We get a lot of interesting emails at CITIUS MAG [citiusmag@gmail.com] about many oddities within the sport of running because we like to find key storylines to follow outside of just the elite side of the sport. There’s always been a big gap between those who follow the elites and those who simply just like running for the fun of it. This one was a little bit of a mix.

Two weeks ago, we received an email from Zach Kughn, who was once in our infamous Headshot Round-Ups (Note: Those will be returning in the fall, so be sure to start growing out your wacky hairstyles and facial hair now.) Zach ran at Montana State and now lives in Mitchell, South Dakota. It’s a very simple storyline to follow. Two amateur runners will attempt to run a 200-mile week as a result of a bar bet. So we decided that we’ll be following their progress here with a gonzo-style live blog and tracker on the week of July 31 to August 6.

Some reference on the guys:

Zach’s max milage has been 100 miles in a week. He run that about 20 times in his life but all of them have taken place three years ago. He’ll be doing his running in Mitchell, which means that he’ll face some humidity.

Ethan Wilhelm also ran at MSU and has maxed out at 107 miles in a week. He has only run more than 100+ miles per week just five times in his life. He will completing his runs in Bozeman, Montana, which us at 5,000 feet of altitude.

Only Rules: 7 consecutive days. 200 miles of running. No treadmills.

Let’s begin on Sunday night

THE DAY BEFORE: Sunday, July 30 – 7:30pm

Day 0:

Day 1: Monday, July 31

ZACH: 6:05 a.m.

Definitely feel worse than I would like at 5:20 a.m.. Ended up not falling asleep until 11 something after getting in bed at8:30. Sleeping pills will be my next purchase. I’m also already sweating. 68 right now, and looks promising for some rain. Who’s happier me or the farmers? All chaffing aside… I love the rain. And could use the temperature drop. I wake up to find out that Ethan started at midnight. Snake. The worst part is I knew he would do that. Somebody suggested it to me and after immediately calling it cheating I knew right away Ethan would do it, and sure enough. I call shenanigans and for disqualification right off the bat. I’m glad he did though. When it’s all said and done, the world will know he cheated. “7 days” … nobody’s day starts at midnight

Ibuprofen, pre workout, maltodextrin, dextrose, protein. I will overcome his technicalities with ground breaking sports science… and caffeine. Whatever I do I know I’ll outperform his diet of a minimum 64oz of “soda”(whatever that is) per day. Combine that and the fact that he eats froyo where he works for at least one meal a day. I also have a bucket of expired vitamins I plan on putting a dent in this week…

Rolled out. Lunge warm up, checked Strava data for Ethan’s midnight run(he’s gonna die) One more bathroom stop. Out the door at 6:06am

ETHAN: 10:20 a.m.

Just finished run number two at 10:20 a.m. and I’m sitting at 20.1 miles for the day. I am a bit of a night owl and was up at midnight so I figured why not start the 200 mile week. Crushed and 10 miler starting at 12:09 am and then yes, Zach, I crush 12oz of Mountain Dew after finishing it (I keep you up dated with a running total of the amount of soda I drink just for that comment). Zach can call a midnight run cheating all he wants but we agreed to 200 miles in one week starting the 31st not 5 hours into the 31st. I stand by it. And don’t worry Zach, when I am done with this 200 mile week on Friday you wont be able to call shenanigans. I will use the last two days to work on my kicking game and Sunday I will smash a 50 yarder and start getting some NFL interest.

But in all seriousness I’m feeling pretty good. I’m planing on front load this week with around 40 miles today. For the rest of the week, it’s pretty simple no runs over an hour and 15 mins and I was thinking three runs a day after day one unless I am feeling good which seems unlikely. Eating and sleeping as much as possible will be key. Rolling out, ice baths and calf massages will be my hidden weapons. It going as well as I could have hoped and all I can think right now is it supposed to be this easy.

ZACH: 8:30 a.m.

First run in the books and I didn’t feel too bad. The racer in me wished I could have just dropped the hammer for another 10 and got a marathon PR. Instead I have 180 to go… slow and steady. Just past halfway I took a GU (yes I’m officially a rec runner) and RunGum and felt real solid though, as is evidenced by my metronome splits of +/- 1 second for the last 7 miles. This was also the hilliest run possible in Mitchell… which isn’t saying much but I got that out of the way right off the bat. Feeling flat running in HOKAs is next. Long department meeting ahead will delay my next run further into the heat. But they’ll feed me so I’ll make do.

