Meet Zac
A LONG ROAD FOR A BRIGHTER TOMORROW
Zac Deel is a husband, a dad, an athlete, and a man who has learned that sometimes the hardest part of moving forward is simply deciding that you will.
He isn't running from something.
He's running toward something.
Toward his family.
Toward a better future.
Toward the person he knows he can become.
And toward a brighter tomorrow.
Zac and his wife, Brittany, are raising four kids in Bristol, Tennessee. Their life isn't perfect, and it hasn't always gone according to plan. Like so many families, they've faced seasons that tested them.. financial setbacks, uncertainty, closed doors, and moments when it would have been easier to stay down than to get back up.
But Zac has never been very good at staying down.
Fitness became more than something he did to stay in shape. It became a way to rebuild himself.. physically, mentally, and emotionally. Training taught him that progress doesn't happen all at once. Sometimes it's one more rep. One more round. One more mile. One more day when you decide not to quit.
And now, he's taking that lesson farther than he ever has before.
THIS IS BIGGER THAN A RUN
Zac isn't an elite ultramarathoner attempting a race for a medal.
He's a regular dad from Tennessee attempting something that feels almost completely unreasonable.
He's a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu blue belt, a wrestling dad, and an avid lifter. He's spent years pushing himself physically and mentally through training, and while Zac will tell you he's a pretty good runner, there's one pretty important detail:
He's never even run a full marathon.
And that's exactly why he's doing it.
Because somewhere along the way, we've started believing that we have to have everything figured out before we can take the first step.
Zac doesn't have everything figured out.
He doesn't have a giant team behind him. He doesn't have a support vehicle following him across the country. He doesn't have an unlimited budget or every piece of equipment already sitting in a garage.
He's building this thing from the ground up.
And that's the point.
The Bristol to LA Project is about proving that you can start with what you have, take the next step, and keep going, even when the road ahead looks impossibly long.
FOR HIS FAMILY. FOR HIMSELF. FOR WHAT COMES NEXT.
Every mile will take Zac farther from Bristol and closer to Los Angeles.
But every mile will also represent something else:
A setback he refused to let define him.
A lesson learned the hard way.
A promise made to his family.
A reminder to his kids that quitting isn't the only option when life gets hard.
He wants his children to see that life won't always be easy.
They will fail. They'll get knocked down. They'll have days when they don't know what to do next.
And when those days come, Zac wants them to remember what their dad did.
You get back up.
You take the next step.
And you keep moving forward.
That's what this journey is really about.
Not Bristol.
Not Los Angeles.
Not even the 2,800+ miles in between.
It's about what happens when you refuse to stop moving toward a brighter tomorrow.
MORE THAN A FINISH LINE
But Zac isn't planning to reach Los Angeles, check a box, and go back to the way things were.
The finish line is the beginning.
This journey is his chance to build something new; not just for himself, but for his family.
Zac wants to use the Bristol to LA Project as the launch point for a new career as a creator, storyteller, athlete, and entrepreneur. A career built around the things he has learned through years of training, fatherhood, setbacks, and refusing to quit.
He wants to turn this one impossible idea into something that lasts.
Something that gives his family a fresh start.
Something his children can watch their dad build from the ground up and know that sometimes you don't have to wait for someone else to give you a second chance.
Sometimes you have to create one yourself.
The run is the first chapter.
What comes after it is the future Zac is fighting to build.
And if he can run 2,800+ miles across a country with nothing but a cart, a goal, and the determination to keep putting one foot in front of the other, then maybe the rest of the road doesn't seem quite so impossible.
2,800+ MILES. 70 DAYS. ONE VERY BIG PROMISE.
On October 17, 2026, Zac will leave Bristol, Tennessee and begin running west.
His destination is Los Angeles, California: roughly 2,800 miles away.
He'll be traveling alone, pushing his gear in an expedition cart, and facing whatever the road puts in front of him.
The goal isn't simply to cross the country in 70 days.
The goal is to spend Christmas with his Family.
After 70 days on the road, Zac wants to arrive in Los Angeles on December 24 and wake up with his family on Christmas morning.
That promise to keep moving until he gets home is at the heart of this entire journey.
COME WITH US
Zac will document the journey as it happens.. the miles, the beautiful moments, the brutal ones, the people he meets, the setbacks, the victories, and everything in between.
And while Zac may be the one putting his feet on the pavement, he won't truly be traveling alone.
Every person who follows, shares, sponsors a mile, sends encouragement, offers a helping hand, or simply believes he can make it becomes part of this story.
This is Zac's road.
But we're inviting you to walk it with him.
A long road for a brighter tomorrow.