The life of Terry Hitchcock could be deemed almost ordinary, until he decided to run for 75 days.

Hitchcock, alum of the University, decided to bring attention to every day heroes; the single parents. He accomplished this by running 75 marathons in 75 days, from St. Paul to Atlanta, arriving in time for the opening ceremony of the Olympics in 1996.

Hitchcock became a single parent in 1985 when his wife, Sue, who also attended the University, died after a 14-month battle with breast cancer.

‘I found out that single parents are treated differently,’ he said.

This was the thought which started Hitchcock on his marathon journey.

‘In 1994 I was sitting with my kids, talking about life, and talking about how I wanted to give back and make a difference,’ he said.

He was then reminded of one of his heroes, Terry Fox, an 18-year-old Canadian who lost his leg to cancer and decided to try and run across Canada to raise money for cancer research.

‘About half of the way across, he had chest pains,’ Hitchcock said. ‘It turns out the cancer that took his leg was now in his lungs and spine.’

Fox was able to raise over 24 million dollars for cancer research, and that amount has grown to nearly 500 million dollars that has been raised in his name in marathons held every year in his name.

Hitchcock wanted to do something similar for his own cause.

‘I wasn’t a runner, I’ve never run a marathon,’ he said. ‘I’m ‘old as dirt’ as they say, and it’s much better to be running a marathon when you’re 20 than 57.’

Hitchcock then relied on his education as a business graduate from the University. He said even though he was not a runner, he was a businessman, able to market himself and get the attention for his cause through the media.

‘I thought if I got on the highway, people would care,’ he said. ‘The marathon part was just an added part of it.’

While getting ready for the marathon, Hitchcock went through four trainers, and then trained for 17 months with somebody he thought was well suited for him.

‘Unlike the other four I interviewed, he said ‘I’m going to teach you how to climb the highest mountain and never give up,” he said.

Halfway through the training, Hitchcock even had a heart attack and did not mention it to his trainer until a year ago, just saying that he was on vacation during that time. And then the marathons themselves became difficult.

‘Both my ankles became fractured halfway down, my left kneecap became fractured,’ he said. ‘I still can’t believe I did it.’ It was also not only stressful physically but mentally as well. When starting the marathons Hitchcock started with six team members, including his oldest son Chris. After 30 days the team quit to go back and be with their families or to complete other obligations.

‘It was much more than a physical run,’ he said. ‘It’s a spiritual run and a mental run because what I was doing to my body and mind.’

After he finished, Hitchcock wrote a book to help other single parents with the struggle, titled, ‘A Father’s Oddessy: 75 Consecutive Marathons in 75 Consecutive Days,’ for which all proceeds go to three different charities including breast cancer, diabetes and Aspbergers syndrome.

Along with the release of his book, his story was recently made into a documentary film featuring Billy Bob Thornton as the narrator. The story is the life of Hitchcock’s ‘megamarathon’ to help bring light to the fact that almost 23 million kids come home to a single parent household, according to the movie’s Web site www.myrunmovie.com.

Tim VandeSteeg, the director and producer of the film, heard Hitchcock’s story and met him in 2004.

‘I really enjoyed hearing what an inspiritational story he had,’ he said. ‘It has that kind of rocky kind of Seabiscuit feel of you may feel down but never out.’

The film, My Run, debuted in LA and will make its World Premire in October at the Austin Film Festival.

VandeSteeg lived in Minnesota along with Hitchcock but then moved to LA to make the movie, which took over three years to make.

‘It’s a real labor of love story,’ he said.

VandeSteeg said it was a real pleasure to work with Thornton on the picture.

‘He’s the greatest guy,’ he said. ‘He helped us out so much.’

My Run will not only be featuring Thornton as the narrator, but also featuring him musically with a number in the movie by his band titled ‘Every King Wears a Crown.’

The documentary is now in the works of being made into a feature film which will come out 2010-2011. The screenplay has been written and actors Robin Williams and William Macey were talked to about the film, Hitchcock said.

‘I look back now and I don’t know how I did it,’ he said. ‘My grandfather [who raised me] said there’s nothing in life you can’t accomplish, don’t let anybody ever take your dream away from you. I thought of this a lot throughout my journey.’