This weekend I’m pacing and crewing a friend of mine at a 100 mile race out of state, and as luck would have it, I was reminded that 6 years ago I completed my first (and only so far) 100 mile race. It got me thinking about how many races I’ve run over the years, and what the stat breakdown looks like. So, let’s do a little number crunching (thank you veloviewer) and see what we can see about my history with running races.

History

I ran my first race ever, the Autism 5K on May 15, 2010. I had only started running in January that year, was overweight and unhealthy, and so it was a great accomplishment for me. I even followed it up with my first half marathon October of that same year.

My first marathon distance was in June of 2012, and was such a miserable experience that I swore to never do a race that long again. I managed to keep that promise to myself until October of 2014 when my wife convinced me to run the Twin Cities Marathon as she was doing her first marathon there. That experience wasn’t as bad as the first one, and so maybe it just took a bit more time for me to get comfortable with long distance running.

Late in 2014 I ran my first ever trail race, a little 5 miler just north of the cities, and started my journey into the world of trail and ultramarathons. I still kept up some road running for a bit though with a finish at Grandma’s Marathon in June of 2015. That became my road marathon PR (4:46) as I’ve never gone back to road racing at that distance again. Bigger and better things were awaiting me on the trail.

After being lured into the beauty of running in the woods, I did my first ever ultramarathon at Surf the Murph 50K in October of 2015. I then followed that up with my first 50 mile in April of 2016 at Zumbro. From there it was a series of various races, including a handful of 50K’s until I decided to crack that 50 mile mark again at the Badger 100K in August of 2019.

That race served as part of my training block for my eventual 100 mile buckle at the Savage 100 in October of 2019. I was supposed to make an attempt at the Arrowhead 135 last year but got sick, and so if I can get that done this upcoming January that will mark my new longest distance race completed ever.

The stats

In the midst of all of these milestone runs, I was doing a lot of other events, mostly on trails. The 25K is a popular distance in my race history, but I have found enjoyment on everything from 5Ks to rugged trail marathons, and back up to 100K distances on a couple of other occasions. Let’s break down some numbers.

Total races: 122

Number	Distance
30	5K
14	10K
8	10 mile
17	Half Marathon
11	25K
7	Marathon
6	50K
1	50 mile
2	100K
1	80 mile
1	100 mile
24	Misc. distances or DNF’s

The breaks down to roughly 8-9 races per year that I’ve been doing for 15 years.

The funny thing is that numbers like that aren’t actually all that impressive in some of the circles I hang around in. But, I’ll take pride in my 11 ultramarathon finishes nonetheless. I actually have 4 more ultra distances under my belt in longer races that I’ve DNF’d part-way through, but past the 31 mile mark. So that means I’ve completed an ultra distance 15 times… once for every year I’ve been running, despite not starting ultras until five years into my journey.

I’m sure I’ll keep racing for as long as I’m able (haven’t even talked about bike racing), but I’m targeting the future a bit more on the ‘adventure’ side and a bit less formal racing events. I’m hoping to get Arrowhead 135 done this January, and then I’ve got plans for one more 100 mile attempt in the next 1-2 years. Apart from that though, I’m excited to add whatever feels good to this list of accomplishments. There’s lots of great things to see out there and sometimes races are a great excuse to see new places!

Happy racing everybody!