Bill Zywiec had never run more than five miles at any one time.

Last week, he surpassed that – by a long, long way.

The Highland dean of students ran 23.25 miles after 192 of the school’s nearly 300 students signed the Huskie Code of Conduct.

He started at 7 a.m. Six hours and 10 minutes later he completed his 96th lap.

“My wife came out and checked on me a couple of times to make sure I wasn’t dead,” he said.

This wasn’t something Zywiec volunteered for. His colleague Derick Ball told the students on the first day of school that Zywiec would run a half lap around the school track for every student who signed the Code of Conduct.

Ball neglected to mention this to Zywiec ahead of time.

Many thought he would find a way out, perhaps doing his laps in a golf cart.

“I wanted to show the kids there will be times when times are tough … and you have to do things you don’t want to do,” Zywiec said.

For his part, Ball ran the entire distance as did Dan Beck from the Pace Running Academy. Their support helped, Zywiec said.

The first 10 miles were easy but by Mile 13, Zywiec was beginning to hurt.

“We got down to the last five miles, and my legs were like cement,” he said.

Those last five miles he walked a lap and then ran a lap. He had help. In addition to Ball and Beck, students, staff and community members came out to run with him and cheer him on.

“We had community involvement,” Zywiec said.

He burned 4,100 calories that day.

This might not be the last time Zywiec does this. He said there is talk about having a Highland Homecoming Marathon every year, which would be done as a relay on one day during Homecoming Week.