“Keep the Pace” was a mindset way before a movie title.
How else does the human body endure – chop it up however you wish – running 240 miles or 103 hours, 49 minutes, and 17 seconds?
About this time last year, Christ School alumnus Ellis Pace ’14 grinded through the Utah desert with family and friends as his support to finish the Moab 240 ultra marathon. The full amalgamation of introspection and physical suffering, as well as the months of training that led up to the Moab 240, can be found in Asheville videographer/photographer Daree Wynn’s first full-length documentary.
“Keep the Pace” had a local premiere October 9 at The Carolina Asheville theater and will be available to wider audiences once Daree is done submitting it for film competitions. In his words, the project “touches on perseverance, family, and the beauty of the journey.” It came about through a friendship that Daree and Ellis had prior to the Moab 240.
As for the running itself, Ellis took a rather circuitous route to the sport of ultramarathoning. He was a standout football and track athlete as a Greenie, electing to sign with East Carolina University in the latter out of high school. Ellis would then gravitate over to football where he contributed to Football Championship Subdivision (FCS) playoff teams at Wofford College.
Ellis was a couple years removed from college athletics when he first took up running at the suggestion of his mother, Melanie P’11 P’14.
And the rest, as they say, is history. Melanie, his older brother, Derrick ’11, and Dalton Friel ’14 were among Ellis’s pacers for the Moab 240. The standard distance for a normal marathon is 26.2 miles. Moab's 2025 field of runners also included David Goggins, whose story as a former Navy Seal-turned-ultramarathoner has inspired millions through his books and motivational speeches/videos.
Ellis and Derrick are vice presidents for Tarheel Paving and Asphalt Company, which operates out of Henderson County, N.C., where the brothers were born and raised.