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Walker runs 125 miles in 30 hours to win Prairie on Fire Backyard Ultra title
Dating back to when he was a teenager, Jeff Walker has always enjoyed longer runs, and as he put it, the results told the same story.
“It all kind of stemmed from high school. Any time we would go for longer runs, I was always closer to the front of the group whereas when it came time for the shorter races, I was more towards the middle. I have always tended to do better with longer runs,” said Walker. “And then in college, I decided to run a marathon and kept finding I enjoyed going longer and longer. I was also better at it. The longer the race, the better I would do.”
Since then? Walker has fallen in love with long distance races and has competed in several of them, which included on Sept. 7 at the Prairie on Fire Backyard Ultra in Noblesville where he outlasted the rest of the field, finishing in first place with a distance of 125 miles in about 30 hours.
“I’ve just been finding these types of 50-mile races and 100-mile races or other types where you run for 12 consecutive hours,” said Walker. “A few years ago, I found a format, which is what I recently did, that is called a backyard ultra where you run a 4.17 mile loop every hour on the hour and go until the last runner is standing. It’s set up where you get 100 miles in 24 hours. Those are fun, but also quite challenging.”
How was he able to do it? Mental toughness and perseverance.
“Once you finish a loop, you have the time until the next loop starts to eat and hydrate and maybe sleep. This is the fourth one I’ve done, so it’s gotten easier,” Walker explained. “Last weekend, I ran for 30 hours, and I felt positive the whole time. I mean, I was getting sleepy at night and kind of fell asleep when I would walk a segment. But as far as my mental attitude and what I was thinking and feeling, I never felt like I was ready to give up or had a really down moment, which I have had in other races.”
And while Walker, who is in his second year as Northview’s girls cross country head coach, noted that the ultra-running races he competes in are completely different than high school cross country meets, he’s looking to instill the same mental and physical determination into the Lady Knights, which is something he said will translate to better times for them in the short- and long-term future.
“It’s a little bit of a different type of sport, but a lot of the same stuff does apply, especially being able to physically and mentally push yourself, which a lot of kids struggle with because they haven’t done it yet,” said Walker. “It’s easier to do when you get older, but as a 15-, 16- or 17-year-old, it’s tough to push yourself to a point where you don’t think you can do it. If you want to get to your best, you have to find that point where I’m going to either blow up or I’m going to have a great race.”
Walker, who runs anywhere from 60 miles to 120 miles per week to keep himself in shape to compete in the ultra-running races, doesn’t have another competition on his schedule until the spring. He’ll continue to train before work in the morning and after Northview practices in the evening, but for the time being, he’s solely focused on getting the Lady Knights prepared for the final stretch of the regular season before they look to defend their crown as sectional champions in October.