Ultra Running’s Young Guns
INTRODUCTION
I held down one of the very greatest side-hustles imaginable from 2005 through 2008: serving as Editor of Competitor Norcal while also running OutsidePR. I had to be scrupulous about separating the two jobs, but I’ll always be thankful to Bob Babbitt for giving me the chance to improve my writing by hammering out an Editor’s Note and one or two features every month for three years. I got to cover ultra running, adventure racing, outrigger canoeing and even Ride & Tie.
After multiple rounds of corporate ownership, the archives of Competitor.com no longer have any of my stories, but I’m proud of a handful of them. This one in particular stands out because it was pretty much the first feature to presage the youth movement in ultra running. It’s from September, 2008, and it is instructive to note that the three young runners did not avoid the injury bug, but instead ran themselves into the ground. But here’s to Kyle, Erik and Tony — three effervescent lights who absolutely destroyed the competition whenever they lined up.
-Gordon Wright
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When Marco Olmo won last year’s Ultra Trail Tour du Mont Blanc, one of the most prestigious ultra-marathon races in the world, it was hardly a surprise. It was, in fact, his second consecutive victory in the 150-kilometer race, and he handily beat a triad of American ultra stars: Scott Jurek, Hal Koerner and Karl Meltzer.
The key to his success? His advanced age. Olmo is 59 – a robust example of the central truth of ultrarunning: victory goes to the seasoned athlete. The common assumption — ever since Gordy Ainsleigh lost his horse prior to the 1974 Western States Endurance Ride and decided to run the course (and create a new sport) — was that it took years and years and thousands of miles to condition an ultrarunner’s body to withstand the pounding rigors inherent to the sport.
Recently, however, three young guns have turned that assumption, and the sport, on its head. Anton Krupicka and brothers Kyle and Erik Scaggs have simply blown up the world of ultrarunning — and proven that you don’t need an AARP card to excel.
(Left: Anton Krupicka // Right: Kyle and Erik Skaggs)
Pick just about any of the most difficult ultras and these three are not only winning them, but often setting scorching new course records in the process. Krupicka won the 2006 Leadville 100 at just 22 years of age, and followed that up with a repeat win last year. Erik Scaggs teamed with Kyle to win last year’s inaugural GORE-TEX TransRockies Run, a six-day stage race in Colorado, and earlier this year captured the Quad Dipsea in his first attempt at that brutal course, finishing less than one minute off the all-time record set in 1992.
Kyle, perhaps the most talented of the trio, annihilates records nearly every time he pins on a race bib. In last year’s Wasatch 100, he not only won at his first attempt at the distance, he beat Karl Meltzer’s course record by nearly ten minutes. This July, he lined up at the Hardrock 100, which — with apologies to the Western States — is generally considered to be the hardest ultra in the world, and won in a truly astonishing time of 23 hours, 23 minutes.
In breaking the course record, set by Jurek in 2007, by nearly three hours, Skaggs inspired encomiums generally reserved for superheroes. As race director Dale Garland told the Durango Herald, “I didn’t think this was possible. I don’t know if there is a superlative I can use for this. This is one of the great athletic barriers that we thought would never be broken.”
If Kyle surprised the race director, he didn’t surprise Krupicka, a close friend with whom he lived for four months earlier this year in Silverton, Colorado.
“The thing about Hardrock,” said Krupicka, who helped crew for Kyle that day, “is that we thought the record was within reach, for sure.” They probably should have told the race organizers, who had to scramble all day to set up aid stations – some of which Kyle reached two hours before they were scheduled to open.
The Skaggs brothers were reared in the tiny town of Glenwood, New Mexico, close to the Gila Wilderness. “There wasn’t a lot to do there,” said Kyle, “We mostly played outdoors all the time.” Their high school didn’t have a track team, and though Erik, 25, ran cross country, Kyle, 23, disdained even that. “It was too structured,” he said, “I only ran to get fit for rock climbing.”
That changed between Kyle’s freshman and sophomore years at Evergreen State College in Washington, where a friend talked him into trying out for cross-country. He made the NAIA team, though he now says that his collegiate training “was a bit of a joke.” “It was great,” he noted, “My coach, Craig Dixon, was a great, great role model, but I didn’t take it that seriously.”
What his training did affect, though, was older brother Erik, who studied at New Mexico State. “He’d come home on summer break; we’d go for runs and he’d kick my ass,” said Erik. “So, obviously, I had to start training to avoid that.”
And train they do. Each of them pulls monster training mileage, with Krupicka leading the way. “I might do a little more mileage than Kyle,” said Krupicka, “I average right around 180 miles a week leading up to a big race. But going into this year’s Western States I actually did one week with 37 hours of running. I think that added up to about 260 miles.”
