With Hurricane Joaquin looming, cross country practice was canceled on Oct. 1 because of the heavy rain. Instead of taking the day off, sophomore Daniel Weiss took the opportunity to run 12 miles home from school to his house in Northwest Washington.

Although now, going on long runs is nothing unusual for Weiss, back in second grade, he never would have dreamed that this would be part of his regular routine.

In 2008, Weiss’s right knee swelled up inexplicably. For the next two years, he and his parents drove up and down the east coast, visiting numerous rheumatologists in attempt to determine a diagnosis. At one such visit, a doctor told Weiss that he would have to attend a Juvenile Rheumatoid Arthritis (JRA) camp, along with several therapy sessions, in order to learn how to walk normally.

After lots of travel and uncertainty, Weiss was finally diagnosed two years later with undifferentiated psoriatic spondyloarthropy (UPS). UPS is a form of arthritis that involves swelling and pain in different extremities — in Weiss’s case, his right knee.

Once this diagnosis was made, Weiss’s doctors said that Weiss would most likely be able to walk and play sports normally. Immediately, Weiss became committed to staying in shape. The memory of being told that he wouldn’t walk normally again motivated him to start running on a regular basis. Since he was not allowed to watch TV during the week, he made an agreement with his mom that if he ran on the treadmill, he could watch TV while running.

“I was a chunky little boy in elementary school so I figured maybe if i start running that would help,” Weiss said.

When Weiss came to JDS in 2012, he starting running more seriously. In 8th grade, he joined the cross country team. At the beginning of his freshman cross country season, Weiss’s 5k times ranged from 22 to 23 minutes. Just a few weeks ago, on Sept. 16, Weiss reached his personal record for a 5k — 18 minutes and 29 seconds.

This improvement came about after a year of intense training. When the 2014 cross country season ended, Weiss signed up for the JDS track team, and participated in its winter and spring seasons. During finals week, he went on long runs each night after long, hard days of studying. Over the summer, at camp Ramah in Palmer, Mass., Weiss ran anywhere from 8 to 12 miles each day in order to prepare for the upcoming cross country season.

“I know how important summer training is because you don’t want to come into the fall season having done zero running over the summer,” Weiss said.

His longest runs at camp were on Saturdays when he would run the 1/2 mile loop around Camp Ramah 20 to 24 times. His friends told him that he was crazy, but he persisted.

Towards the end of summer, Weiss decided to run in a half marathon, reasoning that 13.1 miles is just a little more than the 12 miles he was running at camp. So he signed up for the Navy-Air Force Half Marathon. On Sept. 20 he finished the race with a time of 1:47:12.

With the cross country season underway, Weiss has already seen much improvement. His 5k time has dropped from 21:30 to 18:29, making him one of the top five runners on the team.

Weiss said he hopes to run a marathon by the time he is 20.

“I think that’s very realistic if I work hard,” he said.