It all started over a midmorning beer. Pete Kostelnick, a whippet-thin financial analyst from Lincoln, Nebraska had just won one of the toughest races on the planet, the Badwater 135, a 135-mile run from Death Valley to Mount Whitney, California.
He sat in a parking lot with a childhood friend, sipped his beer, and made the gutsiest decision of his life: "I'm going to go for the transcontinental record."
On Monday, Kostelnick broke the world record for fastest run across the United States (the feat is expected to certified by Guinness World Records.) The previous record, held by Frank Giannino since 1980, was 46 days, 8 hours and 36 minutes. Kostelnick finished the roughly 3,100-mile San Francisco to New York journey in 42 days, 6 hours and 30 minutes, four days faster than anyone else.
Kostelnick's early running history was unremarkable. He spent college hitting the books instead of the track. Unhappy with his weight, he caught the running bug. He eventually completed a slew of marathons, including the Boston Marathon and Colorado's Pikes Peak Marathon. He set his sights on going longer.
How do you train to run across the United States? You need to run. A lot. In the month preceding the start of his transcontinental run, Kostelnick logged over 900 miles. During the workweek, he would run at least 30 daily miles, split between a morning and an evening run. "I figured out a pretty efficient system," he said. "I could be running four minutes after I woke up."
The weekends involved a bit more, with a 50-mile run on Saturday and a 40-mile run on Sunday.
"He sort of happens to be the right man at the right time to go for the transcontinental record," said Chris Kostman, director of the Badwater 135 ultramarathon. "He's a humble guy who has natural talent, plus the drive and ambition to do something with it."
I wanted to get a front-row seat to watch the breaking of this record. I also felt compelled to support a friend and fellow ultramarathon runner. I served on Kostelnick's crew at the 2015 Badwater ultramarathon, where I ran 40 miles with him across the searing Death Valley desert. I loaded up my S.U.V. and headed toward Bowling Green, Ohio.
I met my friend at 10:35 am on his 36th day of transcontinental running in an RV parked next to a bike path. He had just finished his first run of the day. Before he set foot in the RV for a break, he took a marker and updated a small whiteboard he called his "roar board." He checked the two GPS watches he wore, along with a third GPS tracking device he carried. He and his crew kept meticulous records, which included posting his route, his GPS data, and making daily videos of the run, all of which will be checked and verified by the Guinness Book, which will certify the record.
Kostelnick recorded the 42.5 miles he had just completed, along with his start and stop time. Trasie Phan, who served as the trip's logistics coordinator, said that only Pete could touch the roar board. "He told me the only other people allowed to touch it were Katy Perry and David Hasselhoff."
Kostelnick wolfed down a few thousand calories, shoveling beef stew, a protein shake, protein bars and chocolate-covered toffee into his stomach as if it were coal entering a fiery furnace. We were ready for his second run of the day.
The first few miles were uneventful. We chatted about our families, he asked me about my work and running and we tried to decide whether Ohio was actually part of the Midwest. "It's so great to have you here," he told me. "This has been one of the lowest days of the whole run. With you, I can just relax and take it easy."
The renowned ultramarathoner and author Dean Karnazes had a similar experience when he completed his transcontinental run in 2011. He said most people asked him practical questions about his run, wondering what he ate and how many shoes he wore out. "You don't really have meaningful conversations," he said. "Psychologically, that's hard to deal with."
"I think of each day as its own episode," Kostelnick told me. "Today is Episode 36." Mentally, he said he splits the day into four chunks of mileage along the lines of 20-20-20-10. By running a steady pace, he maximised his daily rest. "Each day I try to stay off of my feet for 11 hours," he said. "I'm not the best sleeper. Most nights I get six hours."
© 2016 The New York Times
