COVER FEATURE
by B . C . K o w a l s k i
A new ultra experience Extreme sports are nothing new to the Wausau area - but this race is different, and could be the start of something larger
When ultra-athlete Jake Daul came to some of his endurance athlete friends with an idea for a new race unlike anything in the Wausau area, it didn’t take much convincing to get everyone on board. Daul is one of a group of several folks who are dedicated to ultra endurance events. Daul himself has finished 100-mile runs four times. And his friends all have similar crazy accomplishments. “Everyone on this team has a pretty good resume of stupid stuff they’ve done,” jokes Scott Schmoldt, referring to ultra-endurance races such as triathlons and ultra triathlons to ultramarathons. This spring they plan to put on a new event that is different than anything in the Wausau area but are starting to pop up around the country. Schmoldt, his wife Jenn Schmoldt, Chad Esker, Ellen Humberston, Rob Hoehn and Daul formed WausaUltra, and they have a big race coming up this spring. In fact, it’s three races. This spring will see the first WausaUltra Backyard, a long distance trail race held at Sylvan Hill. Accompanying that will be the Double Down, a shorter distance race, and a Sylvan Summit kids race. So, how far is it? That depends on how much endurance each athlete has. There is no set total distance — the set distance of a little more than four miles must be run over and over, until you can’t anymore. It’s as breezy or as brutal as that sounds.
Backyard battle
The race works like this. Runners at the start of the race run a 4.167-mile loop, and then they’re done. Until the next hour begins. Then they start again and run the loop again. And that keeps repeating. Over and over again. Until finally only one person wants to start. As if to illustrate that, an official listing on the race schedule on WausaUltra’s site has listed for Sunday “Anyone still out there?” The race starts Friday morning. Daul had the idea for a while and a lot of the groundwork laid out when he approached the Schmoldts and others in the endurance world about the event, Jenn Schmoldt says. It didn’t take much convincing. “We saw the vision and were on board with the idea of bringing different types of races to the area than what we’ve seen before,” Jenn Schmoldt told City Pages. And the Backyard certainly is that, Scott Schmoldt says. There aren’t that many similar events even in the Midwest. There is one in Minnesota near Duluth and another near Beloit, but nothing like it in our area. The Backyard Ultra comes from the mind of one of the running world’s more interesting characters, Gary Cantrell, otherwise known as Lazurus Lake or “Laz.” Cantrell is known for inventing grueling and seemingly sadistic races such as the Barkley Marathons, considered one of the toughest ultramarathons in the world. By the most recent count, 55% of the Barkley Marathons have had no finishers as runners traverse 54,200 feet of vertical climbing throughout the 100 miles. In case you’re not a runner, that’s a whole lot of feet to climb while running.
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December 17-24, 2020
▲ T h e W a u s a U l t ra t ea m i s , cl o ck w i s e f ro m t o p l ef t : J a k e Da u l , E l l en H u mbers t o n , C h a d E s k er, R o b H o eh n , J en n S ch mo l d t a n d S co t t S ch mo l d t .
The Backyard comes from the Big’s Backyard, also a Cantrell invention. The run-until-you-can’t race has attracted some of the biggest names in the ultramarathon world, including record holder Karel Sabbe who completed 75 laps on the international version of the race this October. And Courtney Dauwalter, who holds the women’s record after finishing 68 laps at the Big’s Backyard this October.
Part of the scene
WausaUltra didn’t necessarily start the race with the intention of building on the endurance and extreme sports scene that the Wausau area has started to stake itself to, but it does fit. The Greater Wausau Region Chamber of Commerce unveiled its new Economic Development Strategic plan last year. The plan, developed by TIP Strategies of Austin, identified outdoor recreation as one of the Wausau area’s unsung assets and a trojan horse for further economic development and population growth. Announced around the same time, Ironbull was formed to bring a series of extreme sports to the area. According to the report, “future economic development efforts in Marathon County must balance the needs of existing industries with a forward-looking approach to spur growth in areas with untapped potential such as tourism and outdoor recreation, as well as entrepreneurship and innovation.” The race is already drawing attention from outside of Wausau, WausaUltra organizers say. With few races like it, it seems to present another draw related to outdoor recreation and extreme sports.
Although the details aren’t completely solidified, WausaUltra hopes to use proceeds from the race to help support Marathon County parks, and the Wausau East Cross Country team.
As hard as you want to make it
Everyone on the WausaUltra team has done, as Scott Schmoldt put it, “stupid stuff.” By that, he means challenging endurance events like ultra-marathons, Ironman Triathlons and the like. Daul has run 100-mile running races; Humberston has finished two Ironman Triathlons; Jenn Schmoldt has finished long running events; Scott Schmoldt does long distance cycling; And Hoehn and Esker have both finished multiple ultra triathlons, challenges that make the Ironman look like a walk in the park. But on top of that, they’ve all worked on support crews for each other’s races, helping out whoever is working to finish an endurance challenge. And, several of the team helped set up marathons and directed races for Ironbull. In other words, they all have the chops to put on a challenging race and know the endurance race world from all the angles, from being the folks organizing races to being the one participating, or helping out as a member of a race crew. But this race is a little different, Humberston says. In a backyard ultra-marathon, everyone starts on the hour together and runs 4.167 miles. When you’re done, you stop, and wait until the next hour to start again. That means not only does everyone from novice to pro start at the same time, Humberston says, but it’s likely