In the past four years, not only has Joseph Logan, a 48-year-old Brooklyn graphic designer, become ever more horrified at the Trump administration’s attacks on civil rights—he’s also morphed from a casual to a competitive long-distance runner. So perhaps it was just a matter of time before those two things came together.

That’s what began to happen in late 2019. Logan was already planning to be one of five NYCLU runners participating in the 2020 TCS Marathon—better known as November’s annual iconic, 26.2-mile New York City marathon. Each NYCLU runner was tasked with raising at least $5,000. It was to be Logan’s first marathon.

“The last four years, I’ve felt an increased urgency to be politically active,” he says. “And the marathon was supposed to happen two days before the election, so I felt I could have more visibility that way.”

But then came COVID—and suddenly marathons worldwide were getting canceled. But that didn’t stop Logan’s training. “I couldn’t get to the gym, so running became my antidote to all my COVID anxiety,” he says.

Finally, he called the NYCLU and told them he still wanted to run a marathon—solo—as a one-man fundraiser, working via his Instagram account and group emails. The NYCLU gave Logan the green light—and by the time November came, he’d raised $22,000, a big chunk of it via a work associate who generously matched $6,000 in smaller donations.

Then the day finally came. In order to avoid stoplights, Logan had designed his own, mostly waterfront 26.2-mile route, making his way from central to northern Brooklyn, then over the Williamsburg Bridge to lower Manhattan, then over the Brooklyn Bridge, all the way south along the water to Sunset Park, then looping back up to central Brooklyn. He did it in two hours and 57 minutes, meeting his goal of coming in under three hours. At stops along the way, his partner and friends cheered, captured him on Instagram and handed him of f water.

“I never hit the wall, thankfully,” he said. “I felt very supported the whole way.” Mostly, he says, he felt good knowing he was handing over a big check to the NYCLU. “Doing this was so important to me because it was this synthesis of this horrible political moment we’ve been in and the chance to do something I’ve always wanted to do, which is run a marathon,” he says.

He’s ready to do it again next year for the NYCLU, hopefully in the context of the traditional marathon. “All the fights that the NYCLU is engaged in are so vital and urgent, especially given how Trump has packed the federal courts,” he says. “That means that the ACLU’s court battles to uphold people’s civil rights and liberties are going to be going on forever.”