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HEARTLAND HEROES

Several hundred runners tackled The North Face Endurance Challenge in Madison, Wisconsin – and every one had a story. Here are a few – plus the highlights from an unforgettable day.

Madison, Wisconsin – In the pre-dawn hours of October 25, Kettle Moraine State Park slept in cool temperatures, under a blanket of leaves wet from rains the day before. The serenity would turn to excitement soon enough, however, when headlamps lit up the trails as the day’s first runners took to The North Face Endurance Challenge presented by Gore-Tex®.

In all, over 750 runners accepted the Challenge and trained through the summer and early fall in preparation for one of the four distances offered by the Madison event: 10K, Half Marathon, 50K, and 50 Miles. Ages, abilities, and experience levels varied as wildly as the temperatures at this time of year, but a common bond united every hardy soul – the willingness to test one’s self against him/herself, others, and a scenic forested course.

Every Endurance Challenge participant – at every venue, from Bear Mountain, New York, to San Francisco, California – has a story about what drives them, obstacles to be conquered, epiphanies realized, or why they do what they do. And Madison was no exception. For every golden leaf fluttering through the sky, there was a tale of derring-do to compel runners upward, downward, and onward.

  

STRAIT JACKETS NOT REQUIRED
When it comes to running the 50K or 50-Mile ultramarathon distance, many every-day runners think “insane” or “never could I run that far … why would I want to?”

Igor Skalsky, oddly enough, is one of them. “We’re talking board-certified lunatics,” he says with a chuckle, referring to ultramarathoners. “Lock them up, throw away the key.” This is the pot calling the kettle “black.” Skalsky, 56, had run 81 marathons in his life and was registered for the Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K race in Madison.

Skalsky, a dentist from Brunswick, Ohio, says, “Standard road races are boring … road races are wearing thin.” After running his first trail race 27 years ago, Skalsky ran only roads for decades before he re-discovered his love for running off road. Now, he’s not likely to go back. “I basically started doing all my training runs on trails and now my legs feel good,” he says in his high-paced, frenetic manner. “There must be something to this trail running stuff.”

Says Skalsky, “When you get older, you better do some trails or you won’t get to your 60th birthday and be able to walk.”

Skalsky’s goals heading into The North Face Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K in Madison were simple. No course records here; let the young guns shoot it out by themselves. Skalsky laughs, “(My goal was to) to finish in one piece, finish in under 8 hours, with hopefully few scratches.”

Skalsky completed the rough-and-tumble, leaf-covered, and occasionally muddy course in 6:54, well under his eight-hour goal.

Total, close to 250 runners attempted the 50K or 50-Mile distances at The North Face Endurance Challenge in Madison. Could that many people really be crazy, as Skalsky believes?

50K: THE VIEW FROM THE FRONT
Some people nibble their way up the race totem pole. Their running resumes reflect a notch-by-notch procession of longer distances – 5K, 10K, Half Marathon, and then, maybe one day, a marathon.

Not Andrea Metz from Rothschild, Wisconsin.

Andrea Metz had never run farther than a half marathon. So, perhaps illogically, she registered for The North Face Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K, her first journey beyond 13.1 miles – not to mention, beyond the marathon.

Metz, a 23-year-old who graduated in May with a degree in chemical engineering from Michigan Technological University, ran cross-country and track in college and used the Endurance Challenge as a reason to continue training. “I had a really good senior year and I felt motivated to stay in really good shape,” she says.

Metz chose the Endurance Challenge because she loves trail running and the timing was just right.

At the start, surrounded by over 115 other runners, she tempered her expectations a bit. “I thought it would be great to win my age group,” she says. Those thoughts flew out the window quicker than a bird set free from its cage. “I realized from the start that I was in first place,” says Metz,” and I thought it would cool to win … that thought definitely kept me going.”

Still, she remained uncertain about what would happen beyond the 13.1-mile mark, a threshold she had never crossed.

“I went out faster than I should have, so I definitely slowed down during the race,” says Metz. “I had no idea whether the next-closest female was just around the corner behind me, so I pushed.” Around Mile 18, Metz admits she began to get “pretty sore from the distance,” but says, “I was able to continue through the discomfort and was actually able to pick it up over the last couple miles.”

