Show Notes
Each year, over one million people use Wisconsin’s Ice Age Trail to recreate, meditate or take in the unique sights sculpted by a glacier thousands of years ago.
Last spring, Coree Woltering, a North Face sponsored ultrarunner, embarked on a challenge that very few have attempted in the IATs 12,000-year history.
For over 21 days, Woltering endured an ankle sprain, remnants of a tropical storm and a barrage of mosquitoes and ticks all in route to setting the record for the fastest known time across the trail. Not only did Woltering successfully overcome every obstacle, but in the process, he also helped raise over $28,000 for Feeding America, a national nonprofit that assists food banks across the country.
In this episode of Off the Record, we sat down with Woltering to discuss his origins as an ultrarunner, his desire to be a champion for diversity in the world of outdoor sports and how cupcakes and Kwik Trip chicken sandwiches fuel his run.
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Learn more about the Ice Age Trail at
https://www.iceagetrail.org/Listen to episode 47 --
Hitting Wisconsin’s Trails With The Thousand Miler
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TRANSCRIPT
ANNOUNCER: [
00:00:00] Welcome to Wisconsin DNR's Wild Wisconsin "Off the Record" podcast. Information straight from the source.
KATIE: [
00:00:10] Welcome back to another episode of Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. I'm your host DNR's Digital Communication Section Chief Katie Grant. The last six months have been full of uncertainty. Although the changes look a bit different for everyone.
We've all had to adapt in some way. Early on in the pandemic, Coree Woltering an Ultra Marathon Runner from Ottawa, Illinois realized he was going to have to the shift gears as a sponsored athlete, he saw that races were being canceled for summer and his future was uncertain. He decided to turn lemons into lemonade and attempt to break a fastest known time record for running the Ice Age Trail across Wisconsin.
And he decided to take it a step further by raising money for Feeding America, a national nonprofit that helps food banks all over the country. Coree's attempt began on June 1st at the Ice Age Trails, Western Terminus located in Interstate State Park in St. Croix Falls over the next 21 days, 13 hours and 35 minutes.
Coree raced against the clock arriving at the Eastern Terminus in Sturgeon Bay on June 22nd. Beating the record by about four and a half hours. We chatted with Coree via zoom to hear what it was like to run 1200 miles and learn a bit more about the eating, training and music that goes into pulling off the success. So sit back and listen. It.
COREE: [
00:01:38] Hey guys. Yeah. So, um, my name is Coree and I am a professional Trail and Ultra Runner for the North Face. Um, so basically I get to go explore trails and different areas and try to run fast on them.
KATIE: [
00:01:57] That's a pretty simple way of describing it, but what you do sounds in reality, a lot harder than that. Uh, how did you get into long distance running?
COREE: [
00:02:08] Um, that is a great question because sometimes I still wonder that. So I grew up, you know, playing multiple sports and was running usually to stay in shape for the sports and then kind of realized I was decent at it. And, um, So I ran in high school, ran in college, um, but it is more sprints and middle distance that I was doing.
And then I also ran cross country. So I had to kind of get used to a little bit longer of distances. And then, um, just through a few injuries and stuff, I actually took up triathlon because I was like, you know, I know how to run. I can swim. So may as well buy a bike and start riding and next thing, you know, I find myself racing the middle distance and the sprints on the track, but then I'm racing half Ironman races in the summer to stay in shape for everything. And, um, turned out to be pretty decent at that. And so I raced the world championships twice. And then, um, moved to Boulder, Colorado and thought I wanted to become a professional triathlete and started hanging out with trail runners and found out that trail running was my passion.
KATIE: [
00:03:20] Very cool. Competing in Ironman triathlons just absolutely blows my mind. I have a couple of friends who do it and it, to me is crazy. Cause I'm not a runner at all, but good for you for doing, is there an official distance where it is no longer? Just long distance running and it is suddenly Ultra Running.
COREE: [
00:03:41] Um, so Ultra Running would be considered basically anything over the typical marathon of 26.2 miles. Um, but I believe like the first like official ultra distance is 50 kilometers, so about 31 miles.
KATIE: [
00:03:57] All right. That makes sense. Congratulations. You very recently, uh, set the record for the fastest known time running the Ice Age Trail. Why did you specifically pick the Ice Age Trail and why now?
COREE: [
00:04:13] Yeah. Um, so I picked the Ice Age Trail because I do a lot of training on the southern Kettle Moraine area um, trails down there, and then I've done quite a bit of stuff in the Devils Lake area. So it just kind of became this thing of like, Okay.
