Estrem finishes brisk 100 mile run
Ketchum ultra-runner goes 22 hours, takes second in Bear 100
By MICHAEL AMES
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Ketchum ultra-runner Chris Estrem completed the Bear 100 in 22 hours and one minute.
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For some people, running a marathon is the achievement of a lifetime. For others, 26 miles is a warm up.
Chris Estrem, 39, of Ketchum, has been a runner for most of his life. Growing up in Iowa, he ran high school cross-country and track plus one year in college. It wasn?t until moving to higher ground, though, that Estrem was introduced to the sport of ultra-running, a grueling test of physical and mental endurance challenging athletes to compete in 100-mile ?ultra-marathons.?
Two weeks ago, competing in his first ultra-marathon near Preston, Idaho, Estrem performed extremely well, finishing the Bear Lake course, which winds and climbs 17,000 feet through Southeastern Idaho?s Wasatch and Bear Mountain ranges, in second place. His time of 22 hours, 1 minute, placed him one minute behind the winner, a figure who Estrem had no idea was so close: his headlamp could not reach that far in the dark of night.
Estrem?s super-human effort tested his limits, but in the days following the race he showed few signs of the punishment his body had so recently endured.
?I?m just sore in a couple of places,? he admitted with patent humility. The hardest part of the race was the final 10 miles, a constant but gradual downhill run for 3,400 feet. ?It was like running all the way down Baldy,? said Estrem, not mentioning the previous 90 miles.
Running 100 miles in 22 hours ?including 17,000 feet of climbing?raises many questions for those unfamiliar with ultra-running.
What about food and water?
The Bear 100 organizers set up 15 drink and aid stations, roughly one every 9 miles. For food, Estrem carries his own energy-rich elixir, a pureed and ?very cooked? mixture of brown rice, kinoa, almond butter and bananas that Estrem fondly calls his ?baby food.?
?I don?t want to chew and I don?t want to work hard to digest; it?s got to go down easy,? he says of the fuel which he carries on him in small squeeze bottles.
Does he run the entire 100 miles?
Because of the oftentimes steep terrain covered in ultra-trail-marathons, much of the race is actually a very fast hike.
?It is a race,? Estrem says. ?But the truth is that there is a fair amount of walking because of all the climbing.? As far as sleep goes, no racers dare take the time to stop for such a decadent thing.
Estrem was originally introduced to the sport by an ultra-running friend training in Colorado, who had asked him to act as a pacer, running the last stretch of an ultra-marathon to help ?keep him alert and awake and upright in the middle of the night.?
The most common question Estrem fields about his eccentric sport is Why?
?It?s a bizarre sport. But I love to run and I love specifically to trail run,? he says. ?It gives me time to digest my thoughts?it?s really a meditation.?
?Training is awesome,? he says of his favorite aspect of the sport. For the ultra-runner, there is no gym; there is no track. The practice facility becomes the Pioneers, the Boulders, the Smokies, the Whiteclouds, the Sawtooths. This summer?with plenty of rain to keep the trails firm and not too dusty?was a particularly good one for training, he says.
At 39, Estrem was of average age at the Bear 100. ?It?s an older person?s sport,? he says, recalling that third place went to a 53-year old man and fourth place was a 43-year old woman who finished three hours behind Estrem.
?It?s a maturity thing, it takes a lot of patience and self-knowledge.? When Estrem was younger, he may have been stronger, but he would have ?probably gotten bored,? he said.
As to his future in ultra-marathons, Estrem concedes that ?it?s an addiction.? The experimental aspect of the sport is undeniable. These are athletes driven to find their limits.
Estrem is as curious as anyone about his future. ?I just did 100 miles, what will I do next??
