Staff writers
Hillsboro High School graduate Aaron Yoder recently made the record books for running a mile — however, Yoder took a unique approach to it.
Yoder, who is now head track and cross country coach at Bethany College in Lindsborg, broke a world record on Nov. 23 for the fastest backward one-mile run. He completed it with a time of 5:54.25.
Yoder’s father, Hillsboro Elementary School principal Evan Yoder, said that running backward was nothing new for his son.
“He’s always been motivated to run,” Evan said, “whether forward, backward, or whatever.”
Evan said that what ignited the idea was Aaron coming back from junior high basketball practice and using the family’s treadmill in a milk house.
“Because it wasn’t a very good treadmill and wasn’t very fast, he would run backward on it,” Evan said. “We were a little concerned about him running backward on the treadmill because we worried he might fall.”
Evan said he hasn’t had any incidents so far.
“To our knowledge, he hasn’t fallen many times,” Evan said, “I don’t think he’s hit his head, but some may question that when they watch the video.”
Evan showed the video of his son beating the world record to a third grade class at the school. He initially was going to just show the last lap, but said the class was so intrigued, they watched the whole thing.
“They were just really mesmerized by it,” Evan said. “It just looks funny, someone running backward.”