BEATRICE, NE — It started out as a normal run on February 27th in Beatrice. But around 8:00 that morning, Jake Collins decided he wasn’t going to stop running. He ran 44 miles over the next 22 hours.

“I’ve never run that far before," Collins said. "I was pretty sure I could do it but it was all kind of a mystery, you know. I just had to do it, I just had to get that number out there - 22.”

The number 22 represents the number of veterans lost to suicide every day. Three years to the day before his run, Jake’s step-brother Drae Swarthout became one of the 22. Drae served nearly four years as an Army Ranger and suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“It was just really sad, he was a really awesome person," Collins said. "We just all didn’t see the signs clear enough.”

When the 22-hour idea hit, Jake stopped on the side of the trail, pulled out his phone, made a fundraiser page on Facebook and set a goal of raising $222. A few miles and two hours later, he passed that goal on the way to raising over $3,600 for Mission 22, a non-profit that provides treatment programs to veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress.

As far as running that distance in that little time, it was a challenge.

“It was really good until the sun went down, then the mindset changed and the legs started hurting real bad," Collins said. "I’m not gonna lie, there were a couple moments when I thought I couldn’t complete it but it’s just kind of amazing how far you can really go.”

The run turned out to be a metaphor for life.

“My message is just always to keep going," Collins said. "Even when it seems like you can’t go any further, it’s amazing with just a few steps how much farther we can go.”

For more on Mission 22, click this link.