I've seen a couple areas of the Ice Age trail, but now I'd like to explore more of them. So in May, uh, I basically decided that I was going to go after the Ice Age Trail FKT in June. Um, so not a lot of time to plan, but I took a couple of trips up to northern Wisconsin and got on some of the more technical areas up there and just kind of learned in the course a little bit.
And then, um, And then yeah, just went for it in June. And I guess now was the time to do it because, um, like with COVID like we, we didn't have any races happening and we really don't know when the next race will be happening. So because of that and like, I have time to kind of do this and then recover after and not have to worry about getting ready for another race or something.
Um, Yeah. So that was the first part of why. Um, and then the second part of why actually kind of... kind of happened, you know, like, um, you know, three or four days before I started, um, the George Floyd incident, um, I had no idea just like how much of a movement that was going to start. Um, but at the time I felt like this was kind of like my time to do this as, um, just a positive story of people of color in the outdoors, doing awesome things because...
Uh, there just weren't a lot of positive stories happening at the moment.
KATIE: [
00:06:03] Yeah, absolutely. The way that you got started in this particular one, I think is a, such a very cool story, especially with everything going on in the world, not only with, um, you know, like you had mentioned the incident with George Floyd, but also with COVID and kind of the world being completely different right now than it ever has been before. Have you ever done a race that's this long before. Or this many like consecutive days?
COREE: [
00:06:32] No. So like the longest race that I've ever done was like 106 miles, I think is the longest distance. And then her consecutive days, like maybe a little over a week, but it wasn't all just running. So, um, So, yeah, like this is completely different for me.
KATIE: [
00:06:50] How many miles per day did you know that you needed to run in order to set the record? And I guess was the record what you were setting out to do, or were you just wanting to complete the trail in general?
COREE: [
00:07:03] Um, you know, the record was definitely what I wanted. Completing it was also going to be great. Um, I think it's about. 50 miles a day that you have to do to be able to get the record. Um, and so like not all of the days are 50 miles, but some of the days were quite a bit more.
KATIE: [
00:07:19] Right. What was the longest single day you did on this?
COREE: [
00:07:22] So in like a 24 hour period, I believe I covered like a hundred and. For 105 miles in one stretch. But like the longest that I believe I was up was almost 40 something hours with only a 20 minute nap in there and just pushing through. So that was like 158 mile push. I think I did at the end.
KATIE: [
00:07:44] Wow. That's as, as a non runner, I, I just, I have no words for that. That's awesome and crazy at the same time.
KATIE: [
00:07:53] So what does it, obviously, you got into this kind of at the last minute, but for any of these longer runs, um, what does it look like to train for something like this?
COREE: [
00:08:03] For me, it was kind of, I was just going about it as if I was training for like a 100-mile race or something. And I'm just kind of doing normal training.
Um, I didn't really... up my overall run volume. I didn't necessarily, uh, do any special type workouts or anything. I guess the biggest thing was more, um, I had a couple weeks where we did some back-to-back long run days, or I'd go out for maybe four hours on one day in six hours the next day. Um, but then nothing else that was like, I didn't put in a six-month build of, you know, big back-to-back long run weekends or big midweek workouts. Um, just kind of consistent 80 to maybe a hundred miles a week, uh, for a few weeks. Yeah.
KATIE: [
00:08:53] And you did it. What is, obviously, we're going to be favorable of Wisconsin here and say that obviously running this through Wisconsin was the coolest place you've ever run, but second coolest place that you have ever done. One of these long runs.
Yeah, so I
COREE: [
00:09:13] was in Japan in 2019 for Ultra Trail, Mount Fuji. And that was pretty cool. So it's 106 mile race that goes in the mountain range around Mount Fugi. So you basically do this giant loop and that's just really awesome, um, from like a trail standpoint, but also, um, the, the trail comes down out of the mountains and goes through some of the small villages in that area. So you really get to actually see some, just like some of the daily life of the people that live in these villages, along with the mountains that surround it. So that's really kind of cool.
KATIE: [
00:09:51] Wow. I went to Mount Fuji by bus, not by running in 20...it would have been 2013 and that area is just absolutely beautiful. I can't imagine what it would have been like to be able to be running through that.
COREE: [
00:10:03] Yeah. And like the other really cool thing about it was that it was during a cherry blossom season. So like, it was just like the most amazing time to be there.
