For Duluth area ultra runner Michael Koppy, age is irrelevant

Michael Koppy’s journey to becoming one of the country’s fastest ultra-runners — at an age when many people are lounging on La-Z-Boys — began nearly 60 years ago, when he noticed a plaque for a “Thousand Mile Club” at Coon Rapids High School.

There was one name on the plaque. He wanted to be the second. To do it, he needed to log 1,000 miles the summer between his junior and senior years.

He did the math. It meant running 13 miles, the equivalent of a half-marathon, every day.

Despite severe shin splints, and having to run a full marathon on some days after missing a day, Koppy reached his goal.

He’s now a retired college manufacturing instructor from Hermantown, Minn., outside Duluth, who also owns a small business making high-end furniture. But in the decades since he got his name on that plaque, he’s never stopped running.

Five years ago he recorded the fastest known time for running the more than 300-mile long Superior Hiking Trail. Last year he finished fifth out of 80 runners in a 200-mile race across Nebraska, and won the over-70 division of the Cocodona 250 in Arizona.

His next challenge is the Arrowhead 135, billed as one of the toughest cold-weather endurance tests on the planet. It covers a distance equivalent to more than five marathons. Runners travel alone, through the night, across a frigid, isolated landscape.

“It’s the bragging rights of doing one of the hardest races on the whole planet that draws racers like Koppy,” said race co-director Ken Krueger.

Since the race was founded about two decades ago, fewer than half of all runners have finished the race. Others race on bike, and skis.

Krueger said that two older athletes have biked the race. Koppy’s aiming to become the oldest competitor to ever finish on foot.

“I have to say, Arrowhead scares me,” Koppy admits. “It’s out of my comfort zone. I’ve trained hard for it and tried to be in different situations, but I know I’m going to learn a bunch of stuff out there, and some of them the hard way.”

On the edge

During a recent training run on a snowmobile trail outside Duluth, the conditions were perfect— at least if your goal is to prepare for the Arrowhead 135. The wind chill was 20 below zero.

Koppy dressed in several layers. He wore mittens over a pair of thin gloves, and shoes with screws in the soles to grip the icy trail.

He also wore a harness to pull a sled, loaded with 40 pounds of survival gear, including a warm sleeping bag and a small box lined with two inches of insulation he designed to keep his food and hydration warm.

He’s not too worried about keeping his body warm he says. “Especially when you’re pulling up big hills, you really warm up fast.”

The concern is getting too warm, because if he sweats, he will freeze when the temperature drops.

“So you’ve got to be on that edge all the time. That’s one thing with this race,” he said with a laugh. “If you’re comfortable, you’re in a bad place.”

Getting too comfortable is not in Koppy’s DNA. One of his favorite aspects of running ultras is managing sleep deprivation.

For a 200-mile race, he sleeps only about five hours, over two to three days. He typically won’t sleep until late into the second night, so he can awaken after a quick nap and run as the sun rises.

“Sometimes you get what’s called a ‘reset,’” he explained. “Where you get up and it’s like you’ve never run. Your legs are brand new, and it’s just an amazing feeling. And that’s after just an hour or something of sleeping.”

There are other highs he experiences while running. One is something known as ‘flow.’

“Time sort of disappears,” said Koppy. “It really does. You can zone out, you can be running 30, 40 miles and it feels like it was 10 minutes.”

There’s magic in those moments, he said. “The feel of the movement is just therapeutic, just flowing down the trail and just feeling that your body is in tune with what’s going on.”

But make no mistake: there’s also plenty of pain and suffering. Long stretches of cold rain, impossibly steep climbs, and battles inside his head. The challenge is 90 percent mental, Koppy said.

He’s seen people who aren’t in the greatest shape show up and perform well. And he’s seen people in fantastic condition who drop out because they can’t handle the mental grind.

“If there’s one thing that’s really true in these long ultras, is whatever’s happening is going to change, and so you have to be very flexible with what’s happening,” he said. “And if you have to have a little pity party, go ahead and do it for five minutes, but then you gotta just let it go and move on.”

An unlikely runner

In a lot of ways Koppy is an unlikely runner. Polio killed his mom and brother when he was just two years old. He also contracted the disease and wore braces on his legs for a year.

Growing up he was in and out of foster homes. Discovering running, he said, kept him out of trouble, and helped put him on the right track.

He doesn’t see himself as a role model, but he’s inspired Christine Paliewicz, director of development for the Duluth Area Family YMCA. Koppy is raising money for the Y through his racing this year. Paliewicz is a runner, but stopped after having a baby a couple years ago.

After meeting Koppy, “I was like, there’s no reason that I can’t get out there for a mile or two miles, and you know, sweat,” she said. “With running, it can be so hard that when you finish, you’re mentally stronger to take on the day.”

That’s a big part of why Koppy runs. For him it’s a part of every single day, like breakfast.

“Running is what makes life really possible for me,” he explained. “We all have a lot of stresses that we have to deal with. All those complications fall away when you’re out there running. It’s just very simple.”

For him, age is irrelevant. He just thinks about whether he can do something. Or at least try something, to see if he can do it.

It also keeps him active. “I have friends that are around my age, and they’ve become less active. It’s a downward spiral, and I don’t want to get on that,” he said.

A couple years ago he tore the meniscus in his knee near the end of running the North Country Trail through Wisconsin, which traverses more than 200 miles.

When he got an MRI he discovered he only had about 25 percent of the cartilage left in the joint. The doctor told him he shouldn’t run again. But he got a different bit of advice from another physician.

“He just said, ‘run till you get a flat tire.’ And so that’s what I’m doing.”

Since then he’s completed five more ultra races.

After the Arrowhead 135, perhaps the biggest race of his career is next on his schedule. In June, he’s registered for the Western States Endurance Run, a 100-mile run across the Sierra Nevada Mountains.

It’s the oldest, most prestigious ultra in the country, Koppy said. If he finishes, he’ll be the oldest runner to finish.

“You certainly don’t have to do extreme things like I’m doing, but those motivate me,” he said. “Whatever it is that’s going to motivate you,” he said, what’s important is simply to get out there, and do it.”