Kansas City Marathon: Grappling with tragedy, ‘Human Etch A Sketch’ inspires others
Deployed in southwest Asia, Rik Zortman can’t quite be here in person Saturday for the Kansas City Marathon.
But his spirit of healing through despair will loom over it when he runs the half marathon virtually as part of a perpetual tribute to his infant son, Armstrong, who died from brain cancer in 2009.
The grieving that led him to running ultimately also became a beacon for others as Zortman morphed into the so-called Human Etch A Sketch: Since it occurred 13 months ago to the Iowa native and diehard Royals fan to use the GPS on his phone to map out an approximately seven-mile route to spell ARMSTRONG, he has charted and run the names of more than 600 others he sought to comfort, commemorate or otherwise honor.
No wonder his surname just autocorrected to “Superman” on my cell phone.
“It’s a way to spread the names (and awareness) to others,” he said, adding that his goodwill spotlight for each always extends to all those with the same name. “All the names have some sort of meaning to somebody.”
And he’s only just begun. Given the time-zone difference, perhaps even as we type this the number is growing. Because just about whenever he’s not working, it seems, Zortman is at it, zig by zag, morning and night. The staff sergeant from the 132d Wing in Des Moines currently serving with the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing has rendered nearly 200 such salutes from base since arriving in July.
He’s also navigated declarations like USA on July 4 and NEVER FORGET on Sept. 11 and I WON’T BACK DOWN after Tom Petty died and CHOOSE KINDNESS to support National Bullying Prevention Month and a big question, WILL YOU MARRY ME?, to his now-wife, Kellie.
But it’s the personal acknowledgement of those in distress, including families of those who died for our country, that is his most essential mission — along with raising awareness of childhood cancer.
“Some of them are people fighting cancer, some are people in remission,” he said, speaking via Facebook messenger Tuesday night. “I would say of the 611 names, at least half, if not 60 percent, are names of kids fighting cancer.”
Sometimes, it’s for people he knows who have suffered loss or need a morale boost. Often, it’s on behalf of strangers he’s either read about or, now, that reach out to him. Or for any number of other reasons.
During football season, for instance, each week he normally pays homage to the University of Iowa Kid Captain — current and former UI Stead Family Children’s Hospital patients such as Christopher Turnis this week.
In April when he came here to run the Garmin half marathon, Zortman was asked to run the name of 4-year-old Teig Harris, who was in remission from a rare form of cancer, rhabdomyosarcoma. Zortman instead had the notion to set up a run/walk the day before the race. An estimated 30 to 50 people — including Teig and her family — showed up to walk out TEIG on the Olathe South parking lot.
“Rik does an amazing job of bringing children’s cancer to the public consciousness,” Teig’s father, Al Harris, said by email, noting that Teig remains cancer-free but is contending with the impact of her radiation and chemo treatments.
The common denominator in all this is that his recognitions always come from the soul, fueled by Armstrong and passed on by letting people know through social media and the pattern he creates on his Relive app that they were the inspiration for the day’s run.
Or runs, as the case typically is, in what he now likes to think of as “GPS artistry” after refining some initial routes that he joked sometimes made his lines look like he was running drunk.
In the pursuit now, he still gets double-takes from people wondering what he’s doing as he backtracks or runs through rubble or stops to check how he’s conforming to the route on his phone … wherever in the world he might be.
Through searing heat and dust storms or whatever the condition is, at night when the lights provide a shadow, as of earlier this week he had run 95 days in a row on this deployment. In that span, he sketched 100 names in September alone by running multiple times a day en route to his goal of 2018 miles this year.
That’s about what he will have to do to keep up with increasing requests. As his desire to inspire has gained momentum with national attention from Runner’s World magazine and ESPN, Zortman has gotten somewhat backlogged. Some 50 people are on his standby list now.
Even so, he wants you to know that you can request names on his Facebook page, Instagram (@humanetchasketch), Twitter (@packerfan1973) or by going to www.runforarmstrong.com to send him a private email.
His system for choosing a name is random, in a sense. He doesn’t do them in any particular order, sometimes because of time constraints or soreness making a choice based on length of name and difficulty of execution.
Funny thing is, though, it’s not unusual for him to hear from someone he just happened to run for that day who’ll say, “You have no idea how bad I need this today.”
As it happens, of course, he always has an idea. Because of Armstrong, the youngest of five children.
The fun-loving, blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy “had a smile that would melt your heart” and could brighten anyone’s day. Shattered and lost, a divorce ahead amid the shared agony, Zortman sought solace trying to channel Armstrong’s passions.
Among them: He loved the cartoon about the adventurous Diego, “Go Diego Go!” And he loved to run.
Zortman hadn’t been a runner, but he found sanctuary in it — and a sense of companionship with Armstrong, with whom he’d have conversations then as now.
Soon, he ran a 5K, then in 2010 he ran his first half marathon, Rock the Parkway in Kansas City, where he has run numerous times. The two-time marathoner will be running his 30th half marathon this weekend.
As for the Diego part? Without even exactly realizing it, Zortman has been siphoning that, too.
“That’s kind of a weird little sentiment that I’ve never really thought about before, but it’s true. Because (Diego) pretty much goes all over,” said Zortman, who has sketched names in 10 or 11 states and for people from several other countries in addition to all he’s doing overseas. “So I’m kind of like the real-life Diego; I just go out and explore the world and wherever I go I do races and run in that town.”
Among his goals when he returns from this six-month deployment is to travel the nation visiting children’s hospitals to tell his story. He also hopes to sketch a name in every state.
With one name driving it all — providing Zortman’s salvation as well as reassurance to others that they’re not alone. When he talks to Armstrong now, Zortman says he asks “about all the other angels that I run for.”
“He’s there,” Zortman said, “every step of the way for me.”
Including every step of the Kansas City half marathon from afar.
About the Kansas City Marathon
When/where: Starts 7 a.m. Saturday at Crown Center.
Expected participants: Some 9,500 across the full marathon, half marathon, 10K and 5K.
About the race: The 26.2-mile course tours some of the city’s favorite landmarks, including the National World War I Museum and Memorial, Country Club Plaza, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Westport and 18th & Vine.
More info: sportkc.org/marathon.
Vahe Gregorian
Vahe Gregorian is a Kansas City Star sports columnist.
This story was originally published October 18, 2018 at 5:20 PM.