92 County Challenge ends Saturday by Joe Awad

THE DEARBORN COUNTY REGISTER

SPORTS

PAGE 10

THURSDAY, JUNE 14, 2018

92 County Challenge ends Saturday 92 County Trail

Bright’s Madison Rahschulte, 13, to finish 5-year quest in 4

By Jim Buchberger Sports Editor sports@registerpublications.com BRIGHT - What was expected to take five years Bright youngster Madison Rahschulte’s quest to run road races in all 92 Indiana counties - will end almost exactly one year early Saturday morning. It began as somewhat of a flight of fancy, in the Decatur County Color Run 5K at Greensburg on June 14, 2014. The long and hard - but fun and educational - trail is expected to end with an event dubbed the 40th annual Flora Hog Jog 10K, in Carroll County, roughly halfway between Lafayette and Kokomo, at 8:15 a.m. Saturday. All participants are guaranteed a free, hot pork burger sandwich after the race. Madison, 13, the daughter of Scott and Rebecca Rahschulte, will enter eighth grade at St. Lawrence School in Lawrenceburg this fall. With her perfectly compact distance runner’s build - as well as plenty of grit and determination - she’s already been the subject of an in-depth article in the runners’ bible - Runners World magazine (March 18, 2016 issue). A natural talent whose feet seem to glide over the ground, she’s come to be widely recognized by members of the running community wherever she goes throughout the Hoosier State. “It took a lot more work the farther on it went,” said Madison, a straight-A student throughout her academic career, whose parents are both Ivy Tech educators. “Just trying to find races in some counties was not easy. Some counties had only one race a year. Then there was all the travel. I’ve had to train a lot. I usually run four miles three days a week, then do races on Saturday. I’ll run a couple of miles to cool down after a race, too.” Through 90 races on his daughter’s Indiana odyssey by May of this year, Scott a 1991 East Central graduate for former area chiropractor - estimated the Rahschultes had logged some 24,063.4 car miles and 402 hours, 29 minutes driving Even more impressively, Madison’s times for the average 5-kilometer (3.1-mile) road race have steadily improved, from near the 27-min-

STUART ROAD RACING.COM

Madison Rahschulte displays her trophies for the age group and overall age-graded championship following the 2017 SIRCit series finale Bulldog Chase 5K at Batesville.

ute mark to consistently in the low-20s of late - depending on the course, naturally. Currently, her personal record 5K time is 20:06, clocked in training on Nov. 24, 2016. Clearly, there’s been plenty of quality effort during the course of the 13-year old’s 92 County Challenge. Dad has kept a logbook - which also can be viewed online at the Stuart Road Racing LLC website, www.stuartroadracing.com. For her part, Madison kept a map of Indiana on the wall, ticking off the counties with thumbtacks as the trail progressed. A total of 36 purple thumbtacks mark her firstplace overall female division finishes heading into the series finale. To date, Madison’s 92-county run has included eight overall race wins - most recently in her 91st race, the Tipton County Run For A Reason 5K, just last weekend. She’s also added 20 second-place overall female finishes. Last summer, Madison was the 2017 Southeastern Indiana Running Circuit (SIRC-it) female age-graded champion, determined by a weighted average due to gender and age according to World Masters Athletics tables, across all age groups. The 92 County Challenge had its origin in 2010, when Scott and Rebecca Rahschulte (a Greensburg native and University of Georgia graduate, she’s the dean of Ivy Tech’s Lawrenceburg and Batesville campuses) took up running. They started with 5Ks and worked their way up to some half-marathons (13.1 miles). Madison, then 8, invited herself and ran right along. “We would periodically take Madison to a 5K and she did fairly well - which meant she wasn’t slowing us down much and wasn’t complaining how tired she was,” Scott noted. “She actually seemed to like it.” By the time Madison turned 9, neither parent could keep up with her. “One night, we were tossing around the idea of trying to make the 50-State Club for half-marathons,” Scott Rahschulte recalled. “We decided that, with work, kids and life, it was just not possible at the time.” During the discussion, however, Madison chimed in, claiming she’d like to run a 5K in all 50 states. While that wasn’t feasible, either, Madison mentioned learning about all the Hoosier counties in her Indiana History class in school. It sounded like a more reasonable goal. Scott agreed, and it was a deal. Only later was Dad slightly dismayed to learn that there are 92 counties contained within Indiana’s borders. “We started doing it for fun, thinking we would do a few races and that would be it,” Scott said. “As it kept going, Madison kept getting faster. After we got far enough, there was no idea of stopping.” In the Rahschulte’s original mission statement, still posted on the Stuart Road Racing website, Scott wrote: “This is a 5-year plan, due to her other commitments of school, robotics club, journalism club, National Honor Society, etc.” If all goes well Saturday, Madison Rahschulte’s 92 County Challenge will be complete in a span of almost exactly four years - four years and two days, to be exact. Considering all the road

