Aussem-Woltering covers nearly 1,200 miles in 21 days, sets record

As a professional ultra runner, Coree Aussem-Woltering is no stranger to running extremely long distances.

Ultra races are all longer than a marathon.

However, he’s never tackled a run quite like the Ice Age Trail, a nearly 1,200-mile long trek in Wisconsin.

But with his racing slate canceled into the fall, Aussem-Woltering decided to attempt to set a new record on the trail.

Despite harsh weather, an ankle injury and having to run about two full marathons per day for three weeks, Aussem-Woltering set a new standard when he kissed the Eastern Terminus Stone on June 22.

The website www.fastestknowntime.com confirmed Aussem-Woltering's record of 21 days, 13 hours and 35 minutes on Tuesday.

“It’s pretty exciting,” said Aussem-Woltering, who regularly trains on the Ice Age Trail. “I’ve never done anything like that before. To cover almost 1,200 miles in a little over 21 days is pretty crazy”

Aussem-Woltering had an early setback with a sprained ankle that limited him to walking for a couple days. Still, he walked 20-30 miles on those days to keep the record attempt going.

“I had a sprained or rolled ankle on Day 5, which is definitely a lot earlier than you want any sort of injury to happen when you’re doing something this long,” Aussem-Woltering said. “Basically, I had to walk a couple days because I couldn’t run. I got my tracking poles out and started walking. I still covered miles, just not as much as I needed to. It was good to take some pressure off the ankle and get the swelling down. I saw a sports chiropractor, and he did some work on it and got it back to semi-normal so I was able to start running again.

“It’s really a mental game (to push through the injury). If you can mentally get through it, then physically you’ll be able to get through it also. It kind of comes down to how bad you want the record.”

Despite the obstacle, Aussem-Woltering pushed on, running at least 12 hours per day, usually 16-17 hours per day and even logging a couple 24-hour days.

Aussem-Woltering had a two-man support crew — his husband, Tom, and Kevin Youngblood — following in a van to provide nutrition, a change of clothes or anything else he needed. There were also pacers, including Abe Fisher from Ottawa, coming in and out to help him along.

Toward the end, Aussem-Woltering faced 157 miles to run in the final 38 hours, an average of 4.1 miles per hour.

“When it comes down to it, if you’re going to go after a record and things haven’t gone as planned, sometimes you have to do that,” said Aussem-Woltering, who had to consume around 8,000 calories per day. I slept for maybe 20 minutes in that final 38 hours. It was funny, because here I was on Day 20 and I had to run basically my longest continuous run of my life.

“I did it, and it actually didn’t feel as bad as I thought it would, but it was still a very long push.”

It helped that Aussem-Woltering knew the final 100 miles weren’t too hilly.

“The good news is, I knew the trail was pretty flat for the final 100 miles or so,” he said. “That made me a little more excited just because I do a lot of training on roads and flatter trails. I don’t know if I was necessarily nervous I wasn’t going to get the record, it was more trying to take everything one mile at a time and just get it done.

“It felt great to get the record. I’ve been working on it for the last three weeks. I was excited to know when I went to sleep I wouldn’t have to wake up and go running the next morning.”

Along with being a record-setting performance, Aussem-Woltering’s run is tied to a charity effort for Feed America, a national organization that supports food banks and food pantries across the country, including the food bank in Ottawa.

A fundraiser called, "Big Run for Grub" was set up on the Feed America website, www.feedamerica.org, with the goal of raising $50,000.

The campaign is at nearly $28,000 but hopes to eventually reach the goal with the help of Dream Lens Media, which was along for the Ice Age Trail record and will produce a short documentary on it and later plans a full documentary on Aussem-Woltering.

“I feel like it’s a really important thing to be raising money for at this time with COVID and everything else,” Aussem-Woltering said. “Many people are relying on food banks, and some have been depleted. Feeding America provides meals and food to different food banks, including ones in our area. The awesome thing is, every dollar donated can provide up to 10 meals for people. Last year, Feed America provided 4.3 billion meals to people in the States.

"That’s pretty awesome.”