The steady sound of Darren Partyka's tennis shoes tapping the pavement is about to turn into a nonstop, 48-hour thrum as the Sparks Fire Department captain jets off the starting line for the Biggest Little Ultra Marathon this weekend.
Partyka has run ultra marathons before, but he says this one will be unique. It’s a race without a finish line, so he'll be up against the clock.
"You don't know what distance you can do, but that's kind of the exciting part," he said in an interview at the Sparks Marina, where the ultra marathon is happening. "It's 100% up to the individual. So it's not so much a win or lose race, it's kind of a see how far you can go."
And he'll have good motivation to go the distance. Partyka is running on behalf of Northern Nevada wildfire victims whose homes burned down in the Hawk, Bug, and Stallion fires over the summer. He's asking community members to pledge a few dollars for every lap he completes.
"We're gonna try to make a big difference in all these families lives who lost everything this summer," he said.
The cause is personal to Partyka, not just because he's a fire captain, but because he worked on the Hawk Fire and saw the devastation firsthand, with entire neighborhoods flattened.
“You had some people that have lived there for a really long time,” he said. “And on the other hand, you might have had some people who are hard working individuals and that's their first home or something that they're working towards. And that was kind of their own dream that now is kind of gone.”
As he laps the marina, Partyka says he’ll take it one circuit at a time, doing his best to raise as much money as possible for the local nonprofit — the Community Foundation’s 2026 Northern Nevada Wildfire Relief fund — where all donations will go.
He expects to reach a peaceful state of mind, the same mental fortitude that has pushed him to the 200-mile mark in past races.
Meet Darren Partyka, a Sparks fire captain running for 48 hours to help Northern Nevada wildfire victims. Find out why in this week’s SOMEONE 2 KNOW.