KATIE: [
00:10:14] Absolutely. Yeah. So you mentioned that you do a lot of training in the southern unit of, uh, the Kettle Moraine State Forest. What do you like most about training in this area?
COREE: [
00:10:25] Um, you know, it's, it's kind of the perfect mix of runnable trail, but still a hilly enough that it has that it's challenging. Um, and I think that's one of the things that's really, um, that people kind of take for granted or kind of don't think about when you think of Midwestern trails.
Um, cause you know, like out in California you have the big giant climbs and we have mountains and um, on the East coast you have some really rocky and technical terrain and still some bigger climbs out there. Whereas for this, it's a lot of just short, but kind of steep climbs. Um, and I, I really liked that because I feel like it's a different style of running, but if you can do well on this, you can usually also do well when you go other places. But sometimes, you know, those big climbs that you're training on out west don't necessarily translate well to the style of running that we have here.
KATIE: [
00:11:19] Was there a segment of the Ice Age Trail trail that was your favorite?
COREE: [
00:11:24] You know, I really enjoyed Kettlebowl. Um, which is funny because that is not most people's favorite, but like, for me, that was just like, okay, like I'm feeling semi okay. Like, I. I, I guess that was kind of where you make the turn to finally also head south for a while, and it's like, you finished the hardest sections of this trail. And so now it's kind of like, it was just like that farewell to the north and northeast section, I guess. Um, So I really enjoyed that, but also like northern and southern Blue Hills is awesome. Um, yeah.
KATIE: [
00:12:05] I love it. Love it. So when you're out there running, um, are you listening to music? Are you just listening to nature? What, what are you what's getting you through there?
COREE: [
00:12:15] Yeah. Um, sometimes music, sometimes nature. Sometimes I'd have somebody else running with me. Um, which is still like, sometimes you're listening to music, even if you have somebody else with you.
Um, sometimes not. I don't know, just being out there is fun though. Yeah. A mix of all of it as out there for anywhere from 12 to 20 hours a day at times. So, and for the last few days, even longer than 20 hours. So, I mean, there's going to be a bunch of stuff.
KATIE: [
00:12:42] Absolutely. Was there a go-to song or a genre that you turned on? Like when things were getting really stuck, really tough and you had to really keep pushing.
COREE: [
00:12:51] Um, so I listened to a lot of different stuff, but for the first, probably for the first two weeks, I listened to you mostly like... um, EDM music and like upbeat stuff and whatever. I'm like, there you go. I enjoy listening to it necessarily my favorite, but it's tolerable for hours at a time.
Um, and then like, I love heavy metal. So I actually saved like all my favorite heavy metal bands and stuff for the final week, in the final few days, just as like that little extra pick me up.
KATIE: [
00:13:27] Love it..Love it. Other than actually setting the record. What was your most memorable moment on the trail?
COREE: [
00:13:35] Well, um, so the funny story, it would be that, uh, the remnants of the tropical storm that were coming across Wisconsin, as I'm just running through Northern Wisconsin. And here's that tropical storm coming through and high wind. And it's like, what else can possibly be happening right now? [Laughs] We have, like, we have the ticks, we have the mosquitoes, we have the heat and humidity, we have the mud, we have the water and now we have the remnants of a tropical storm coming through. So, um, that was pretty funny.
Um, I don't think it was funny at the time, but I think it's funny now. But one of my most memorable moments was, um, a three and a half year old. "Glacier B" is his trail name and he's already done like 150 miles of the Ice Age Trail. Um, and so he just, he loves the trail and, um, his parents were like, "Hey, you know, like there's this tunnel that he loves to go through."
Um, and they're like, "would it be okay if he ran it with you?" And I said, absolutely. So, here we are, and I'm running through this tunnel and running with Glacier B and, um, he's like giving me advice on how to run the trail. So that was pretty sweet.
KATIE: [
00:14:50] So, for anyone listening. If you go check out Coree's Facebook page, video of that is on his Facebook page and it like truly, even without the sound on, I couldn't hear what he was saying to you, but even without the sound on it was the cutest thing ever to watch.
COREE: [
00:15:05] Yeah. So like, yeah, like that was just, that was a great moment. And like, I had been struggling a little bit too, but I'm like, all right, like he went straight on through the tunnel. Like, let's run, like, here we go. And it was just a nice distraction.
KATIE: [
00:15:17] So, obviously you had a time goal in mind as you ran the trail. Uh, were you able to balance taking in the scenery a little bit with competing against the clock?