Madison Rahschulte

Races in 92 Indiana counties Ages 9-13 June 14, 2014-June 16, 2018

RAHSCHULTE FAMILY

Thirteen year-old Madison Rahschulte, an eighth-grader to be at St. Lawrence School, will complete her 92 County Challenge in Saturday’s 40th annual Flora Hog Jog 10K in Flora, Ind., near Lafayette. miles, the family has contended with the inevitable couple of travel glitches along the way. But Madison never has missed a race she’s entered, combining two in the same day at least four times. “We’ve had flat tires twice,” Scott noted. “Once on the way home from a race and once when were were running two races in one day in the Terre Haute area. Luckily, instead of taking in a movie between races, we were able to get the tire patched in time to make it to both races. “Otherwise, nothing has stopped us. No rainouts, no lightning delays. It’s been surprising, really.” While all four Rahschultes are runners - including brother Ethan, 10, who’ll be a St. Lawrence fifth-grader this fall - Madison will be the only one to have run in all 92 Indiana counties. “I’ve probably run in 60-70 of the races and Ethan’s probably run 30-40,” Scott said. Madison still calls her favorite races the local ones, especially the five-race SIRC-it summer series, a benefit for area high school cross country teams. “It’s nice to see the same people there every year,” she said. She’s also partial to a Girl Scout-sponsored 5K race somewhere in Indiana, she can’t quite remember momen-

tarily - where the prizes consist of jars filled with those delicious Girl Scout cookies, and post-race activities feature zip-lining. Of course, the four-year Challenge has provided educational opportunities, too, with side trips to Indiana’s many historical sites and state and national parks. They’ve learned about the Battle of Tippecanoe during the War of 1812, explored the former state capital in Corydon and explored Marengo Cave. Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, on Lake Michigan, was a special favorite of Madison. Although the 92-county trail is destined to end, it also gives rise to the next big question. After all the time, effort and travel for the past four years, what’s next for the Rahschultes after the 92 County Challenge is finished Saturday? “It will be kind of a relief,” Scott Rahschulte admitted. “After this, we can just run when and where we want to run. “Last year, we ran 52 races. It was fun, but it kind of messes up a lot of weekends. The high school years will be coming up for Madison, too.” Madison has her own ideas, of course. “There’s a big circuit I’ve been working on now, the Indiana Timing Circuit (in the Columbus-Seymour area), where

No.-County - Race - Date 1. Decatur - Color Run 5K - 6/14/2014 2. Dearborn - Trojan Trot 5K - 7/12/14 3. Ohio - Shiner Dash 5K - 7/26/14 4. Ripley - Bulldog Chase 5K - 8/9/14 5. Jefferson - Lights & Sirens 5K 10/18/14 6. Fayette - Fayette 5K - 4/4/2015 7. Harrison - Hellbender Hustle 5K 4/11/15 8. Randolph - Tagalong 5K - 4/12/15 9. Wayne - Seton Flying Cardinal 5K 4/18/15 10. Rush - Rushville 5K - 5/9/15 11. Scott - Englishton Captain Romp 5K - 6/13/15 12. Johnson - Carefree Crocodile 5K 6/20/15 13. Clark - Charlestown Founders Day 5K - 6/27/15 14. Crawford - Firecracker Run Thru The Cave 5K - 7/4/15 15. Franklin - Lakeside 5K - 7/18/15 16. Marion - Buck Creek Winery 5K 8/22/15 17. Switzerland - Vevay River Run 5K 8/29/15 18. Grant - Upland Labor Day 5K 9/7/15 19. Bartholomew - Cheer Fund Challenge 5K - 9/12/15 20. Hendricks - Chateau Thomas 5K 9/16/15 21. Hamilton - Blackhawk Winery 5K 9/19/15 22. White - Bee Bumble 5K - 9/26/15 23. Madison - Red Gold 5K To Crush Hunger - 10/10/15 24. Morgan - Cedar Creek Winery 5K 10/17/15 25. Tippecanoe - Purdue Boilermaker 5K - 10/17/15 26. Brown - Cabin Fever 5K - 11/7/15 27. Monroe - Butler Winery 5K 11/14/15 28. Owen - Dino Trail 5K Run 11/14/15 29. Shelby - Burn It Off 5K - 11/27/15 30. Spencer - Run Run Rudolph 5K 12/5/15 31. Howard - Rudolph Family Fun Run 5K - 12/6/15 32. Vigo - Christmas In The Park 5K 12/6/15 33. Wells - December Dash 5K 12/19/15 34. Elkhart - Middlebury Resolution Run 5K - 1/1/2016 35. Kosciusko - Frigid 5K - 1/1/16 36. Delaware - Viking Dash Trail Run 5K - 2/20/16 37. Perry - Everybody’s March Madness 5K - 3/12/16 38. Miami - Norris Insurance 5K 3/19/16 39. Montgomery - Run For The Club 5K - 3/26/16 40. Putnam - Five Stones Camp Run The Ravine 5K - 4/23/16 41. Sullivan - Run For Those Who Can’t 5K for ALS - 4/23/16 42. Fountain - Doggie Dash & Dawdle 5K - 4/30/16 43. DeKalb - Pinkout Family 5K 5/7/16 44. Hancock - Tammy’s Trail Run 5K 5/16/16 45. Warrick - Run Victoria 5K - 5/28/16 they have a race every week, all year long. I’ve already run some of them, in between the Challenge races.” She’s a serious runner now, obviously. One of Madison’s three trainers, veteran runner Dwayne Steele, with whom she’s worked for the last 1-1/2 years, hails from the Seymour area. She’s also trained with Harrison runner Steven Stoll, while Northern Kentucky running mom Jameson Burchell is

