#Backbone trail fkt professional

However, once he settled back in the Midwest, Woltering realized that coming out wasn’t even close to the most difficult of his career challenges.

#Backbone trail fkt professional

“I didn’t know of any Black professional ultrarunners, so to add Black and gay into it…I didn’t know if any companies could handle it.” Later, at Tunnel Hill in November, he clocked the second fastest trail 50-miler in North America that year. At the Chicago Marathon in October, he knocked that down to a 2:26. A few days after his announcement, he shaved nine minutes from his marathon personal best at the Mercedes Marathon in Birmingham, Alabama, running a 2:28. Just prior to Valentine’s Day in 2016 and months before their summer wedding, Woltering came out as gay to his followers on Facebook. He relocated back to Illinois to be with his now-husband, Tom Aussem, trading high-altitude training and technical singletrack for proximity to family and a return to his roots. But while his career was taking off, something was missing from his personal life: his support system. Woltering won every trail ultra he signed up for in 2015, standing atop the podium in the Malibu Canyon 50K and the Tunnel Hill 50 Mile, among others. Two Traits Most Ultrarunners Have in Common.He walked away with a new appreciation for ultrarunning.

Woltering thought the distance sounded miserable and arduous, but he did it anyway. One of these buddies asked Woltering to pace for him at the upcoming Leadville 100 trail race. With ultrarunning legends like Scott Jurek and Anton Krupicka calling Boulder home, it wasn’t long before Woltering befriended a group of trail runners. But after graduation, he moved to Boulder, Colorado, arguably the epicenter of trail running in a state known for iconic-yet-grueling events like the Leadville 100 and the Hardrock 100. He competed in triathlons in college, and qualified for Ironman World Championships twice, in 20. Ultrarunning wasn’t Woltering’s first love. But he embraces his individuality with an enviable optimism and unique ability to adapt to any situation. Combine that with his identity as an openly gay Black man in a sport jam-packed with straight white dudes, and it’s clear that Woltering epitomizes a recent divergence from the long-haired athletes wearing trucker caps more traditionally seen in the ultrarunning community. Woltering hails from Illinois, a state more recognized for corn fields and deep-dish pizza than mountainous terrain and singletrack. This was one of the many instances during his bid for the that Woltering experienced the bona fide Midwestern kindness he hopes to spread throughout the rest of the running community. “It went from being an issue to something I never even noticed,” Woltering remembers with his characteristic amiability. “I had 40 ticks covering my legs and I didn’t want to deal with it.” As Woltering’s crew convinced him to continue, an Instagram follower reached out with a tip for The North Face runner: Wrap duct tape around his ankles-sticky side out-so the ticks get stuck on the tape.

“I was only eight miles into the second day and I walked out of the woods and told my crew I was done,” Woltering laughs.

Ultrarunner Coree Woltering Sets Ice Age Trail FKT.