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Ryan Bradberry Photo by Jean Farley

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Surviving a ‘Varmint’ encounter

By JEFFREY SIMMONS/Staff

Thirteen miles—that’s roughly the distance between Rocky Gap and Bland, or Bland and Wytheville. Thirteen miles is how far your Hummer will take you on a gallon of gas. Thirteen miles made Ryan Bradberry wonder if his young life was about to end.
“I thought I was going to die, but I finished,” the 16-year-old Bastian resident said of a foot race he took part in June 14.
Lining up next to 113 other runners on a Saturday morning, Bradberry took part in the Varmint Half Marathon in Burkes Garden.
The 13.1-mile course winds around the picturesque Tazewell County valley often called “God’s Thumbprint.”
“I wanted to show myself I could run that much mileage without having a stroke or something,” said Bradberry, a member of the Bland County Bears cross country and track teams.
Running competitively since last summer, Bradberry tried the much-shorter Varmint 5K (3.1 miles) last June.
He placed second in his age group with a 26-minute finish. He’s since bettered his 5K time to 21 minutes.
The half marathon, though, was another story.
Bradberry finished 109th with a time of 2:39.53. The race winner—29-year-old Nick Whited of Raven—coasted in at 1:22.55. Sixty-year-old Bland County resident R.B. Anderson also finished a few paces ahead of the teen.
According to Bradberry, he didn’t stop running and start walking until he finished about 10 miles of the race – the farthest distance he’d completed previously.
“The sun is what got me,” he said, adding that he grabbed three cups of water at every station along the course. Some runners collapsed at the end, and one man was picked up by ambulance after lying in the grass for several minutes as onlookers applied cold cloths and gave him liquids.
Although he “limped” across the finish line, Bradberry didn’t suffer a similar fate, and helped himself to a bagel, banana and a bunch of junk food to replenish his strength.
He stayed in bed most of the next day.
“I couldn’t move,” he said.
Undeterred by his time or the race’s aftereffects, Bradberry is planning on trying the Varmint again next year to shoot for a faster finish.
A rising Rocky Gap High School junior, he’s also hoping to make it to the cross country regionals when school starts again this fall.
While he’s played other sports, Bradberry said his small frame made him gravitate toward running, a sport in which he could be competitive.
“I’d kind of like to be one of the best runners,” he said.
To that end, he tries to run three or four days a week and rides his bicycle nearly daily.
Along with his high school running goals, Bradberry has his tennis shoes tilted toward completing a triathlon – a competition that combines running, swimming and cycling.
Whether it’s striding along the pavement, participating in 4-H or hunting or fishing, Bradberry, the son of Robert and Cynthia Bradberry, said he thrives on life’s challenges.
“I’m pretty much competitive in everything,” he said.
Jeffrey Simmons can be reached at 1-800-655-1406 or .