Janis Neufeld loves a challenge.
Whether it’s speed, endurance, or some other physical aspect, she loves seeing how far she’s able to push herself.
Her most recent challenge was in Utah, for the Zion Ultra Adventures 100 km run. A friend got her interested in the event, which Neufeld then decided to use as a training tool for a bigger event she will be participating in this summer.
“This was just sort of something to help me get in some distance,” she said. “My real race that I’m leading up to is the Ultra 520 K, which is a 10 km swim, followed by a 425 km bike, followed by an 85 km run.”
Neufeld has been doing athletic events her whole life, so taking part in something like this isn’t out of left field. She said everyone has their thing, and this is what she likes to do.
Training for the event took time. One thing she didn’t try to do was run the 100 km all at once, noting that staying consistent and teaching your body that it’s normal to keep running is the key.
“People think you have to put in miles and miles, and try to run the distance before, but you don’t,” she said. “It’s too much and too hard, so consistently training. I run five days a week, plus I do bikes and swims and strength workouts, so I do about 20 hours a week of training.”
The track for the run was rugged — it’s done in a loop. A runner has to go to the top of one of the Mesa Mountains three times and back down again. Some of the track is so steep a runner has to keep their hands on the tops of their knees just to keep climbing.
The tops of the mountains are just as difficult, and are made up of something called slick rock. These are very smooth rocks, but they’re uneven and there are cracks, so a person is kind of rock-hopping the whole time, which can make it very hard on the legs.
It took Neufeld 17 hours and 41 minutes to complete the race. She was 67th and third overall in her age group.
While she loves running, she readily admits it’s not something that came naturally to her at all.
“I started running 11 years ago and I was the slowest runner, I was so bad,” she said. “Shon (Neufeld, her husband) can attest to that. His comment when he saw me running the first time was ‘Is she running?’ I was a total shuffler, I really was a terrible, terrible runner.”
While the first 80 km of the run were fairly easy, the last 20 km proved difficult. Some of the tougher kilometers she ran for people in her life who weren’t able to run for various reasons.
Getting to the finish line was a moment of empowerment for Neufeld, who said it was just as much a test of physicality as it was mental determination.
“The physicality gets you so far, but what gets you to the finish line is the determination and it feels really, really good to make it,” she concluded.
Neufeld plans on going back next year to do the 100 k again, before going for the longer 100 mile run.