Jason Dorgan

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

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.

*On JSOnline.com To track Jason Dorgan’s progress or to get more information
on the Ice Age Trail, go to www.jsonline.com/links.*