Event: Black Hills 50 Miler, Black Hills 100
Date: June, 2022
Location: Sturgis, South Dakota

What is in a challenge if the outcome is known? Maybe not much. When our four unlikely runners seized on a brash idea with reckless abandon, they had themselves a challenge. Signing up for a 54-mile trail ultra-marathon may not have been on their 2022 bingo cards (or even lifetime bingo cards, for that matter), but the idea and subsequent action would alter the lives of these four mediocre milers forever. An untimely arrival on a raceday wrought by the COVID-19 virus, our four idiots schlepped themselves onto a shuttle bus set to take them to the start, Silver City, SD, a quaint town of a few deer, and fewer people, at 400am. Three of the four had run a marathon, and the fourth had run a half-marathon. One of the four took her brand new trail shoes out of the box that morning, preparing to run on trails for the second time in her life (the first being the one-mile shakeout run the day prior). Attempting to learn the essentials of nutrition, hiking poles, and proper hydration, our runners set off at 5 am, all with vastly different days ahead of themselves. Runner A set off strong – of the group, he would finish first. Runners B and C set off together, while Runner D ran to the beats in his ear and the wind on his back. Spoiler: Runner D was hit with that hardest of hits: he did not meet his cut-off, after 36 hard-fought miles. His math didn’t math and for that, his day was over. Runners B and C trudged on, the former dragging the latter through most of the middle part of the race. When Runner C failed to eat or drink, Runner B abandoned him; she had a race to finish, and he had a problem to solve. Runner C was force-fed pretzels and cups of Sprite by a very nice man at an aid station, regained his resolve, and finished last in the group, but ahead of the final cut-off time. 20 minutes after the finish line, our runners realized what every finisher realizes. The pain fades, the post race beer or kombucha tastes better, and the sense of accomplishment justifies all the work, effort, sweat, and tears that made the race possible.

While our heroes didn’t know it then, their aggressive displays of mediocrity inspired an expensive, yet fulfilling hobby, and Mediocre Miles was born. – @Mediocremiles_