Going the extra mile

GREEN BAY – After plans to run his first full marathon in 2020 fell through, Northeast Wisconsin runner Luke Mantel discovered a love for running that evolved into plans to run 335 miles across the state of Wisconsin this June.

“A couple guys from the gym were talking about signing up for a half marathon and I was just kind of in the right place at the right time…” Mantel said. “I was like, ‘I’ve done a half before, I’m going to sign up for the full.’ So I signed up for the full in 2020 and the race ended up getting canceled during COVID.”

Despite the race being cancelled, Mantel completed his own marathon, discovering a passion for going the extra mile, adding speed and distance to his subsequent runs.

“I mapped out my own routes and ran it and was severely underprepared, but I finished it and just got one of those feelings I’d never felt before of going through the struggle, getting to such a low point and then pushing through and overcoming and finishing. Not long after finishing that, maybe a few months, I decided I was going to do it again, but I was going to do it much better next time… Each time I’ve tried something like that, I just wanted to go faster or hit a new distance. Every time I did something I just wanted to find the next level and find out what I was capable of.”

It was around this time that Mantel first entertained the possibility of a cross-state run.

“As I kept growing in distance, I started hearing more about people that were doing things like that,” Mantel said. “At the time, the Iron Cowboy was doing 100 full-distance triathlons in a row, there was a guy who ran across the United States and then biked his way back. I started hearing about more people that were doing that… I would watch a lot of YouTube documentaries on people who were doing these 100-mile and 200-mile races and then cross-state or cross-country runs. It really stuck out to me — the struggle, the journey, the community… All of it just seemed like a big grand adventure. I thought it would be a cool thing to maybe do someday, but it took me a while to realize that it was something within my realm of possibilities.”

Two years ago, Mantel had the opportunity to spend a day running with Ryan Keeping on his run across Canada.

“I got to see who he and his team were able to cover 47 miles a day for 98 days,” Mantel said. “That was when I first believed something like this was possible for me. That day had a profound impact.”

Starting just south of Hazel Green in southern Wisconsin and ending at Sand Bay, the northernmost point in Wisconsin along Lake Superior, Mantel’s June 7 run totals 335 miles — 30-50 miles a day over eight days.

“I have been running at least one mile every day for over three and a half years,” Mantel said. “So I had a pretty strong base, and I’ve also been strength training the whole time. When I really seriously started training for this, I was increasing my weekly mileage, and then every other weekend my long run would get a little bit longer. At the start of the year, I was maybe doing 10, 12 or 13 miles and then it just kept increasing and worked up to 20, 25, 50 miles. A few weeks ago, I did 85 miles, and that was my longest training run for this.”

But for Mantel, it’s not just getting to the finish line that makes this run meaningful.
“There was a long time I didn’t believe something like this was possible for me,” Mantel said. “But with the right plan, breaking it down into smaller steps, having a plan of action and following it, you can really do anything. For me, it’s not just about getting to Lake Superior, but more so who I had to become to even get to a point to show up on the start line.”

“I played sports my whole life and when I got to college I kind of stopped everything and put on a bunch of weight and my mental health declined quite a bit in that time,” Mantel said. “I got into intramural ultimate frisbee, and as I got into that, I hit it off in the love of sport again. After a little bit, I got onto the club team and started playing more competitively, and I realized I could get pretty good if I lost the weight. I started doing things that athletes do again and I started strength training. One of the guys from the team dragged me into the gym one day and after that workout, I felt a confidence I’d never really felt before.”