Metz held off her challengers (including 50K rookie Jen Foley – see below) and won The North Face Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K women’s race. Her time of 4:23:37 put her nearly 17 minutes ahead of second-place female Stacey Scrivens of Waunakee, Wisconsin, and eighth overall.

Metz was elated – albeit low-key – about her debut win: “I am a competitor, so that (the idea of winning) really kept me going out there.” She hopes to tackle another trail 50K again, or “consider maybe bumping up to the 50-mile event ... even though I cannot imagine going another 19 miles.”

50K PURSUER PROFILE: Marin County in the Midwest
Many runners living in the western U.S. think they’ve discovered running nirvana, with many trails, great routes to run, and supportive, motivating communities. That’s why, 33-year-old Jen Foley had concerns when she left Marin County, California – considered one of the sport’s meccas – and moved to … Bettendorf, Iowa.

“My husband got transferred here and it was culture shock,” she says. “But I found a good community – quite a few marathoners and triathletes live here.”

This summer, Foley registered for The North Face Endurance Challenge Accelerade 50K – her first-ever attempt at an ultramarathon. Many rookies at this long distance are written off by veteran runners, since there is much to learn about pacing, fueling, and strategy. But Foley’s pedigree immediately places her in an advanced category: she is an accomplished athlete who swam at the University of Tennessee. In recent years, she’s taken up triathlons and, in her first-ever Ironman in 2007, she placed 24th overall and missed qualifying for the legendary Kona Ironman by less than 180 seconds.

Foley finds her inspiration in the family tree. “My mom (motivates me),” she explains. “She’s 57 and she did the Way Too Cool 50K (in California) this year … I’m my mother’s daughter, ya know.”

Foley went into Race Day with a list of wishes. “Good weather first and foremost,” she said. And that she got: perfectly overcast skies and cool temperatures spelled out ideal conditions for breakthrough performances. “Secondly, I’m hoping for a great time,” she said beforehand. “I’ll try to pace myself … but it (the 50K distance) is the great unknown for me.”

Foley’s wishes appeared to have come true on Race Day. Perhaps with some motivating visions of her mom, she roared to a time of 5:12:02, placing her sixth woman and 33rd overall.

In all, 115 runners completed the Accelerade 50K – many who, like Foley and Metz, surpassed the marathon distance for their very first time. Congratulations to every one of them – and welcome to the ultramarathon community.

50-MILE PERSEVERANCE: Grateful for Every Stride
In 2003, after Darren Fortney had serious back surgery, the doctors went to his family with some terrible news. “They told my family that I might not be able to walk again.”

During Fortney’s surgery, surgeons struck his spinal cord. “It was a surgery gone bad,” says Fortney, now 40. But I was walking three months later.

Even more impressive, five years later, Fortney registered for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Miler in Madison, Wisconsin.

In nearly every measurable way, Fortney, who lives in Middleton, Wisconsin, made a miraculous recovery – although his body experienced irreparable damage. “I have a lot of other nerve damage that hinders my ability to bike or swim. It’s not like it’s paralyzed – I just can’t feel the outside of the leg.”

Fortney was in rehab for a full year after the botched surgery. During that time, he did walk again. Then, in 2004, he decided to run. “I went for a run around the block and hated it,” he says. Prior to 1993, says the 6’3” Fortney, “I played softball and drank beer. I weighed 220 pounds.”

But he kept on running. Six months later, he ran his first-ever half marathon. In October 2005, it was the Chicago Marathon – with a time of 3:27, just 12 minutes shy of the qualifying standard for the elite Boston Marathon.

“I don’t know what kept me going,” Fortney admits. “I wanted to get in the best shape possible – to see if I could get better from all the injuries I had sustained”

Today Fortney’s weight is down to 185. What’s more, he’s graduated from road marathons to running ultra-distances. He’s completed the McNaughton 100-Miler in Pekin, Illinois, twice, winning it in 2008. This August, he ran the high-altitude Leadville Trail 100 – and completed it in 29 ˝ hours.

The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Miler represented yet another adventure for Fortney, since he had never tackled the distance. Yet what he lacks in fluid running form or experience, he makes up for in pure motivation: “I want to see what I can do with the body that I have left – it’s like, Well, you took this, this, and this away from me, but let’s see what I can still do.’”

