Running together
BY KEVIN DRULEY
THE COURIER
*Friday, April 13, 2007*
Call Mike Siltman crazy.
He is.
The Middletown native registered for this weekend’s 150-mile McNaughton Park
Trail Run in Pekin last August.
The scale of that distance didn’t set in, though, until he completed the
Umstead 100-Mile Endurance Run in Raleigh, N.C., in late March.
“At the end of that, I thought, ‘I’ve still got 50 more (miles) to go.
What’ll I be getting into in two weeks?'” Siltman said.
He and 48 other runners will find out at 6 p.m. tonight. They will be
allotted 48 hours to complete the race, which is the first of its kind in
the United States.
“I think it’s really cool,” said his wife, Tonya, who will run a mere 50
miles at McNaughton beginning at 6 a.m. Saturday. “I’m really excited for
him.”
Race coordinator Andy Weinberg is excited, too.
A teacher and swimming coach at Pekin Community High School, he has seen the
runs grow from an 11-athlete field at the inaugural event in 2000 to 250
entries this year.
Most of them will compete in the 50- or 100-mile trail runs (or endurance
runs – the two can be synonymous). The time limit for both is 36 hours.
“It’s a real intimate group, the people who participate in this sport,” he
added. “You put a race on in Montana, they’re going to be there. You put one
on in Pekin, Ill., they’re going to be there.”
???
Mike Siltman used to be out of shape. He used to weigh about 230 pounds.
That began to change in January 2004.
He made a New Year’s resolution with Tonya to train for a marathon together.
She had been running since 2002, beginning with half-marathons and building
her stamina.
“There was quite a bit of coaxing,” she said. “He was overweight at the
time, and I knew he’d feel better if he started running. Also, I figured his
snoring wouldn’t keep me up at night as much.”
So they ran.
They finished the Lake Shore Marathon in Chicago in May 2004. Somewhere
during those 26.2 miles, Mike was hooked.
He entered another marathon in Memphis in December of that year.
He was running along when the back of a fellow runner’s T-shirt caught his
eye.
“Mohican 100 mile-run,” it read, referring to the race held in June in
Loudonville, Ohio.
“It made me curious,” Mike Siltman said. “I remember catching up with the
guy, tapping him on the shoulder and asking him what it was about.”
The man’s answer satisfied him.
He ran his first endurance race, a 50-miler, in May 2005.
By then, his involvement with running had become a passion – more than a
resolution made good.
“When I started, I figured it would be a marathon or two,” said Mike
Siltman, who now weighs 175 pounds. “I wound up falling in love with running
very long distances.”
???
It’s more ironic than funny to Tonya Siltman.
“I got him into marathons and he got me into trail running,” she said.
Only this time, the cajoling wasn’t motivated by a lack of sleep.
She ran her first 50-miler in October, and is admittedly taking a casual
approach to this one.
Like her husband, she views her shorter races as training for her longer
ones.
“I could do better if I wanted to make the time,” she said. “This is good
enough for now.”
She home-schools the couple’s four children during the day. Two of them have
taken note of their parents’ extra-curricular activities.
Whitney Siltman, 15, has competed in 5Ks and a beginner triathlon. Elijah
Siltman, 10, has dabbled in 10Ks and 5Ks.
They will spend Friday night and most of Saturday at their grandparents’ in
Atlanta. Tonya Siltman will pick them up from her in-laws’ sometime late
Saturday, when she is projected to finish her race.
“If it were warmer out, we’d be camping,” she said.
???
Weinberg will oversee the event and its approximately 90 volunteers, though
he holds that he is fit enough to compete.
He balked, however, at the idea of the 150-miler, which consists of 15
10-mile loops around the park.
“I’ll be too busy,” Weinberg said. “Plus, I don’t want to run that far.”
Distance wasn’t the only thing influencing his statement.
The weekend forecast in Pekin calls for lows in the 30s and chances of rain
and snow.
It hasn’t escaped some runners’ notice.
“They’ve called or e-mailed me saying that they’re excited about running in
mud and mush,” Weinberg said. “They like those personal challenges. It
doesn’t affect them.”
The spoils awarded the victors are testament to that quirky mindset.
Winners of the 50- and 100-mile races will receive an ornate belt buckle.
The 150-mile champ gets a handmade plaque crafted from wood and aluminum
signs found in McNaughton Park.
“Some of these guys will run 150 miles and if you give them a handshake,
that’s enough,” Weinberg said.
“My goal is anywhere between 36 and 40 hours, but that all depends on the
weather,” Siltman said.
“It’s going to be pretty cold. Not as warm as I’d like.”
He doesn’t expect to compete for the coveted plaque.
The fatigue, cold, and every other potential roadblock notwithstanding, he
merely wants to enjoy the run.
Call him crazy.
He is.
Planet Ultramarathon 
Posted on April 15, 2007 by planetultramarathon