Hi, I'm Willow Belden, and you're listening to Out There.

This is a podcast about the outdoors, from your window box and garden, to the fields on the edge of town, to the forests, prairies, seashores, and wilderness.

On the show, we explore our relationship with nature, through stories, interviews, essays, and even some fiction.

We travel around the honest. Okay. Okay, I want to know. What did you think when you first heard about what I was planning on doing?

Be completely honest. Well, on the one hand, I was totally in awe and actually kind of jealous of what you were doing. I kind of wanted to do it too.

But on the other hand, I also thought you were

insane, like completely and utterly insane. Yeah, I get that a lot. And to be honest, I actually

agree with you a part of the time. I think I'm insane a bit. So fair enough.

Yeah. So fair enough. This is Jordan Werfzbrock.

She's a journalist in Colorado, and when she's not reporting, she's also a runner, a really

hardcore runner.

Today, she's going to share the story of a race she did last spring.

It takes place in the mountains of Vermont, and it's one of the most challenging trail running

races that's ever been put on, 888 kilometers. That's 550 miles if you're rusty on the metric

system. The race is called infinitus, but in my head I call it infinitis, like an inflammation in your infinity gland.

Okay, so before we hear your story, a race this long is so far outside the realm of comprehension for most of us.

How does this even work?

I mean, do you just start running and then stop 550 miles later?

Pretty much, yeah.

It's on a 26-mile course that's shaped like a figure 8, and you run that loop over and over and over.

Basically, you're doing a bunch of laps.

And to put this in perspective,

...