This has been a long time coming. Early in 2024, I decided I wanted to try doing some more extreme endurance challenges. In April, I ran 34 miles on the Jesus Trail in Israel. In May, I did a 72-hour water fast in Nairobi. In July, I ran 31 miles in Hutchinson (I was hoping for 50).
My plan for the fall was to run from Hutchinson to SJU – a route that would be right around 60 miles. Instead, fellow BVC volunteer Jack Scheck convinced me to sign up for the Wild Duluth 100k race. Over 60 miles on the Superior Hiking Trail.
Training
Training for this run was less intense than most would expect. I did three or four 2-mile jogs a week, and one long run (10-20 miles) every weekend. This got me in good enough shape to finish, but not compete at a high level. After spending so much of my life racing for times, I’m not interested in seeing how fast I can finish these events. Just that I can finish. Mission accomplished.
Race Day
Jack and I showed up to the start line around 5AM, after a great night’s sleep at the Berg’s house. We had drop bags prepared with snacks and electrolytes. They were loaded up and brought to 3 different aid stations along the route of the race. It was raining, so we sat in the car until about 5:55AM. We got out, did a couple quick stretches, and lined up at the start. At 6AM the gun went off and we slowly made our way to the first climb of the day. The first hour was dark, so we were using headlamps and running a very slow, relaxed pace.
Once we could see, we sped up a little bit. We still kept it pretty easy though, knowing we had about 55 miles left. Spirits remained high through the first 28 miles. At that point, eager to make it to the halfway done aid station, we gunned it in with a fellow racer. This was a bad move for Jack, who had serious thoughts of dropping at this point. The volunteers gave us food and a much-needed morale boost, and soon we were headed back where we came from.
Getting going here wasn’t easy. Legs were stiff and we knew we had to do everything all over again. We tried to break up the remaining 30 miles into smaller and smaller chunks. First, a 10 mile chunk to be 20 miles away. Then, a 5 mile chunk to be halfway back. Another 3 miles to get to the Spirit Mountain chalet. 4 miles after that, Riley Berg joins us. 5 more miles to the last aid station. One more 5k to the finish.
The level of mental gymnastics it takes to rationalize a 60-mile race is comical. Luckily, Jack and I were both able to hang tough and laugh at the situation when things started to really suck on the back half. Gaining Berg as pacer for the last 8 miles was also a game changer. Between hosting us and getting us to the finish line, we owe him big.
0.7 miles from the finish, you leave the woods and run on pavement to the finish line in Bayfront Park. When we finally saw the finish line, almost 17 hours since we had started from that point, my legs were reborn. We cruised in, collected our finisher’s mugs, and got some chicken wild rice soup from Grandma’s.
There aren’t many people I could happily run next to for 17 hours straight. Big thanks to Jack for being such a great running partner and getting us to sign up for this in the first place!
Recovery
My work schedule following the race was not great. After finishing at 11PM, I drove us back to SJU. We arrived a little before 3AM, and I was up at 7AM to bring a group of students to Stillwater for a daytrip. Everything felt horrible. We finally got back at 6PM, and I went to bed with a fever. After 15 hours of sleep, I woke up feeling pretty much completely back to normal. Legs were still a little bit sore, but I’ve experienced worse from a tough lift. Way faster recovery than I ever would have guessed.
Still hoping to get one more big challenge in before we’ve got snow on the ground.
Thanks for reading!