ZACH: 6 p.m.

I’m running quite fast… not trying to push it but I’m reluctant to be putting on the breaks. Strike while the irons hot. Only a mile down from day average after two runs. Did 10.63, felt great at the start. Was anxious all day at work and just wanted to run again. Had a full eight-hour break between runs, probably won’t take that much again but it was nice. Heat really got to me though. It was about 84 degrees. Luckily I gave myself a haircut just before leaving. (Sorry, no mullet this time, got a job to keep now) Around 8 miles in, I found a hose at a campground and drank from that and doused my hat and body. Cooling down seemed to help so I added on a slightly longer loop than the 10 planned. Feet felt pretty good in Hokas, hip hurt again but not for as long as it did this morning. Did some extra stretching and rolling out.

That is… when the foam roller wasn’t taken by my dog.

When dark hits I’ll see how I’m feeling and maybe I can go a little longer than planned. At this point though, I’m kind of even with Ethan. Can it be this easy? S/O to the 59% of readers who voted that neither of us would make it, you keep me going. Literally 196 of you felt the urge to just get up and say nah. Haters gonna hate. Check my strava, where you at?

Zach: 11 p.m.

Sitting in my luke-cold ice bath after finishing my third. Just over 8 miles added so I’m at 35.5 for the day. Ahead of my goal for Day 1 and seven ahead of pace. Still amazed at how not bad I feel. This was definitely the worst of the day but to say it was a bad run would simply not be true. I went a little slower but had I kept going I could have picked it up similar to my long run this morning. Not much pain on this run though I am definitely getting sore. I did a lot of rehab stuff before this run on posterior chain. Quads are quite sore though. I can deal with that… so long as it’s in the front. Right Achilles tight for sure but keeping it at bay. Think I’ll switch back to Brooks for the morning, though the HOKA’s have me feeling like a million bucks, like I’m wearing those Kipchoge shoes. Struggled to eat between my second and third runs. Most of my diet today has been from liquid. I’ll need to find some fat before bed.

Little disappointed that I had to break one of my goals tonight… I told myself I was still young if I could make it through the week without Vaseline but I broke down, on Day 1 no less, and picked some up tonight. Officially an old man… already! Try me at 201…

Meanwhile, Ethan parades around town at 6:30 pace wearing Asics flats. Now I hear he’s late getting his 4th run in because he was golfing. Trying to decide if his run counts toward today or tomorrow. Haven’t we been through this once before?

Sleeping pill kicking in. I’ll shoot for 7hrs+ but supposed to be hot tomorrow so I’ll have to get an early start. Biggest fear is I wake up in the morning and can’t move… Cataplexy that’s called if you know any Narcs… the more you know. But as long as I can get out of bed and walk around I think I’ll be fine. Day 2 the first real test.

Day 2: Tuesday, Aug. 1

Zach Kughn: 10:15 a.m.

Today is a different world. 30 minutes of snoozing from 7-7:30. Getting out of bed is a chore. After moving around a bit, I’m feeling better. I’m heading out around the lake if I feel alright. Slow starter. Nothing feels too bad…just sore. Bathroom break around 3 and after that I started picking it up. Lake is big… way bigger than I thought. Finally got to the end around 7.5 and luckily it’s slightly shorter on the other side. Hurting though, decided to push the pace a bit just to save time on feet. This run fueled by RunGum, of course, as well as some Gatorade chews I got from Grant Fisher a few years back after he won Gatorade runner of the year(that reminds me, I got a confirmation from Grant that he too was going to run 200 miles this week, he must be starting conservatively). Took those about an hour into it and pressed on. I knew where I was around 10 miles but knew I had a ways to go. And then, a gift from above! I kid you not…a sealed water bottle just laying on the side of the road! Crucial, dumped most of it on my head but drank some. Granted it’s warm water because it’s already pushing 80 at 9:30am… but I’ll take it. Rolled home best I could, slowing down the last mile. This was too hard for today. Didn’t need it. From now on I need better planned routes or loops that can swing me by the crib for water/sugar/whatnot. Get back and I’m soaking wet.