46. Union - UC Runs Over Heroin 5K 6/4/16 47. Boone - Zionsville 5K - 6/12/16 48. Henry - New Castle 5K - 6/18/16 49. Dubois - Celestine Street Fest 5K 6/25/16 50. Wabash - Waterfall Trail Run 5K 6/26/16 51. Jennings - Dino Trail 5K Run 7/2/16 52. Marshall - Cow Bell Dash 5K 7/3/16 53. Cass - Walton Independence Day 5K - 7/4/16 54. Jasper - Rotary Ramble 5K 8/13/16 55. Vermillion - Little Italy 5K - 9/3/16 56. Lake - Hub City 5K - 9/11/16 57. Parke - TALKS Mentoring 5K 9/24/16 58. Fulton - Chief Kewanna 5K 9/24/16 59. Allen - Turkey Trot 5K Trail Run 11/20/16 60. Adams - Rainbow Lake 5K 11/26/16 61. Huntington - Rotary Club 5K Resolution - 1/1/2017 62. Washington - Frostbite 5K - 1/7/17 63. LaPorte - Crazy Legs 5K - 2/4/17 64. Jackson - ValenTimes 5K - 2/18/17 65. Vanderburgh - Bound The Mond 5K Trail Run - 2/25/17 66. Porter - Show Up And Run Indoor 5K - 2/26/17 67. Posey - Valhalla 5K - 3/27/17 68. Lawrence - Salt Creek Brewery 5K - 4/17/17 69. Clinton - Back Pack Dash 5K 4/22/17 70. Benton - Otterbein Elementary 5/13/17 71. Newton - Morocco Homecoming 5K - 5/28/17 72. Jay - Dunkirk Glass Days 5K 6/3/17 73. Orange - Full Moon 5K - 6/9/17 74. Gibson - Alissa Davis Memorial 5K - 6/10/17 75. Starke - North Judson Mint Festival 5K - 6/17/17 76. Knox - Refuge 5K - 6/24/17 77. Warren - Pine Village 5K - 7/1/17 78. Martin - Catfish Festival 5K 7/4/17 79. Noble - Summer Nights 5K 9/3/17 80. Daviess - Turkey Trot 5K - 9/9/17 81. Pulaski - Francesville Fall Festival 5K - 9/16/17 82. Blackford - Comm. & Family Services 5K - 10/7/17 83. St. Joseph - Fall Frolic - 10/21/17 84. Whitley - Veterans 5K - 11/11/17 85. Floyd - Prosser Turkey Trot 5K Trail Run - 11/18/17 86. Lagrange - Sap Run 5K 3/10/2018 87. Steuben - Dash For A Cure 5K 4/21/18 88. Pike - Color Me Green 4H 5K 5/5/18 89. Greene - Tulip Trestle 5K - 5/12/18 90. Clay - Run Through The Jungle 5K - 5/19/18 91. Tipton - Run For A Reason 5K 6/9/18 92. Carroll - Flora Hog Jog 10 K - Saturday 8 Overall Race Wins 2 Series Championships 36 1st Place Female Finishes 20 Second Place Overall Finishes 163 Career Races 53 1st Place Female Finishes 26 2nd Place Female Finishes her fitness and nutrition guru. If there are those who worry about all that training and racing, don’t be alarmed. The Rahschulte family acknowledges the value of down time, too. As soon as Saturday’s race crosses the finish line in Flora, the four of them are headed for a four-week vacation to see the National Parks out west, including stops at Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks in Montana.