The bottom of Yosah's feet are thick with calluses and sores - telltale signs of a serious runner.
Within a month, Yosah, a 1994 University of Nebraska-Lincoln alumnus and whose real name is Joesph Peters, will begin his seven-month "quest" to complete a record-breaking 300 marathons. He sometimes runs more than one a day.
Yosah wants to break the world record for the most marathons in one year. And he wants to run them barefoot and blindfolded.
"I just want to get started," Yosah said. "I just want to see what it's going to feel like and see how much more I'm going to have to push myself to get each day done."
Yosah started running seriously less than two years ago. Soon, he was training 30 miles a week and began running in marathons around San Diego, the city where he lived at the time.
During one of Yosah's early marathons, he and a fellow competitor donated their shoes mid-race and ran the last seven miles barefoot.
"After that I haven't run but only two races with shoes on," Yosah said.
Although they're in the minority, some serious runners prefer to run barefoot. These runners must be efficient in their running form, said Gary Bredehoft, a personal trainer at Tiger Coaching and Personal Training in Lincoln.
"You really get into the zone," Yosah said. "When I'm running barefoot I don't even feel my feet touching the ground."
Eventually, Yosah hopes to become the world's fastest barefoot runner.
As for the blindfold, Yosah has yet to run blind, but was inspired to do so at a marathon in Honolulu, where two men were running together, one of whom was blind.
Always challenging himself, Yosah doesn't want help for this future blind race. He plans on training himself to heighten his senses and be able to run without sight, without help.
"I'd be totally self-sufficient," Yosah said. "Once you get running, it's pretty much you know where your feet are going to go."
The list of Yosah's lofty goals goes on.
After seven months and nearly 8,000 miles, Yosah wants to follow the Tropic of Cancer or the Tropic of Capricorn around the globe in a combination of running and rowing.
At some point, he wants to walk and run from Nebraska to New York City, then to San Diego, Miami and back to New York City, traversing about 37 miles a day and calling the journey "Yosah Loves."
Yosah also hopes to compete in the 2012 Olympics and be the first Olympic runner to compete barefoot since the 1960s.
Everest is another aspiration, but the mountain itself isn't enough - Yosah wants to climb Everest blindfolded, without oxygen and by himself.
After the peak of his running career, Yosah plans to learn Braille and sign language and travel internationally to help children.
"Part of my relaxing will be going around the world and helping out all the kids that don't have what I had when I was a kid," Yosah said.
Yosah's ambition and drive, which he said he's always possessed, are one-of-a-kind.
"For the average person it's going to take a big toll on them," Bredehoft said. "(But) some people have amazing thresholds where they can do things like that."
Yosah is not easily, or ever, discouraged. He trains to build a combination of mental and physical power - and the goals just keep adding up.
"When you really get focused and you really get narrowed in on one thing, everything outside of here doesn't matter," he said. "You know it doesn't matter and you just need to focus on what's right here, straight on."
andreavasquez@dailynebraskan.com