Cold shower felt nice but I’m going to need to eat real food. I knew this but Real Iron Mike insisted so I’ll try my best. Liquid diet not a recipe for success I guess. Christan Soratos for some reason thinks my life theme song is “Sugar, We’re Goin’ Down” by Fall Out Boy… I’m hoping the title has no implications on my week. S/O to all of those following us on strava and following Citius Mag, also thanks to the boys over there, they’re the real deal. Also thanks to those who have said they are upping there mileage this week in support of us. Lyle Weese our old coach he’ll shoot for 90 this week and that’s tripling his mileage. My boy Brock doesn’t even run and has less than one lung says he’ll run 50. Thanks for the support everyone, you keep us going.

Real theme song for the week is an oldie. But comes from inspiration my head coach here at DWU, he recognizes that this stunt has nothing to do with my coaching philosophy… I’m old enough to know better, but still too young to care.

13.8…49.3 through 4 runs.

ETHAN: 1:37 p.m.

ZACH: 5 p.m.

ZACH: 10:30pm

DAY 3

Zach: 12:30PM

ZACH: 11:45PM

I just put 6 and some change in and honestly I felt better than I did on run two. Song for the evening was Lights by Journey. Part of Havens Street was even lucky enough to hear portions of my rendition of the classic tune. Encouragement tonight came from my EPCO coworkers Carson Truesdell and Timmy Kimball. They read my last post and after contemplating starting a GoFundMe to support me going to 50cent wing night, Carson decided he could chip in a wing all by himself.

DAY 4

ETHAN: 12:01AM

Hey guys, sorry for the lack of posts the last couple of days but I am back from the dead and still kicking.

After such a great day one, day two couldn’t have been more different. I spent all 20 mile questioning my life choices. The main thought running through my head was if Zach wanted to kill me there were a lot easier ways to do it. Finished day 2 with 57 miles and a little doubt starting to creep into my thoughts.

Day three came around and I had to sit down and give myself a little gut check/pep talk. I dug deep down to find my motivation behind doing this and I came up with I couldn’t stand the years of grief that Zach would give me if I didn’t finish.

So with my new found motivation run number one came around and I pulled a Forest Gump and didn’t stop running for two and half hours. Got in 20 on run number 1 all of which felt better than yesterdays.

I really tried to be relaxed at the beginning of the run which seemed to help later on. Run number two I had planed for a 10 miler. When I was done I was still feeling good so figured why not to go for 90 total miles so did some laps on my old high school track to get to 13.

Overall a pretty good day. I can’t wait for this roller coaster ride of a week to be over but my confidence in both of us finishing is sky high at the moment however miserable we both are at the end.

ZACH: 1:15PM

The time has come to separate the men from the boys. Ethan is either lying to me to get me to quit first or he is about to go down. I will admit, my knee is no bueno. But I’m icing it down and sticking to the DMSO regiment. Not to mention I already have 118.5 logged with only two runs today. Over 4 ahead of pace if I stop now. Which is what the haters suspect. I, on the other hand, don’t stop in the face of adversity. I pick myself up by my HOKA straps and move on.

Made it a solid three steps today before realizing my knee was in fact wrecked. After trying my best to not compensate form for an out and back 6, I refueled at the car and started going the other direction. Hurting again, obviously. I picked it up, whether it be the hormones from running hard or the changing of form from the faster pace, I was on it. Rolled sub 6:20 up a slight incline before coming back down ultimately hitting 6:01, shut it down the last half mile for low 6 again. There was a 19:08 5k in there somewhere as well as a sub 40 10k.
So take that Garmin… wake up this morning to find out Garmin is seeing a trend in me slacking on Thursday’s… yeah right son. After all this aerobic training I’m running like a well oiled machine. If I can keep this knee in check I think I’ll be fine. There’s just a slight whole letting the light at the end of the tunnel in and I’m running for it.

In pretty high spirits after this run as countless folks are reaching out left and right and I must say it’s pretty cool. Part of me wonders where everyone was at when I was actually running fast in college, but I appreciate it nonetheless.

Day 5

Day 6