HJ Sports Blog

By Matt Kane
Sports Editor
Snow, ice and anything else that makes up winter didn’t stop Loretto’s B.J. Van Beusekom from heading outside for a run. More specifically, a 100-mile run.
Van Beusekom jumped off the treadmill, and headed to Lockport, NY, Feb. 27-28 for the Beast of Burden winter 100 Miler, an outdoor race that consists of eight 12.5-mile lengths along the historic Erie Canal towpath.
Twenty five people ran a 24-hour race, and 17 individuals, including Van Beausekom, attempted the 100-mile distance.
Van Beusekom the 100-mile race with the time of 28 hours, 9 minutes, which placed him sixth overall.
The winning time was 18 hours by Richard Cook.
The race had to be completed in 30 hours. The final two runners came in with 30 minutes and 15 minutes to spare.
In order to be considered a finisher for the 24-hour race, the runners had to do at least a distance of 50 miles. For the 100 milers, the cutoff was 30 hours.
The group of runners included Cook, Ryan O’Dell and Charlie Engle, who was made famous from the Matt Damon documentary “Running the Sahara.”
“It was a little intimidating at first, looking at some of these guy’s resumes who had been multiple finishers in races as extreme as the Badwater 135-mile race in extreme heat, but I was determined to finish.” Van Beusekom said.
Temperatures were in the mid-30’s with snow coming down for almost the entire race. Snowmobiles were sent out to create paths in the four inches of snow, but the runners’ footsteps packed the snow into a nine-inch wide path that was convex on the sides.
“I felt like I was on the outsides of my feet for most of the race,” Van Beusekom explained. “If you ventured off the path, you had to contend with the snow.”
Van Beusekom attempted to run 93 miles in 24 hours last winter on his treadmill for a fundraiser, but finished with 8.06.
“I fell short at 80 miles. This is a good redemption for me,” Van Beusekom told the Lockport Union-Sun & Journal.
Not meeting that goal on the treadmill for the fundraiser played into why Van Beusekom entered the 100-mile race. The other was to test his body’s limit.
“I just wanted to see how far I can go, and, secondly, I was not quite satisfied finishing at 80.6 miles for the 24 treadmill run.”
The temperature hovered around 30 degrees for much of the race, which didn’t bother Van Beausekom too much. The wet snow: that was a different story.
“It’s a little to wet for me, though,” he told the Western New York newspaper. “I can deal with it. I brought three pairs of shoes. You just put one foot in front of another. You go to a different comfort zone. Once you get to a new comfort zone, it’s nice to see how much farther you can go.”
Van Beusekom summed up his will to fight through the wet snow by quoting two subjects to the Union-Sun & Journal.
“Only those who risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go,” he said, quoting T.S. Eliot. And then, Van Beusekom quoted Lance Armstrong, who said, “Pain is temporary, and quitting lasts forever.”
Apparently, Van Beusekom gained from the pain in New York, because he plans to test himself against 100 miles again.
“Will I do it again? Yes, for sure,” he said. “Now that the bar has been set, I want to see if I can reach 100 miles in a faster time, or see if I can do it on some different terrain.