Zortman, whose son, Armstrong, passed away in 2009 after a battle with brain cancer, runs for a different purpose.

Since 2017, he has been running routes that sketch the names of particular people he has chosen to honor. He sometimes has a name in mind or the names are suggested by others.

Many of the names are of people who have also been impacted by cancer.

Zortman and his wife divorced shortly after Armstrong’s death. Through his son and through running, Zortman found inspiration.

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Rik Zortman ran a route in Fort Dodge on Monday, sketching the name Kelvin along his route. Kelvin Brown passed away before his fourth birthday in 2012.

“He loved to eat and he loved to run,” Zortman said of his son. “I started doing names and words on my (Relive) app and figured out different ways to spell out things.”

Using apps on his phone, Zortman captures an image of the route, which spells the person’s name. He then shares the images on social media.

The sketches began with just his son’s name, but has expanded to include hundreds of others throughout 13 different U.S. states and one foreign country.

In September 2017, Zortman sketched the names of 98 children fighting cancer.

On Monday, he sketched two more names in Fort Dodge.

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Rik Zortman, of Coralville, also ran a sketch of the name Clara on Monday in Fort Dodge. Clara Brown, 8, of Fort Dodge, is the sister of Kelvin Brown. Clara was born in 2011, one week before Kelvin's cancer diagnosis.

The first was Kelvin, in honor of Kelvin Brown, a Fort Dodge boy who passed away Sept. 7, 2012, just 20 days before his fourth birthday. He had been battling a form of bone cancer.

Zortman understands the pain of losing a child.

“My son passed away a month before his fourth birthday in 2009,” Zortman said. “I know the feeling and it is one of the worst feelings in the world.”

The second name Zortman sketched in Fort Dodge was Clara. Clara is Kelvin’s sister. She was born December 2, 2011, one week before Kelvin’s diagnosis. Kelvin and Clara’s parents are Ryan and Hope Brown, of Fort Dodge.

Kelvin’s name was a 2-mile run. Clara’s was 2.26 miles.

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This graphic shows the number of counties in order where Rik Zortman has run routes to honor people in those communities.

For his runs, Zortman went from South 12th Street to South 21st Street.

“It takes a lot of planning and patience to figure out where you’re going,” Zortman said. “It’s like when your teachers try to teach you to draw the letters from the bottom line to the top.”

Webster County marked the 75th Iowa county that Zortman has run in.

“Last year at this time I had only run in 18 counties,” Zortman said. “I never even thought about doing all 99 until I got to 30. And my wife said that’s a wonderful idea.”

Although Zortman often runs for children who have battled cancer, he’s delivered on other requests, such as badge numbers of fallen police officers or names of people killed in war.

And he’s not always able to get a name for each county he runs. In that case he might sketch the words to a song.

“When Tom Petty passed away, I picked one of his songs that could resonate with most cancer victims,” he said. “So I went out and sketched ‘I Won’t Back Down.'”

As of Monday, Zortman had run over 4,500 miles of names.

“The run itself gives inspiration not only for me but others I run for,” Zortman said. “Those names are the ones that get me up and going, because every name has a story. What I am doing is sketching their name so they (family, friends) have it and can tell their story of the individual that they love.”