HOT SPRINGS, Ark. — Twenty-six hours and 18 minutes. That’s how long Eric Hunn, a surgeon at Labette Health, took to run 100 miles at the Arkansas Traveller 100 ultramarathon in the Ouachita National Forest on Oct. 4-5.
Hunn, a former track and cross country athlete at Erie High School who’s become an accomplished distance runner, placed 57th out of 109 finishers and 191 total runners in the race.
“I’ve done several (ultramarathons) but this is definitely my longest,” Hunn said. “I’m an above average runner, but not elite by any means.”
The genesis for Hunn’s desire to run ultramarathons — any race over 26.2 miles, the distance of a normal marathon — came in 2022 as he ran a marathon in Tulsa with his sister.
“I read some running books and that got me more interested,” Hunn said. “So then I signed up for my first ultramathon which was in Independence. That was 30 miles at the Elk City Reservoir.”
Two Saturdays ago, Hunn began his 100-mile trek in Arkansas. He was one of four runners from Kansas to compete.
Runners had to complete the first 49 miles of the race solo before they were allowed to add pacers.
“I got advice from some of the veterans and they said to start slow,” Hunn said. “Really start slow and hold back as much as you can. You feel fresh and put all this training in, so it’s easy to go out fast. I’m running 12-minute miles and I usually run nine-minute miles in training. I was eating 320 calories an hour and drinking a liter an hour.”
That first half of the race was the easy part for Hunn.
“It was pretty relaxing,” Hunn said. “It was a beautiful forest and very peaceful. I tripped and fell once and it was the softest landing I ever had. It was a bed of pine needles. I laughed at how soft the landing was. I shared some miles with different people. We shared running stories and training advice. I listened to music a little bit, but probably for only an hour. I just suffered in silence with my thoughts.”
Two of his friends, Jacob and Jenelle Knight, ran with him from Mile 49-85, before Hunn’s wife, Sarah, ran with Eric to the finish line.
“If you can do the 100mile races in less than 24 hours, that’s considered pretty good,” Hunn said. “That was a goal of mine early on. It started getting dark when I got Jenelle running with me. The roads got a little harder when I picked up Jacob and I was definitely feeling it. We pushed really hard from mile 70 on and I still was losing that 24-hour mark. That was my lowest spot, mentally.”
Running through the night, Hunn was pushing himself to his limits as his wife joined him for the homestretch.
“I got frustrated and tired and slowed down quite a bit,” Hunn said. “But we got through that and I picked up my wife at three in the morning. We had our headlamps and it took us from 3 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. to do the last 15 miles. I had to stop at every aid station and it gets harder and harder to get up and start moving. Your legs feel like swollen tree trunks.”
While Hunn fell two hours shy of his 24-hour goal, crossing the finish line brought relief — and finally, a chance to sleep.
“It was mostly just relief and I wanted to sit in a chair and sleep,” Hunn said. “I was super sleep deprived. I honestly felt I was sleepwalking at times. I was just so tired. So I was relieved it was over. I ran 100 miles.”
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Hunn spent the rest of Sunday and all of Monday recovering from the endeavor.
“Stairs hurt,” Hunn said. “I’m still sore. But I can walk around pretty good. Monday was a lot of sitting with my feet up. I’d do laundry and my feet would start swelling.”
Hunn’s ultimate goal is to get a chance to run in the Western States Endurance Run, a 100.2-mile ultramathon that spans California’s Sierra Nevada Mountains.
It’s the Boston Marathon of ultramarathons. “It’s debated that it’s the first 100-mile race ever,” Hunn said. “It used to be a horse race. But then a guy ran it and beat all the horses. So then it became a footrace. Now it’s super hard to get into. It’s a lottery system with runners from all around the world. You have to qualify to get put into the lottery.”
Hunn admits, in addition to having to qualify and get lucky with the lottery, he has one more hurdle to climb in his pursuit of running in California.
“I don’t know if my wife will let me, again,” Hunn joked. “The amount of hours you have to run and train, it’s a strain. But I could definitely see myself doing another one. Once you do 100 miles, now I can do 50k and think it won’t be that bad.”
The winner of the Arkansas Traveller 100, Justin Stewart of Illinois, completed the race in 17 hours and 55 minutes.
