OCALA, FL (352Today.com) – Craig Bachrodt has run through the Colorado Rockies, the streets of New York and Los Angeles, and courses in Europe, Asia, South America, and even Korea. But if you ask him about the spot that makes his heart swell, he does not hesitate.

“When I get on the trails in Ocala, my heart smiles,” Bachrodt said. “I’ve run now quite a few places. With that said, my favorite place to run on the planet is Ocala. I just can’t say enough about the trails we have in Ocala. There is something about home. Our trails are such a gift.”

On Sunday, September 27, 2026, the Ocala businessman will line up at the Berlin Marathon, one of the world’s fastest and flattest courses, running again for Smile Train, the cleft-care nonprofit he has supported for about 20 years.

Running to support a charity combines two things Bachrodt cares deeply about.

“Running kind of turned into an opportunity to marry, I guess, two of my passions. I always lean toward being charitable, whether that’s with local schools in Ocala, Trinity Catholic High School, or the Reilly Arts Center, Mother’s Day Symphony, which I’ve sponsored for 24 years, the Chili Cookoff. It’s just that that is really a passion of mine,” Bachrodt said.

It will be his fourth marathon with Smile Train.

Bachrodt co-owns the Palm Chevrolet in Ocala with his brother-in-law, Rick Davis. “I moved to Ocala in 2001 when I bought Palm Chevrolet,” he said. “Rick and I own Palm Chevrolet. I’ve owned it since 2001.”

Endurance sport was already a part of his life when he moved to the area. Whether cycling or mountain biking on local trails or a 100-mile mountain-bike race in Colorado, Bachrodt’s passion is movement.

His running deepened after a personal tragedy in 2001 that caused him to spend long stretches on the Santos trails and the Florida Greenway. “I just kind of disappeared into the trail,” Bachrodt said, “and then my running went from just running to eventually marathons, and then eventually ultra marathons.” He still calls those miles home. “Our Florida Greenway is the greatest gift to the community,” he said. “Santos, all the way out to the front trailhead, is just a gift.”

Bachrodt traces the sport back to his mother, Sarah. She started running in the 1970s, after Jim Fixx’s book, “The Complete Book of Running,” helped popularize the boom, and she kept the family outside.

“My mom was just always very fit, very strong,” he said. “At 72 years old, she did two pull-ups on the pull-up bar at my house in Ocala, and I pulled her down. I was afraid she was getting hurt, but she would have just kept on going.” What she really passed on, he said, was more than mileage. “I think my mom taught me that diet was important, fitness was important, activity was important, and probably more than that, the love of the outdoors. My mom took us to every park we’d be near.”

In 2021, he was caring for her through the last six months of her life. She had Alzheimer’s. Bachrodt recalls that she had a stroke on a Friday and died the following Tuesday. The Tuesday before that, he was on the phone with his running coach, who told him he was ready for 100 miles, a distance Bachrodt had never attempted. Because of his mother’s Alzheimer’s, he had been recording as much as he could. After the call, he turned the camera on her to record the conversation.

“Mom, my coach thinks I should run 100 miles. What do you think?”

“Sure,” she said.

“And then my mom had this magnificent smile,” Bachrodt said. He asked again, to be sure: “Mom, so you think I should run a 100-mile race in the mountains?”

“Absolutely,” she said, “with this big, just giant grin of hers.”

That answer, and that grin, became Bachrodt’s “why.”

In 2022, he finished the Leadville Trail 100, the high-altitude “Race Across the Sky,” in 29 hours. The course, he said, “starts at 10,200 and never drops below 9,200 and goes over 12,500 twice.” That altitude is why so few make it. “Every year about only 50 percent of the starters finish,” Bachrodt said. “I think about 800 start, closer to 350 to 400 finish.” He ran it as “Run 100 for Mom,” with a plan to raise $100,000 and match it. “I’m not good at raising money, but I’m very good at writing checks,” he said. “I ended up donating over $100,000 to various charities in honor of my mother,” including Smile Train and the Legacy Foundation in Leadville, which funds scholarships for high school students.

