Off to the Races

AS SOON AS UP strength trainer Bryant Ferate learned he’d be accompanying the women’s basketball team to Croatia and Greece, he knew he had a once in a lifetime opportunity. A frequent marathoner since 2019, Ferate decided he would run the original marathon—starting in the eponymous Greek city and finishing at the Panathenaic Stadium in Athens.

What he didn’t know was that UP athletes would show up to cheer him on.

On the day of the big run, Ferate woke early and took a 45-minute cab ride from Athens to Marathon. He had the route plugged into his phone. He had trained. He was ready.

As he began, he realized how much more difficult it would be than previous marathons he’d run. The terrain changed from dirt to sidewalk to ditches on the side of the road. And then there was the extreme Greek summer heat. It’s also harder to run a marathon alone.

But the story of the first marathon kept him going. He was running in the footsteps of Pheidippides. It wasn’t supposed to be easy. And with the Olympic Stadium in sight, he had a surprise waiting for him: two members of the women’s basketball team, Emme Shearer ’24 and Florence Dallow ’26, and one coach, Kianna Hamilton ’24, had come to cheer him on. They wanted to be there to celebrate him the way he’d celebrated them in the past. “Ferate is someone who you can feel how much he wants to help you become the person you want to be,” Shearer said. “I think he’s a very inspiring person to be around, very inspiring to be coached by.”

Ferate has been with UP Athletics since 2016. His role revolves around performance training, with a focus on strength and conditioning. He works with women’s basketball, men’s soccer, baseball, and men’s cross country and track. He also hosts a podcast that explores the psychology of health and performance. Ferate’s focus is on helping student-athletes grow holistically, and it’s a pursuit he practices for himself as much as he preaches. He is driven by the Japanese concept of “misogi,” which involves overcoming arduous challenges through mental and physical discipline.

Embracing this idea, Ferate hoped to enter the upper echelon of marathon runners by finishing the Portland Marathon in under three hours. It was one of the hardest athletic feats Ferate has strived for, and he felt the Athens marathon had prepared him. Deep into that race, another Pilot—baseball alum Jack Holcroft ’22,’24, UP’s all-time lead hitter and current assistant coach—came to help motivate Ferate at a pivotal point.

Holcroft knew Ferate’s goal, and he ran alongside him, encouraging him to keep pushing himself. Ferate made it with 37 seconds to spare, finishing in two hours, 59 minutes and 23 seconds. At the finish line, he found a group of fierce supporters, including Shearer, Dallow, and Hamilton.

For athletes like Shearer and Holcroft, it’s easy to be there for someone like Ferate; they know he would do that same for them. He has done that for them during their athletic careers on The Bluff.

Nothing Ferate has done has happened in isolation. The running, training, and everything he does to help UP athletes achieve their own goals—all of it happens as a community. “We’re doing this together,” he said.