Now this guy is a mutant! - JP Fitness Forums

GG300 · 04-13-2007, 07:41 AM

This story was on the front Page of the Milwaukee Journal this AM. We sure do grow them wierd here in Wisconsin.

Quote:

Runner hopes to log 1,079 miles in 23 days
What took a glacier thousands of years to carve out, he plans to cover in about 3 weeks
By TOM HELD
theld@journalsentinel.com
Posted: April 12, 2007
Even Jason Dorgan's fellow endurance extremists worry he could be through running after his attempt to run through Wisconsin on the Ice Age National Scenic Trail, all 1,079 miles of it.

It's not that the 41-year-old engineer from Madison is tackling the endeavor without some serious bona fides.

In 2005, he pushed through the mind- and shoe-melting heat of Death Valley and covered 135 miles in just under 38 hours to finish 15th in the notorious Badwater Ultramarathon, arguably endurance running's greatest challenge.

And before that, in 2001, he knocked off the Grand Slam of Ultrarunning, four 100-mile races in 14 weeks.

His next quest, however, will take him far beyond those relative dashes.

Starting on Saturday, in St. Croix Falls, Dorgan will attempt to cover more than 1,000 miles in 23 days.

Success requires him to knock off the rough equivalent of two marathons, every day, for three weeks. There are no recovery days in his schedule.

It's never been done, at least not on the Ice Age Trail.

Of course, the obvious question is why? Why endure blisters, exhaustion, mud, rain, hunger, boredom?

In the simple terms he tends to favor, Dorgan said: "It's the next challenge. I've done other things that have pushed me, and I've been successful in those, so I'm looking for something new."

There is also an altruistic purpose: to raise money for and draw attention to the Ice Age Trail, the snaking combination of narrow footpaths and paved roads marking the last encroachment of glaciers on the Badger State.

It's one of those natural wonders most people would say they've heard of but know little about.

Given its serpentine imprint, touching 30 counties, more than 60% of the state's residents live within 20 miles of the trail. But it seems safe to assume that most of those millions know only the section near their backyard, if that.

Roughly three dozen people claim to have hiked its entirety, and fewer than 20 have done it end-to-end in a continuous fashion, called a through-hike. The standing record for a through-hike of the trail is believed to be 36 days.

None has come close to Dorgan's goal: ambulating from Interstate State Park, along the St. Croix River, to Potawatomi State Park, on Green Bay, in what amounts to a long vacation.

Little recovery time
Dorgan brings an engineer's mind-set and plan for traversing the kettles, kames, eskers and bogs.

He will walk when necessary, probably about one-third to one-half of his time on the trail, and maintain an overall pace of roughly 5 mph. When running on the roughly 600 miles of off-road trail, he expects to knock off a mile every 14 minutes; on the roads, his pace will be about 10 minutes per mile.

He expects to be on the trail at least 10 hours a day.

Two of his longtime friends and fellow ultramarathoners, Tom Bunk and Robert Wehner, will take turns as his crew. One of them will drive to meet him at road crossings and help get Dorgan the 5,000 to 6,000 calories he needs to consume every day.

Most of that will come from energy drinks, bars and peanut butter sandwiches.

Bunk has great admiration for Dorgan and what he has accomplished in his decade-long endurance experience.

Still, he has some doubts about the lanky, 6-foot-3 runner's ability to pull off a through-run of the Ice Age Trail.

Most runners take weeks or months to recover from an ultramarathon, or anything over the marathon distance of 26.2 miles. Dorgan will have roughly 12 hours to bounce back, and needs to bounce back 22 times.

"How do you get enough calories in you and your legs back under you?" Bunk wondered.

"I think the first day or two will go pretty good, but as you get into the third and fourth and fifth day, it's going to be tough to get out of bed and get started again," he said.

Dorgan worries more about blisters and injuries.

He will alternate five pairs of size 14 Nikes, hoping to keep dry shoes on his feet to minimize the blisters that made the final miles of Badwater excruciating.

An old ankle injury will be in the back of his mind, and he hopes that it will stay there throughout the three-week ordeal.

"It's going to be mind over body, after a while," he said.

More than a physical feat
Both Bunk and another of Dorgan's running partners, Tim Yanacheck of Madison, see Dorgan's mind as his strongest asset, even more important than his economical stride.

Instead of focusing on that endpoint 40 or 50 miles down the road and how far that seems, Dorgan has the mental strength to think only of the next mile marker and how close that is.

He also walks well and readily. Conserving energy is more important than pushing the pace, although that three-week time frame is a firm figure.

"Three weeks off of work is about the best I could do," said Dorgan, who engineers mufflers for a division of Cummins Engine. "Getting any more was going to be pushing it too hard.

"I gotta pay the bills."

As a vacation, this ramble through the woods and meadows certainly promises to be more exhausting than rejuvenating.

But Dorgan expects to be energized by the scenery and the exploration of the Ice Age Trail far beyond his familiar routes in the Southern Kettle Moraine.

"The majority of the trail, I've never seen, so this will all be new to me," he said. "I'm doing something new every day and every step."

Ice Age trailways coordinator Andrew Hanson, who works for the Ice Age Park and Trail Foundation, calls Dorgan's quest a pilgrimage.

"Anybody who embarks on a 1,000-mile hike or run goes on a real personal journey in a lot of ways," Hanson said. "He's going to come away with maybe the biggest adventure in his life."

Yanacheck is somewhat fearful that the effort could be one of Dorgan's last long runs.

He likens it to David Horton's record-setting jaunt down the Appalachian Trail: 2,144 miles in just over 50 days, in 1991.

"Horton said when he was done with the Appalachian Trail, he didn't feel like running again for a year," Yanacheck said. "He didn't even feel like putting on his shoes and running on his favorite trail or around the block."

Dorgan, however, has a much different idea.

On May 12, six days after finishing his 1,079-mile effort, he plans to be back on the trail, competing in his 10th Ice Age 50.