Finishing the mission: Runner overcomes his own challenges in honor of Winslow Nichols

By ETHAN 

VANDEN BOSCH

Hungry Horse News

Running a marathon is no small task for people in great health. Patrick Jones recently completed the Utah Valley Marathon after overcoming both an Achilles tendon injury and long haul Covid.

Perhaps he had an angel at his side.

Jones, 33, who doesn’t consider himself a long distance-runner by any stretch, decided to run the marathon in memory of Winslow Nichols. He coached Nichols in varsity soccer when Nichols played for the Wildcats. Jones was head assistant under coach O’Brien Byrd at the time.

Nichols, after graduation from Columbia Falls in 2021, was all set to become a West Point cadet after a year of military prep school. But on June 7, 2022, during a visit home, he died in a tragic climbing accident on Mount Brown in Glacier National Park, just days before he was to formally begin his career at West Point.

The Columbia Falls community was overwhelmed with grief. Running the marathon in Utah was one of Nichols’ goals. In Nichols’ honor, Jones decided to run the race, with the patches Nichols wore in his formal military photo attached to Jones’s backpack through the grueling marathon.

But first Jones had to overcome his own physical challenges,

“The Omicron strain of Covid goes after your neurological system, and it scrambled all my neurotransmitters. They call it Persistent Postural Perceptual Dizziness (PPPD), and it took me 13 doctors to finally get any answers whatsoever,” Jones said in a recent interview.

Jones wondered if he would ever get better.

“I couldn’t do anything; I was barely hanging on day-to-day. I had to live with my parents because I couldn’t drive myself to work. I was still trying to coach that first year, and my mother had to take me to every game,” Jones said.

But Jones kept the thought of Nichols close as he struggled with his own issues.

Nichols always had a big heart and his ability to lead others made him an example among his teammates.

“Everyone looked up to him, and he’s just that guy that if there’s a nervous freshmen having a bad day that he didn’t even know, he’d be the first guy to go over. Include them in their social circle, include them in a drill, give the kid a compliment to pick somebody up when they’re having a bad day. That’s real leadership to me,” Jones said of Nichols.

It was Nichols’ younger brother, Walt Nichols, who ultimately convinced Jones to run the Utah Valley Marathon. In a phone call between Walt Nichols and Jones, Nichols told Jones that Winslow had signed up for the Utah Valley Marathon before his death.

“I hung up the phone and it was like I just went right to the website. I signed up, I paid. No turning back,” Jones said.

“I just had to honor Winslow and finish his mission,” he said.

Walt Nichols went on the next year to help his soccer team win the state championship with a 15-0 record, something Jones is also proud of.

After he signed up, the marathon became a way for Jones to heal from his injury. 

He gives credit to Dr. Tanner Ferderer at Logan Health for guiding him through the Covid dizziness, finding a medication that ultimately subsided his symptoms.

“Six months (after seeing him) I was back on my feet,” Jones said.

But the Achilles was also a problem as he trained, so he started seeing physical therapist Tanner Benedict in Whitefish, who managed to keep Jones limber.

The spirit of Nichols also helped.

“I kept a picture of Winslow right above my running bag and my running shoes and stuff. And there’s days where I just didn’t have it. You know, I’m dizzy, I’m lightheaded, my Achilles hurts, I’m tired. And I look at a picture of Winslow and I’d think, ‘I made this kid’s family a promise,’” Jones said. 

Race day came and he was up at 3 a.m. and on the bus by 4 a.m. During the race he felt prepared, however, the last five miles were ones he’d never forget. He put Nichols’ Army badges on the back of his pack, the patches were provided by the Nichols family.

“I’ll never be able to put into words what my legs were feeling those last 5 miles. It’s like he [Winslow] carried me through. I was telling my dad after. I almost felt like I had an unfair advantage,” Jones said.

After the race, he contacted the Nichols family to tell him he had finished it and carried thoughts of Winslow with him the whole time. 

“Winslow was close to me, and he helped me more than all I’d be able to say. Same thing I told his mom (Sabrina). I wouldn’t have finished that race without him,” Jones said.

Finishing the marathon became the one of the happiest moments of his entire life, he said. Finishing marked his journey to good health, finishing a promise to an old player, and proving to the world his resilience would triumph.

Jones also credits Melanie and O’Brien Byrd for their support as well as his Mom, Paula Jones.

“My mother, she’s been number one through the whole thing. She’s done more for me than I can say. She’s the most amazing woman on the planet, and I can’t tell you how special it was to be able to call her after and talk about how far we have come,” Jones said.

Jones encourages everyone to pursue their goals, through thick and thin. 

“Tomorrow is never promised,” he said.