Rob Perez is living in D.C., working as a federal contractor and making his mark as a running content creator. When the government shutdown first began, he laced up his running shoes and pledged to run one mile for every day the shutdown lasted.
The first day was a simple one-miler. But as the days piled up, so did the miles: by day 26 he was already approaching the distance of a full marathon. While he ran, he didn’t just crank out miles — he posted videos that mixed his run with short, digestible civics lessons.
He treated it like a project: every evening reading up on proposed bills, brushing up on how government works, then compressing the key points into a format that made sense on a run. He’d keep his notes handy while running so he’d hit the talking points accurately because he didn’t want to spread misinformation.
The mission became so intense that by day 28 he realized he couldn’t keep the pace. Running the miles, editing the videos, working full-time — it was becoming a second job. He paused the original challenge eventually, but not before logging 456 miles during the ordeal.
Now, Rob says he’ll keep up his non-partisan political runs on a weekly basis. His goal? To keep delivering information, to keep running, to keep connecting two worlds: the rhythm of the road and the rhythm of civic engagement.