality of our business; I didn’t know what it would look like in the summertime. But we continue our group runs through the summer and there’s a weird sense of camaraderie for people who are suffering together. We start at 6 p.m. [in the summer] and make sure everybody’s got hydration, check on each other. And we try to educate about when it’s a safe time to get started. Our bodies do an amazing job of adapting to the heat.
Now that you’ve hit 3,000 days, what’s next? Do you still have personal running goals?
I realize at some point this is going to stop. I’m getting older and injuries will happen, but I’ve been very lucky. It’s a fun thing to talk about through the lens of owning the store, but when I meet new people, I don’t lead with that. They might think I’m crazy. But when they find out, they ask that question about goals, and all I can say is everybody does something they enjoy every day—reading the paper, playing video games. To me it’s just something I enjoy doing.
I’ve done [the marathon in] Boston twice, I’ve done Chicago. People ask if I want to do the other World Majors—and there are seven now—but I don’t have that bug. If it happens, that’s great, but I’m not chasing it. Funny enough, I am doing Tokyo and London this spring, two marathons across the world in six weeks, which is hectic but should be fun. To me it’s more like a vacation where I can see another part of the world and do a 26-mile tour of the city. I just want to travel and have fun and see what different cultures are like.
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