Yahoo Autos A '76 Chevy Van Is Home for a Marathoner Who's Pursuing His Olympic Dream
Colby Mehmen's daily routine is simple: Wake up, run, eat, sleep, work, and do it all again tomorrow. Sounds like the lifestyle of a sponsored pro, but for the 24-year-old reigning Dallas Marathon champ, it is the pursuit of his Olympic Marathon Trials dream-something that he's living out while living in his blue 1976 Chevrolet camper van.
The van has been his home since his fifth year at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas, where he competed on the cross-country and track teams. Prior to that, the Texas native had been good, but never great. Then he met his college teammates, who showed him what it took to compete at a higher level.
This required pushing mileage into the triple digits, starting with 100-mile weeks his freshman year and building up to as much as 150 in a week. The fruits of his labors were there, as he posted his best times in the 10K (29:34) and 5K (14:24). Yet with an option for a fifth year, he decided take his final year off.
Without a scholarship, money would be tight, so he came up with a plan.
"I bought the van and just lived in it for my fifth year," Mehmen said. "But my life was simple: I'd run, get back in the van, change, go to class, eat, and sleep. It was also nice that I had the rec center to shower."
Once college ended, he moved to Houston to be with his then girlfriend. Parking in a Target parking lot, he worked days at a treadmill studio and continued his 100-mile weeks. But after a month, he opted to move back to Dallas, and that's when life forced Mehmen's hand.
"I was there eight months and my girlfriend and I broke up, my grandpa died, I was injured, training wasn't going well, so I decided I needed a change," he says. "So I told my dad I was moving to Boulder."
Dad wasn't thrilled.
"When I told [my dad], he said, 'You're not doing this,' " Mehmen recalled. "The thing was a metal deathtrap, so he helped me fix it."
Soon after replacing parts and making it safe for the long journey to the Rockies, Mehmen packed up Sonic-the name for his blue van, inspired by the video-game character-and hit the road to join the community of "vanlife" nomads in Boulder.
Mehmen's college experience turned out to be a good road map for successful nomadic living. Cooking simple meals-Mehmen shoots for 4500 calories a day with meals like tacos, Cream of Wheat, rice, and barbecued chicken-was easy on his propane stove. When he wasn't running, eating, or sleeping, he was working part time, splitting his time among a running store, coaching online, and his own apparel company, Nomad Running Co.
The only thing lacking in his van-dwelling existence is a fridge, something he is still looking to remedy. Currently, he freezes food in a cooler.
For some, this may be a ludicrous monastic lifestyle of simplicity. For Mehmen, he wouldn't have it any other way.
"It's amazing; I can park near any of my favorite running spots, wake up, and just run them," Mehmen said. "It's an adventure every day. I'm exploring things day in and day out."
Still, this isn't a long-term plan for Mehmen, who pursued a degree in computer information systems. Eventually, he'd like to settle in a brick-and-mortar home, work a regular job, and live a normal life where he can have friends over.
For now, though, Mehmen is content. Pursuing a running career, even though challenging, is something he never imagined possible when he finished high school without a running scholarship. With the van limiting his costs, he can go after that dream.
That currently consists of qualifying for the Olympic Marathon Trials next February. Mehmen is not far off the mark. He broke the tape at the Dallas Marathon in December with 2:22:40, just a few minutes shy of the 2:19 qualifying standard.
Mehmen battled some sickness that day, but was upset that he wasn't able to qualify there. Yet he's far from quitting. His next chance to qualify will come at Grandma's Marathon in June. With little else to worry about right now, Mehmen will continue on in his van, going after his dream.
"Right now, the plan is to run the Trials, and I'm not sure how far I'll take it after that, but [I still have] two or three years left in the van," he said. "I only get one chance to do this in my life, so I'm going to take advantage of it."
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