Katie Patterson Alex Pinkerton Lisette Prato Collett Skaggs James Skaggs Joungeun Suk Erin Walker John Warnick MATTHEW After physician assistant student Matt Pruitt graduated from Harding with a degree in missions, he started working at Wright Medical of Memphis, an orthopedic implant company, in Aug. 2009. While there, Pruitt found encouragement to undertake running as a discipline, which in turn later inspired him to pursue his education further. "One of the orthopedic surgeons I worked with was doing the St. Jude Half-Marathon," Pruitt said. "He told me I ought to do it. So I tho.ught I would give it a shot. I had never run that far. I did track in high school, but nothing in college. I really enjoyed it, and then tried to go further and further." After that half-marathon, Pruitt started running again, which gave him the drive and the confidence to enter the PA program. "One of my favorite things about running is you are constantly challenging yourself with a new distance, a faster time than you've run before, or a new type of race," Pruitt said. "People in their late twenties, it seems, are at a point where they are either getting settled into a career or getting restless. Although I had a great job with a great company and coworkers, I was getting restless. Running gave me the confidence to know that I could take on the challenge of going back to school, even an intense program like PA school." Nick Lewis, a running buddy of Pruitt's, advised and supported Pruitt. Lewis spent a lot of time with Pruitt through running and came to respect Pruitt. "He isn't afraid of success, and he is not risk averse," Lewis said. "As a result, he will accomplish whatever he sets his sights on." PRU I TT According to Pruitt's friend, Charlie Duke, when Pruitt became a talented runner, he remained humble about it. "Matt is the guy who slaps you on the back after your race, asks you all about your race like it's the most important thing he can think of, and never mentions that he won the whole thing," Duke said. Before attending their respective graduate programs, Duke and Pruitt created a bucket list of difficult and fun races, which included the 3 Days of Syllamo trail running race in the Ozark Mountains outside of Mountain View, Ark., during March. "I was very happy just to finish the three day stage race with back to back 5ok, 50 mile and 2ok trail races,'' Duke said. "Matt won it against strong competition. It's this sort of capability and pursuit of excellence that no doubt has driven Matt to go back to PA school." The last event Pruitt ran before entering PA school was a 100mile race outside of Cedaredge, Colo., called the Grand Mesa 100. The Grand Mesa 100 was run along the rugged forest services trails within Grand Mesa National Forest. "I thought if I could make it through 100 miles, I could make it through any single day of PA school," Pruitt said. "Though it wasn't my best performance, I have never been more proud to cross a finish line after 28 hours and 33 minutes of trails, vomiting, rain and cold. Not to mention the beautiful wildlife and scenery." Though he committed to running well into his twenties, Pruitt learned crucial lessons from the sport. It taught Pruitt that he had the drive and endurance to undertake any difficult challenge. Bethany Nicholson/Michael Wallace
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