Most people cannot fathom running 100 miles all at once. Bemidji friends Kerrie Berg and Andrea Patten couldn't either.
Until they decided to do it.
Berg and Patten were recent Bright Spot guests on the KAXE Morning Show. We heard about their experience running the Hood Hundred Aug. 1-2 on Mount Hood in Oregon.
"We started running trail marathons, and then we did a 50-miler, and then ... 'Oh, let's do 100,'" Patten said.
If you had asked Patten five years ago if she would ever run 100 miles, "I would have said I'd be broken and curled up on the side of trail," she went on.
Patten completed the Hood Hundred last year. Over the winter, she convinced Berg to join her. They chose this race due to the beautiful setting with dry weather.
While Bemidji does not have the same elevation as Mount Hood, it offers the added challenge of being humid. One of the long last training runs the pair completed before leaving Minnesota had near 100% humidity.
"And the deer flies were 200%," Patten said. "So once you took away the humidity and the deer flies and you just put us at a little bit of elevation, we were okay."
Local wildfires affected the course of the race, changing a 100-mile loop to a series of repeated loops. While disappointing, there were some benefits. Family members and friends cheered them on every seven miles, along with an aid station to refuel.
Over 300 runners started the Hood Hundred. Patten finished in third place for women and 10th overall, but not everyone was able to complete the course. The race was called off in the early morning of the second day when the wind direction changed. The smoke and ash in the air made it very hard to breathe.
Berg completed 93 miles when the race ended.
The friends were able to stay connected during the second half of the race when runners were allowed to have a friend run alongside as a pacer. Friends switching back and forth on the loops allowed Berg to get updates on how Patten was doing along the way.
"I was just feeling inspired and excited for my bestie to do so awesome," Berg told us.
Listen to our full conversation above to hear more about the pair's future hopes and the tightness of the trail running community.
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The Bright Spot is made possible by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.
