Ultramarathoners are intense, but that’s what Rob Perez likes most about them. It takes a certain type of person to run races that are measured in days, not hours.

Perez is no stranger to running those kinds of distances. He’s run 300 miles — twice. But this October, the Washington-based ultramarathoner and content creator is up against a challenge that even he isn’t sure he’ll be able to complete.

When the U.S. government shut down on Oct. 1, Perez decided to push himself by mirroring the number of miles he ran each day to the number of days the government stayed closed. On the first day, he ran one mile. On the second day, he ran two miles.

And as Republicans and Democrats in Congress remain at odds over a government funding bill, that figure continues to rise. On Sunday, Perez marked

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