Photo Credit Michaela Farley
To each and every one of you that volunteered at this year’s Zumbro Endurance Run, we cannot thank you enough. Thank you for giving selflessly of your time, energy, and resources. If for some reason you did not get a t-shirt please let us know and we will put on in the mail for you. If there is anything you need please reach out.
GO ONE MORE. When I saw 19 year old 100 mile finisher Jake Taplin’s hat and banner at Zumbro this year, it spoke to me. Yes as a runner, but probably moreso as a race director. Each winter as Zumbro looms on the horizon, Cheri and I have to (no, get to) decide, ‘are we ready to GO ONE MORE?’ One more Zumbro, one more race season? And each spring when I call upon you, our intrepid volunteers, you have to ask yourselves, ‘am I ready to GO ONE MORE?’ I’ve been in contact with a number of of you over the last week, and the sentiment is about the same all around; ‘incredible weekend, but I’m tired and trying to get caught up on sleep!’
Zumbro, whether you are running, organizing, or volunteering is a lot of work. It can seem hard to justify the extraordinary effort when life is busy with career, family, and a zillion other priorities and commitments. But many of us put our name on the list and we meet ‘in the bottoms’ after a long Minnesota winter. We reconnect with what are now old friends, and more often than not we make some new ones. We stand grouped in semi-circles warming our hands on paper coffee cups waiting for the next runner to come through. We bob our heads in time to Cheri or Kurt’s awesome playlist. We fill a water bottle, offer a cup of soup, or encourage a weary runner out of a folding chair and out onto their next loop. We stand in awe of the human spirit under a full moon on a frigid Zumbro night drunk on sleep deprivation, good karma, and the highest of vibes.
A chaotic early life led me to search far and wide for what makes a content, fulfilled, and dare I say happy life. Best I can figure the biggest factors are connection with others, connection with nature, exercise or some form of manual labor, and a purpose filled life achieved through service to others. While I suppose it could be a wildly successful volunteer recruiting tactic, I am not going to tell you that Zumbro, trails, or ultra, are the only place you can seek connection, exercise, and purpose – nor should it be. But what I will tell you is that it is an exceptionally easy place to find it… almost purpose built to achieve these three specific ends isn’t it? It is for these reasons and of no coincidence that these races are where so many of us feel at home.
Welcome to 2025 friends, lets GO ONE MORE!
Thank You,
John Storkamp
Race Director
Zumbro Endurance Run