Smile Train, he said, is not only a surgery charity. “They’re not just doing the surgeries,” Bachrodt said. “They’re teaching the procedure to doctors in those countries, doctors and nurses that are just in those countries.”

He has been giving to the organization for about 20 years, long before the racing and the fundraising merged. When he talks about the children Smile Train treats, he describes what happens without that care: they can be shut out of ordinary life, struggle to eat, and live with constant infection. That is the cause he keeps pairing with the miles. “If the ‘why’ is bigger than you,” he said, “that’s what gives you the extra juice.”

Berlin was not the original plan for September 27. He missed the regular entry window and came in through Smile Train. Training has been thin. “I’m going to go to Berlin somewhat untrained, which I also don’t recommend to anybody,” he said. “I’ve had a lot more going on than usual. I just have not had time to train.”

Most people, he said, will train a year for a marathon; he joked that he is effectively training for four or five days. “That’s not a good plan.” Business has been heavy, and the only window lately has been the treadmill at midnight or 1 a.m. “I told my running coach the other day, three is a new two,” he said. “Three a.m. is a new two a.m. I do not recommend that to anybody. This is not a good plan.”

Bachrodt’s goal for Berlin is a little under four hours, even though he has run 3:30s before, which in running lingo translates to running 26.2 miles in three hours and 30 minutes. “I’ve run a couple 3:30s. 3:30 is a good marathon for me,” he said. This time, with so little training in the bank, he is aiming for 3:50 to 4:00. “If I go run a 3:50 – 4:00, just enjoy myself and take in the city, that’s more realistic right now,” he said. “And then come back and train harder and more focused for Japan and go for some 3:30 in Japan.” He and his running friend already have that March 2027 race on the calendar. “We’re doing Berlin. We’re doing Japan in March.”

Marathon running is more than a sport or a hobby for Bachrodt. It is a means of meeting the face of a new city.

“Imagine you’re going to run 26.2 miles through a magnificent European city. How cool is that?” he said. “It’s a more intimate way of seeing a city.”

He has completed roughly 30 organized marathons and another 20 on his own. He says that the next one up after Berlin is a 50-kilometer trail race outside Santa Barbara on Nov. 14, then a stacked 2027 calendar that includes Tokyo. He once stacked a marathon or 50K every two to three weeks for a year and liked the rhythm better than living only for one 100-miler.

Ocala’s road-running scene, he said, is decent but less organized than some cities. The trails are the underused asset: about 85 miles of bike, walking, and horse trails from Santos out toward the far trailheads, plus the paved Greenway. People are starting to move here for the trails, which Bachrodt said he found out by sparking up conversations with fellow runners. “People are starting to move to Ocala specifically for the trails.”

Events such as the Skunk Ape 50/100 at Santos and a forest-to-Greenway trail run are putting the dirt on the map.

For Bachrodt, his ask of readers is small and local.

“If they believe in something, they might as well do something about it,” Bachrodt said, “whether that’s a charity run or volunteer or whatever it is. Turn your belief into some form of action.” Passion and purpose, he said, are enough to start. “If your passion is running, if the purpose in this case happens to be Smile Train, that’s a successful endeavor just when it starts. It truly is about getting out there,” whether that is an organized marathon, the trails, the turkey trot, or the reindeer run. “Movement is good. More movement is better.”

That invitation, he said, is already waiting in Ocala. “We’re so blessed to have a community with so many outdoor events that it doesn’t matter what turns you on,” he said. “Get outside. Enjoy. Just get outdoors and enjoy the beautiful community that we have up there. And if you can, tie it to a cause that means something to you, and turn it into a giving opportunity.”

That is the difference, for him, when the race gets hard. “If I’m only running a marathon because I want to run a marathon, it’s pretty easy to stop,” he said. “If you’re running for a cause that is important to you, that’s what gets the job done.”