COREE: [
00:15:27] So, the good news is... I had been on some of the stuff up north before. So, um, which was like, I was up there in May, I guess. Um, I wasn't necessarily taking in the scenery up north on some of those sections, just because they were a bit overgrown or trees were down or so muddy that I spent a lot of time just to looking down.
Um, but it wasn't my first time on it. So, um, I feel like I was able to take in those sites the first time I was there. Um, and then, you know, different sections were definitely easier to take in sights than others. So, um, I got to enjoy most of it.
KATIE: [
00:16:06] Understandable. You, you certainly had a different goal in mind than just taking everything in. So it's completely understandable. You recently tweeted about the discovery of a burrito pocket in your vest while you're running. Other than burritos, which I just want to add is a great idea for portable food. What snacks or meals do you like to carry with you when you're out running?
COREE: [
00:16:28] Yes. Uh, the burrito pocket became a many things pocket over the course of this FKT. Um, so we discovered that Kwik Trip has cheeseburgers and chicken sandwiches that, um, are enough calories and like the right size to also fit in that pocket. So, um, my diet on this thing was Kwik Trip cheeseburgers, chicken sandwiches. And then, um, I was eating like... Chicken and Stars condensed soup straight out of the can and SpaghettiOs with meatballs, like straight out of the can.
So that's what I was eating out on the trail and cupcakes and, and, um, like there's one day that, I mean, I spent $70 on Kwik Trip on just chicken sandwiches and cheeseburgers and like Starbucks coffee drinks. And it was really funny because the cashier was looking at me like, what are you doing with all of this food?
Cause I, like I said, all of them that they had in there. Oh. And breakfast, croissants, like I just took all of them. Like, it's fine. I'm running. I need these. And it was just really funny, but yeah, those were, that's what got me through this. And in general, like I would not be eating like that out on the trail.
Like if I was just going for a training run or a hike or something, but for something like this, when you're eating 6,000 to 8,000 calories a day, like, that's just, that's what you have to do.
KATIE: [
00:17:57] I'm fully on board with the Kwik Trip funded, a trail running diet. That sounds fantastic to me.
COREE: [
00:18:04] Yeah. I mean, I enjoyed it. And so they also have like those rice crispy treats in there that have a little bit of peanut butter in they're chocolate covered on top, like... oh my goodness I love those. And then like one day we were in there and it was like, I think they're doing donuts like $2 for a dozen or something like that. And like, well, you don't have to twist my arm.
Like, I guess we'll take a few dozen donuts. Okay. Yeah.
KATIE: [
00:18:29] Maybe I need to take up trail running just so I can adopt the Kwik Trip diet. Uh, you know, it's not a bad reason to do it. So when you're out on a long-distance run like this, obviously you're out for many days at a time. How do things like sleep work? Are you staying in a tent, in a hotel, in a van? What, how are you sleeping and making that happen?
COREE: [
00:18:52] So. Sleep was definitely the interesting, uh, thing here because, uh, just like due to COVID, uh, some of the campgrounds are closed or the facilities at the campgrounds are closed. Um, and so that kind of threw a wrench into the plan a little bit. And then also like some of the hotels that we had planned on staying in weren't open.
So, um, that did not help either. So there, I mean, there are some nights that we had... that we were able to get a hotel. Um, we didn't camp when we were up north, just because, um, the ticks and the mosquitoes were so bad up north, that I was like, you know what? I don't want to be sleeping in my tent and still hear mosquitoes buzzing outside or have ticks, like getting into the tent.
Um, And then I also just wanted to take a shower at the end of the day. So, yeah, there's a lot of hotels. And then a few nights of sleeping in the van.
KATIE: [
00:19:47] What for you is the perfect weather to be running in? Do you like it when it's hot out cold out, anything in between sunny, snowy, raining? What's your perfect long distance running weather?
COREE: [
00:20:00] So like perfect for long distance, I would say is probably like 55 degrees and maybe slightly overcast. Um, but I enjoy heat and humidity. So like sunny 85, 90 degrees with decent humidity is what I really enjoy. Um, and so like for me, there are races like Badwater 135, which is, I mean, you know, a race, 135-mile race through Death Valley in July.
That, that gets up to like 120 degrees, but it's super low humidity so that's a race that I'm very interested in. Um, but like Kettle Moraine 100 would be one of the perfect races for me, I think because normally that's a decently hot weekend in June and it's in the Southern Kettles and it's going to have the humidity also. So, yeah. Like something like that.
