FKT: Jeremiah Sullivan - Katy Trail (MO) - 2026-10-25

Friday October 23rd me and Levi Marriott rang the bell in Clinton Mo and headed east. Our plan was for me to run with minimal gear and have him leap frog me with supplies as to meet up every 3-6 miles. If the stretch was going to be longer he would hop on his bike and ride back to me and create a rolling aid station until the next transition. We did the the whole first day until Levi's brother Jon joined us to help split the load with Levi! And thank God he did because the longer we were out the harder simple tasks and just managing the effort became. I know I did a lot of running but I'm not sure how those two managed to stay so locked in for so long without showing any real signs(to me at least) that they were waivering! 

Hands down one of the biggest lows was at mile 60. The still air and cloudless sky lead to slightly more dehydration than expected. Pair that with the push and pull of my body and mind coming to terms with the task ahead made it all seem bigger, harder and more insurmountable  than expected. So we stopped changed shoes and I tried to leave my expectations at mile 60.

The entirety of the rest of the run was a series of highs and lows directly related to my run/walk strategy. At first I was walking .1 mile. Run .5. walk .1. Then close out the mile running. This was more running but at a slow pace(9:35-10min/mile). Frustration would start to set in because that would work for awhile, but things would start to get tight from the short strides and I would be forced to reevaluate. Then I would start walking more and running less but when running I would run closer to 8:30/mile. That would feel good until my legs would become fatigued from the quick paces. Which I found was harder to do during the heat and sun of the day. The faster run strategy mainly worked best at night. 

Since the trail is flat and seemingly endless it was way to easy to let the mind wonder to places it shouldn't. For almost the entirety of the effort I had a few things on repeat to stay grounded. "Don't let my mind go where my feet haven't been." "God give me the tools to better navigate, experience, explore and feel this mile and moment I am in." And around mile 160 it seems like I just had a front row seat to watching myself run. I hurt, I was uncomfortable but that all felt separate from the act of turning my legs. It was magic.

I have noticed before in races and efforts that if I give myself the okay to let off the gas and take it easier because the end is near then my body hears that as "time to shut down." But at the 200 mile mark it was hard not to think that it was almost done! (Even the though 40 miles is still lime 8 hours of running!) And when I started to ease up a lot of things started to fall apart. New pains popped up, Things were getting stiff, and my stomach that had cooperated the first 200 miles decided that it was no longer interested in gels. Pair that with the general fatigue and sleep deprivation from an effort like this and I could tell the last marathon was just going to be a crash landing. 

A coworker, friend and a Katy Trail frequent flyer surprised me with about 14 miles to go and reminded me that in a crash landing of all passengers survive then it was still a successful flight! Words that stuck. 

Only being capable of loud breathes, weird noises and profanity and hearing the yells of family and friends that showed up to surprise me, we stumbled into the Machens hut 43 hours and 45 minutes after we had left Clinton. It was a blink and an eternity all at once. 

Maybe I should have waited a little longer to write this up to get my thoughts and emotions in order, or maybe it's exactly what it's supposed to be. But as of now the only thing that really striking is the massive amount of love I felt when I finished and just how cool it felt to be a human being out on that trail!