On a cool night in mid-April, as the city lights danced in the darkness and the water lapped the shores of Santa Monica, Jesus Leon laced up his shoes and hit the road for what he believes is a first. The 29-year-old, who has worked as a cook in UCLA Dining since 2013, completed a 78-mile run with an elevation gain of 12,189 feet from Santa Monica to the top of Mount Baldy, which rests on the border of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties. The mountain is a popular destination for hikers and is the highest peak in L.A. County.
The challenge was inspired by a two-week trip to Japan in 2019 to celebrate his 28th birthday.
“Mount Fuji is a major attraction in Japan, and I like challenges,” said Leon. “Most people start mid-way up the mountain at Station Five, but to me, that sounded way too easy. It sounded boring.”
Instead, Leon did some research and learned of Route 3776, a longer sea to summit journey that took him from the beach in Fuji City to the top of Mount Fuji.
When he returned back to Los Angeles, he wanted to find a way to replicate that sea to summit experience, and Santa Monica to Mount Baldy was the solution.
“I searched online and couldn’t find anyone who had ever done it,” said Leon. Some of his runner friends said they’d heard of people who had biked to the base of Mount Baldy and hiked to the top, but never of anyone who had made the entire journey on foot, he said.
Leon said he discovered his gift for endurance running at UCLA. He started running on the treadmill before and after his workouts at UCLA, not long after starting his job on the Hill. He started with a couple of miles at a time and then worked his way up to five miles. One day after work he decided to see how long he could run if he put his mind to it, and two and a half hours later he had run about 16 miles.
“Ever since I discovered my endurance gift, it has made me test my limits,” he said, adding that he still runs in Westwood and Santa Monica every day after work.
This has included running the L.A. Marathon several times and running from his home in South Los Angeles to places like the beach, the Griffith Observatory and even Palmdale, which took him 16 hours. He even completed the 13-mile Old Mount Baldy Trail (aka Bear Canyon) with a 60-pound weighted vest, just to see if he could.
“It was brutal, but I did it.”
This summer, he completed Colorado’s Manitou Springs Incline in Colorado with the 60-pound vest. He also recently completed the roughly 42-mile Timberline Trail in Oregon, with a personal elevation gain of 11,600 feet, in nearly 21 hours.
“Whenever I go somewhere new, I want to do the toughest workout there is around the area.”
He also completed the Everesting challenge at the Culver City Stairs on July 22, which requires participants to climb the height of Mount Everest (more than 29,000 feet)) in a single workout without being there. Leon finished the grueling challenge in 44 hours.
Leon completes nearly all of these feats entirely on his own, although from time to time a friend will join him for a run partway. Over the years, he says he has learned that if there is something you want to do, you can’t wait for someone else to do it with you.
“I’ve always tried to invite people to come with me, but no one ever wants to go. If you keep waiting on people to say yes, it’s never going to happen. You just have to go and do it.”
