A 100-mile run.
When he isn't cramming for exams or working in the Missoula County Attorney's Office, Wolfe, 30, competes in ultramarathons - races longer than the marathon length of 26.2 miles.
On July 19, Wolfe tied for first place in the Tahoe Rim Trail 100-Mile Endurance Run in North Tahoe, Calif.
Already a two-time national champion in the 50-mile trail run, Wolfe now shares the 100-mile title with Erik Skaden of Folsom, Calif. The pair crossed the finish line together in 18 hours, 59 minutes and 10 seconds, splitting the $1,000 purse.
The race began at 5 a.m., with 111 chilly and eager runners chatting and stretching in the dark, trying to distract themselves from the reality of the long day ahead. The two-loop, 100-mile course situated along Lake Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada features 22,000 feet of cumulative elevation change ranging from 6,800 feet to 9,214 feet.
When the starting gun sounded, Wolfe began casually with a group of six or seven other headlamp-sporting runners. At mile 15, though, he started to pull away.
By mile 65, several runners had dropped out from exhaustion while Wolfe steadily advanced. Ten miles later, Wolfe caught up with front-runner Skaden, who was struggling.
“With less than 25 miles to go, we were both pretty worked from pushing ourselves too hard,” Wolfe said.
At 85 miles in, the sun was gone and with it any remaining rivalry between the two runners. Wolfe was ill and vomiting, while Skaden was urinating blood, a sign of kidney distress. Both decided to ease up on their aching bodies and cross the finish line together.
“It was a smart choice to make,” Wolfe said. “It was a cool moment of camaraderie when we both decided to finish together and pace each other.”
One minute before midnight, Wolfe and Skaden reached the finish line more than an hour and half before third-place finisher and women's champion Nikki Kimball of Bozeman. Skaden was immediately attended to by physicians, and Wolfe collapsed into a chair, where he remained for several hours.
“At that point, I was just excited to be done, happy that it was over,” he said.
Wolfe, a Bozeman native, didn't grow up running. A high school soccer player and rock climbing enthusiast, he was introduced to trail running by some older friends after graduating from high school. It appealed to him because it seemed like a great way to spend extended time in nature.
“You're out in the woods with just a pair of shoes on your feet, and there's something I really love about that,” Wolfe said. “I also love the uncertainty of it. Anything over 50 miles, you just never know what's going to happen, whether you're going to make it. You just throw yourself in and ride the storm.”
Wolfe didn't even own a pair of running shoes when he ran his first race, the 20-mile Bridger Ridge Run, at age 18. After crossing the finish line in a friend's Nikes, Wolfe decided to invest in some shoes of his own and keep running. At 19, he competed in a 50K, or 31-mile, race. The next summer, he was running 50-milers. The Tahoe Trail Run was his first 100-mile race.
Wolfe said running 100 miles at a time feels like riding a rollercoaster as his body cycles between high and low levels of energy. The first 25 miles of every race are his warm-up; 50 miles in, he hits his stride.
“It's usually some point between 70 and 80 when you hit the wall and you think, ‘This is the stupidest thing I've ever done,' '' Wolfe said. “But you just have to keep going. Your body will do what you tell it to.”
To keep racers hydrated and fueled, ultramarathon races have aid stations with food and water about every six to eight miles on the course. Wolfe said he avoids the solid food - fruit, sandwiches, boiled potatoes - until the latter part of the race, preferring energy gels and water with electrolyte tablets.
Training for these races entails running two to four miles daily, six days a week for Wolfe.
Weekends are more intensive.
“At the peak of my training this spring, I'd be running six to eight hours both days and averaging 150 miles per week,” Wolfe said. “It's definitely a time commitment, for sure.”
Because of his busy schedule, Wolfe usually trains alone and runs before work, after work and sometimes during his lunch break. He doesn't have time for much else.
“It's a good complement with where I'm at with school and work because I'm already sacrificing for those,” Wolfe said. “I'm so busy with school that I have to have another outlet.”
Wolfe enters three to five ultramarathons per year. To give his body a rest, he keeps the races at least one month apart and stops running completely during the winter.
Though travel costs and race entry fees are expensive, Wolfe plans to continue competing in ultramarathons and hopes to enter a 100-mile race in Europe, where the fringe sport is more popular. At 30, Wolfe is still considered a young contender in a sport where most runners peak in their late 30s.
“Assuming the body holds up, I've got plenty of time to race,” he said.
Lauren Russell is a newsroom intern at the Missoulian. She is a journalism student at the University of Montana.
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