An ultramarathon helped a Cleveland school get a new gym

Neither time Larry Orwin started the Badwater Ultramarathon did he cross the finish line. All the same, there’s no question his effort was a success. 

That’s because Orwin, a resident of Chagrin Falls, ran on behalf of Breakthrough Schools at Woodland Hills. Combined, his attempts raised $250,000, enough to empower the Cleveland charter school to build a gym.

“I wanted to figure out a way to give back,” said Orwin, a Google retiree and longtime runner who now serves on the board of directors of Friends of Breakthrough Public Schools. “For me, this was a rare opportunity to merge two passions.” 

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Orwin’s odyssey spanned more than two years and close to 150 miles. 

In 2022, on his first attempt at the grueling, 135-mile race, which takes place in California’s Death Valley and finishes on Mt. Whitney, Orwin fell short of a time benchmark and had to withdraw. The second time, in 2024, he made it all the way to mile 118 before developing a condition known as runner’s lean, which prevented him from advancing in a straight line. 

Happily, the pledges he’d received weren’t contingent on completion. His supporters gladly gave their $250,000 – almost 10 percent of the gym’s total cost – in recognition of an effort most would call superhuman. The school, for its part, invited Orwin to speak at the gym’s opening in late January and gifted him an honorary jersey, now on display in a special case. 

Orwin has no plans to attempt Badwater again. Between the heat and distance, it’s simply too dangerous, he said. But he fully intends to keep racing, and training by running 13 to 15 miles a day. 

Meanwhile, he hopes to have inspired and enabled the 685 students at Woodland Hills to do some version of the same. Indeed, confirmation that he may have done exactly that came on a recent visit to the school, when he caught a class following in his footsteps, running sprints back and forth across the spacious new facility. 

“We’ve never had this much space to run around in,” said principal Ron Browning, looking on with Orwin. “This gym means a lot to us. It means a lot to see this kind of investment come to our community.”