Fortney was one of 136 runners wearing headlamps or holding flashlights in the early darkness of Race Day. With a resounding shout of “Go!” he vanished into the forest with everybody else, eventually circling back to the finish line with a final time of 9:06:55. From the surgery table to the non-stop hills of Kettle Moraine State Park, it seems little can stop the indomitable Fortney.

50-MILE CHAMPION: The French Revelation
The Ultramarathon community had never heard of Philippe Rolly, a soft-spoken physical therapist and father of three from Fairfax, Virginia.

The 35-year-old moved to the United States from his native France in 1999 when he married an American woman and he swam in the large ocean of road races for several years. Despite quite impressive times buried in his past – personal bests of 2:19 for the marathon and 29:42 in the 10K – Rolly had never set foot on an off-road ultramarathon course.

The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-Miler in Madison, Wisconsin changed all of that – and the field at the Endurance Challenge Championships in San Francisco may want to take note.

Philippe had planned to run The North Face Endurance Challenge in Washington, DC, on September 6 – a course much closer to his home and family. When the race was cancelled due to Tropical Storm Hanna, he looked elsewhere on the race calendar and decided to target the Madison race. He made the 1,000-mile trip solo, venturing into a new part of the country to run a new kind of race. “I did not know what to expect,” he says.

The first 20 or so miles of the Rolly’s race resembled a Monty Python film. “I was in the Top 5 for the first 2 miles,” he explains, “when my headlight went out and I was in the dark.” Rolly had to wait for the guys behind him and piggyback on the glow of their lamps. “When I was able to see at sunrise, I ran faster,” he says. “It took me almost 20 miles to take the lead.”

Then, at Mile 20, Rolly took a wrong turn. “I heard that some hunters were upset with the race and changed the direction of the sign – I went left instead of right.”

Four days later, Rolly laughs about the situation: “I went to Wisconsin and now I am lost in the middle of nowhere.” After over 20 minutes, he returned to the intersection only to learn that he had lost significant ground and was far behind.

Most runners would have lost their composure and competitive edge after such a mishap, but Rolly took level-headed stock of the situation. “I said to myself, ‘let’s try to stay focused, let’s try to come back and win,’” he explains.

Rolly reeled off the miles with the voraciousness of a wolverine and, with each informal report he received from volunteers or others on the course, he had sliced time off the front-runner’s lead. Finally, at Mile 35, without an exhausted word, he climbed into first and promptly pulled away.

“I was so tired when I passed the leader,” he says, “and I knew he was tired, too.” Still, Rolly admits, the final 10 miles were not a cakewalk. “I took this energy drink, Accelerade, and I started to feel a lot better.”

As the realization of a win set in, Rolly began to think about The North Face Endurance Challenge Championship on December 6 in San Francisco (regional winners of each 50-mile event receive a trip to compete in the championship). He says, “I was trying to keep my lead over the last six miles … but not run too hard because the race in San Francisco is only six weeks away.”

Even with a tapered pace, Rolly won the 50-Mile race with a quick time of 7:01:34. That put him 9:27 ahead of second-place finisher, PF Potvin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, and 29:22 ahead of third-place finisher, Josh Miller or Madison.

Looking beyond Madison and even San Francisco, Rolly gets the sense that his road-running days are behind him. “When I was running marathons, I would run a lot with Kenyans and Ethiopians, and the atmosphere was different – so intense and focused,” he says. “I think I am done running marathons.”

50-MILE SURPRISE: One Race, Two Winners
Trail-running legend Nikki Kimball of Livingston, Montana, casts a long shadow. And, apparently, that shadow stretches 2,000 miles, all the way to Atlanta, Georgia.

Atlanta is home to Roxanne Zobava, a 32-year-old hairdresser who began running ultramarathons only two years ago. More amazing, she’s only been a runner for three years. “I ran my first marathon in 2005,” she says.

Zobava made the trip to Madison, Wisconsin, for The North Face Endurance Challenge 50 partly to spend time with family (“My aunt lives up there and my family has never seen me run,” she says) and partly to get in one more run before the year’s end.

“I had no idea that Nikki (Kimball) would be there,” she says. “It’s the craziest story.” When Zobava checked into the hotel the night before, she met Diane Van Deren, who is a The North Face athlete with Kimball. Van Deren mentioned that Nikki was there.