KATIE: [
00:20:55] So you consider yourself to be a champion of diversity. How do you envision getting more people of color involved in outdoor activities like Ultra Running and beyond?
COREE: [
00:21:05] And that is a very good question. And, um, so going back to last year, um, I raced Eco Challenge Fiji on a team that was like the first all African American team to do this adventure race.
Um, and basically it's a 700 kilometer race across Fiji. That includes multiple disciplines of like, uh, sailing, rock climbing, um, mountain biking, trekking, orienteering. Um, and a lot of these are really fun disciplines that you don't necessarily see a bunch of people of color doing. And for me, it was one of those things where I felt like I wanted to race it because like, I, I knew what Eco Challenge was, but like I never saw anybody that looked like me on TV doing that.
And I never really thought I'd be doing it. And then when I was, uh, someone's like, "Hey, you know, it'd be like to be on our team?" Said, yeah. And then I realized like... oh, like we actually have a great platform to show this off. Um, and so.... like Team Onyx is, was our, is our team name. And this year we had it, I had actually planned on doing like youth camps for like our different sports.
Like for me, I'd be leading the trail running camp. Uh, we had a professional mountain biker, so she would be leading the mountain bike camps and we'd also be doing some sailing courses and different things like that. And just due to COVID like, unfortunately we can't really do those this year. Um, but next year we plan on bringing the camps back and doing that.
And so, like, I just think that's, you know, one way you can do it, like actually going out and doing it, but then another way is just by like the media attention, this FKT has been getting and, um, And just being very open and just honest and visible with it and just being like, yeah, you know, this is me, this is what I do. And I hope that other people will want to do it as well.
KATIE: [
00:22:54] So, as you've mentioned, obviously COVID has thrown some wrenches in your plans as far as you can tell, what what's next on the docket? What's your next big thing?
COREE: [
00:23:05] I'm not super sure at this point. Um, this, it really depends on how long recovery takes from this FKT attempt and it's one of those things where even though I may feel recovered, I know that it's going to take a lot longer than I think it will. Um, so like, I really don't have plans to be racing for probably two to three months. Even if there are races coming up, I just don't think I will be. Um, so I'm just trying to figure out if I'm going to race next or if there's a shorter FKT, but I might want to go after or... yeah, I don't know. But right now it's just kind of, um, just relaxing and going through a really short runs and, uh, starting to get on the bike again a little bit. So yeah.
KATIE: [
00:23:55] For sure. If there were anywhere... you could go run anywhere in the world, where would you want to go run?
COREE: [
00:24:02] That is a really tough question because, um, because I have been to a lot of the places that I want to go run. Um, but I, I love the country Peru, so probably going back up to like Cusco and then doing some of the trails out there. I think it'd be really fun or, I mean, like the super high altitude places in Peru, I think can be really fun to go to again.
KATIE: [
00:24:26] Is there anything else you think that listeners should know about trail running in general? Getting started just doing it, anything like that?
COREE: [
00:24:37] Yeah. You know, when it comes to trail running like, figure out like what your local chapter of the Ice Age Trail would be and reach out to people. Because, uh, they like, people are just super friendly, but I mean, if it's not the Ice Age Trail, then um, just in general, like check for like a Facebook or something and see if there's people that would, I love to go out and like either hike with you or start to run.
Um, but the big thing is like, just it get slow, you know? Like you don't have to go out and run ultra distances to be a trail runner. You also don't have to go out and try to set this FKT to be a trail runner and they're like, you can go out and enjoy the, you know, three miles segment that's by your house and still be a trailer runner. Like that's all okay. So I'd say the big thing is like, just... ease into it and just really enjoy it.
KATIE: [
00:25:27] Awesome. Great advice. If people want to follow along with your adventures in the future, where can they find you?
COREE: [
00:25:33] Yeah. Um, so I am Coree Woltering on Instagram and then my blog is Coree Woltering dot com. And then I also have an Athlete page on Facebook.
KATIE: [
00:25:46] You've been listening to Wild Wisconsin Off the Record. A podcast brought to you by the Wisconsin DNR. Learn more about Coree and see photos of his journey in the fall issue of Wisconsin Natural Resources magazine. Have questions about running the Ice Age Trail? Check out episode 47 for a chat with fellow thousand miler, Melanie McManus Radzicki, or email us dnrpodcast@wisconsin.com for more great content.
Be sure to subscribe to Wild Wisconsin wherever you get your podcasts. Leave us a review or tell us who you'd like to hear from on a future episode. Thanks for listening.