That effort went for naught when the Western States was cancelled this year due to raging forest fires and poor air quality. It also brought on something rare: an overtraining injury, as Krupicka is now fighting a neuroma in his foot.
“It’s been frustrating, especially with Western States being cancelled,” he said. “Right now I’m less than four weeks out from the Leadville 100 and haven’t run in three weeks, so I’m getting a little anxious.”
The neuroma is unusual in that – even given the extreme training the three indulge in – they’ve remained remarkably injury-free. It could be that their very youth, the factor that had theoretically limited their ability to compete at the highest levels, is a key to their success.
Or it could be simply that they’re excelling because of their position in life. San Francisco resident Dean Karnazes is 44, and is perhaps the world’s most well-known ultrarunner.
“I’m well aware of what these guys are doing. They’re so strong, so grounded and super-mature that their mindset has really helped them,” Karnazes said. “But this is where they are in their life — no kids, not married. They do insane training miles and are just rocking it. They’re incredible. I don’t know how else to say it, but they’re kicking serious ass.”
(And just to point out how different ultrarunners are from mainstream recreational runner, Karnazes apologized for the spotty cell reception during his interview. He was running home from Half Moon Bay, where he had just given a keynote address at an executive retreat at the Four Seasons).
Indeed, the trio is relatively unmoored from responsibilities that could inhibit their running. Erik is working for Rogue Valley Runners, a running store in Ashland, Oregon owned by superstar ultra runner Hal Koerner. Kyle, after couch surfing with Krupicka for a while, is now living in Silverton, Colorado, renting a room from a friend and doing some work for the Mountain Studies Institute.
Krupicka has perhaps the most excellent trail running bum resume: he’s living in his truck in the town of Leadville and working in a coffee shop. “I shower at the aquatic center in town,” he said, “And all my hot meals are right there at work.”
Both Kyle and Krupicka are sponsored by New Balance, which provides them not only with all the gear and apparel they need, but also a small stipend that, for Krupicka at least, is enough to live on, if you’re willing to call a Chevy your home.
This running bum lifestyle belies the vast intelligence all three possess. Krupicka is the most garrulous of the three, engaging, energetic and possessing a Jesus of Nazareth look (if Jesus logged 175 miles per week). He graduated from Colorado College — where he ran track and cross-country — and, like the Scaggs, majored in Environmental Studies.
All three have a deep and intimate connection with nature. Growing up in the small farming community of Niobrara, Nebraska, Krupicka was a nature boy from day one, “My parents just raised me with a real appreciation of the land and nature. My dad was the director of the Small Farm Energy Project for the Center for Rural Affairs. We had a really simple lifestyle, living off the land. We had a huge garden, an outhouse and wood heating,” he recalled.
Their thoughtfulness is easily apparent, especially in discussing the balance between competitiveness and their love of the outdoors, “I grapple with the competitive element of racing,” noted Krupicka, “I wonder how important that is to me. I’m really competitive, and if people say there’s no ego element to winning races, they’re lying. But really, what I love most is just running in the mountains.”
That is a sentiment shared by Kyle, who said, “Mostly it’s a balance of joy. I’d be pretty happy just doing long adventure runs by myself, because that’s my favorite thing, just being out there in the mountains running. But I do have a pretty competitive side.”
Krupicka and Kyle managed to find a revealing balance in this spring’s Red Hot 50K race in Moab, where they entered together and blew everyone out just miles into the race. “We were just cruising that race, and planned on winning it together, “ said Kyle, “But with about a mile and a half to go, we were just jogging along and some guy blew by us. We weren’t even paying attention, and the guy was a good runner, too. We had to hammer for a bit, but in the end we put three minutes on him and crossed the finish line together.”
Together – and with a new, shared, course record.
Erik’s boss Hal Koerner is 32, theoretically in the prime of his career and defending champion of the Western States. He thinks that the youth brigade is a welcome development in ultrarunning.
“They’re just very humble and genuine guys,” noted Koerner. “It took me ten years to win the Western States, but they run smart races and have incredible drive. People don’t realize that it’s not beyond them to run 35 miles per day in training.”
Koerner will be back at Western States in 2009 to defend his crown, but likely will have at least one of the young guns to contend with. If that bums him out, it isn’t apparent. “It’s invigorating to the sport. It’s good to see them re-write what’s supposed to be going on.”
The real question remains: is this as good as the young guns will get? Will they crush more course records as they mature, or will their bodies break down, pummeled by too many miles? Or will they simply tire of the competitive element of ultrarunning and jog off in pursuit of more soulful, solitary adventures?
Kyle, for all his race wins, also is proud of a couple other feats. In early 2007, he circumnavigated the entirety of Mt. Rainier, pounding out the 93-mile Wonderland Trail in only 20:53. And in November of 2006, he ran the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim in 7:37.
Both times, needless to say, broke longstanding records.
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