“It’s kind of like I was star-struck,” says Zobava. “I called some of my friends and said ‘Oh my God Nikki Kimball is here.’” Her friends’ response? “Well, I guess you won’t be winning the race.” Kimball, the 2007 USATF Ultrarunner of the Year, had already won two Endurance Challenge Races in 2008 – Bellingham (50 Miles) and Bear Mountain (Half Marathon). She also won the 2008 USATF 10-Mile National Trail Championship.

Zobava and Kimball met shortly before the race began the next morning.

As the race unfolded, Zobava experienced a second surprise. Past the halfway point, she learned that she was winning – despite the fact that Kimball bolted from the start and Zobava never saw her. She says, “I knew it had to be because I took a wrong turn, so I kept on running, doing my own thing.”

Turns out, Kimball and small group of other runners had ventured off course as result of a vandalized marking (see Philippe Rolly, above). Kimball shrugs off the misadventure: “True trail runners don't let unexpected events get to them too much. Hey, we do this sport because we get bored by sports that go too smoothly.”

Zobava continued and the miles passed. “It was so pretty and beautiful,” she says. “It really was a well-run race.” As the miles clicked through the thirties and then she hit 40, a thought rocketed through her head: could she possibly win the race and the trip to The North Face Endurance Challenge Championship six weeks later in San Francisco?

It was not to be. Zobava tells the story: “Around Mile 40, I heard a shout behind me, ‘HEY GEORGIA!’ and it was Nikki coming up.” The two ran together for a bit. “It was very inspiring to me,” says Zobava.

Kimball eventually pulled away and won the race in 7:46:01 (chip time), 5:33 ahead of Zobava, who held for second. Van Deren, who Zobava had met in the hotel lobby the previous night, was third female, with a time of 8:55:55.

On the podium, Zobava clapped beside Kimball as she received her winner’s check for $1,000. Zobava received $600 for her second-place finish and Van Deren took home $350.

But another surprise was in the works.

The North Face race officials announced that the winner’s trip would go to Zobava, since Kimball had already received a trip by virtue of her win at the Bellingham Endurance Challenge. Zobava says, “When they announced that they were going to send me, my jaw dropped to the floor.”

“Nikki was going to tell me but she wanted it to be a surprise,” she adds.

Now, Zobava will get a chance to run in The North Face Endurance Challenge Championship against the other elite women in her sport. And, although, Kimball is not planning to run, she will be on hand as well.

“It’s the chance of a lifetime,” giggles Zobava. “I’ve only been to California once – when I was seven.”

10K & HALF MARATHON RUNDOWN
278 runners tackled The North Face Endurance Challenge Half Marathon course in Madison, Wisconsin, and the ages and ability levels varied as widely as the branch span of a 100-year-old oak tree.

Stacey Kincaid of Palmyra, Wisconsin, won the women’s race with a time of 1:38:08 – an impressive pace of 7:30 per mile, considering the mud, sand, and hills that greeted intrepid runners. Kincaid was followed by Alissa Hunt of Chicago, who clocked a time of 1:40:36, and third-place finisher Keri Sadler of Hartland, Wisconsin, with a time of 1:48:03.

The men’s Half Marathon blazed a path through the leafy carpet, as Eric Gulve clocked a 6:38-per-mile pace on his way to a top finishing time of 1:26:43. Gulve, from Webster Groves, Missouri, out-dashed Tom Zuhlke of Wyocena, Wisconsin, who finished 61 seconds later, and Benjamin Webb of Madison, who finished in 1:28:51.

In 10K action, Brian Udovich of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, took the crown with a fleet-footed time of 41:16 (chip time). Udovich was 1:42 faster than second-place runner Brian Runft of Mundelein, Illinois, and 2:58 ahead of third-place finisher Peter Chriske of Milwaukee.

In the women’s 10K race, Jordyn Dass and Janeen Finke ran nip and tuck, pushing each other right to the end. Dass, who is from Columbia Heights, Wisconsin, ultimately edged Finke by a mere 13 seconds, finishing in 49:49 (chip time). The exhausted pair was followed by Angela Ryan of Fitchburg, Wisconsin, who finished barely one minute later, in 50:21.

235 runners took part in the 10K run.