A tri-athlete champion from Fairfax focuses on addiction recovery on a cross-country run
A Woodson High School graduate who saw his professional career as a tri-athlete go up in flames has found redemption by completing a 2,000-mile run from Boulder, Colo., to Washington, D.C.
Collin Chartier celebrated the end of the journey Aug. 30 at the Lincoln Memorial after completing the last 20 miles on the W&OD trail with members of the Marymount cross-country team.
Chartier had been ranked 11th in the world by the Professional Tri-Athlete Organisation when he failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs. In 2023, he was suspended from the sport for three years.
His path to becoming a national champion had started with the cross-country, track, and swim teams at Woodson.
After graduating in 2012, he joined the triathlon program at Marymount University, then went professional in his second year. He trained for the 2021 Olympics but barely missed qualifying for the team. He then shifted to the Iron Man series, competing at the highest levels of competition.
After failing a drug test for erythropoietin in 2023, he acknowledged taking the banned substance due to the pressure to win. “I was very isolated. I was solely chasing this accomplishment,” he recalls.
“I did cheat; there was a lot of shame and guilt on me,” Chartier says. “There was a public backlash. I had a pretty public downfall with the sport,” including an article in the New York Times that had several quotes from Iron Man athletes who blasted him for taking a banned performance-enhancing drug.
After that scandal, he sought “to process who I am now,” he says. He took a 10,000-mile bike trip from California to Colombia. It was a journey to “rebuild and discover who I am.” During that time, “in this little tiny world in the tri-athlete community, I got to meet people who didn’t know me. I realized I’m not defined by my mistakes,” he recalls.
Even though he was not going to compete again, he says, “I could still be an athlete. I don’t need to be a professional.”
“Recovery from addiction is an ongoing process,” he says. In his pursuit of a new career, he got into real estate but found it wasn’t really meaningful. He now plans to work with nonprofits involved with youths, recovery, education, and coaching.
As a marathoner, he had never participated in a run of more than 30 miles, but in March he took part in a 100-mile run for charity. He then got the idea for a cross-country run, which he began on June 13.
During the journey, which he dubbed “Running Home,” Chartier raised $100,000 for the Herren Project, which supports addiction recovery and prevention efforts. As he made his way across 10 states, he hosted community runs and spoke about mental health, his struggles to recover from addiction, and the importance of beginning again.
The trip from Colorado to D.C. took 79 days. He ran 26 to 35 miles a day, taking off one day a week to rest. A friend followed along with a camp van and trailer, where he spent most nights. A few times, he stayed at a hotel or someone’s home.
He documented the run on social media, and sometimes friends and people from local running clubs joined him on the road.
During the run, he had to contend with bad weather, in the form of storms, tornado warnings, and extreme heat. The hottest day, in Kansas, reached 106 degrees. At one point, he had leg pain, so he switched to biking for a few days. “I wanted to keep moving forward and didn’t want to hurt myself,” he says.
Chartier’s mantra is “a journey of 2,000 miles starts with a single step,” he says. “Whatever journey is for you, no matter how difficult it seems, it starts with a single step.’