The drive is, in their own estimation, “peculiar.” How else to describe the urge to run 100 miles on Bainbridge Island trails – nonstop, overnight, and this year in freezing weather – without, say, a bear on your heels?  

It’s a fair question, says Chris Heiden, who co-founded the Bainbridge Ultra Running Team with Mark Goodro five years ago.  

The inaugural BURT run – a modest 50 miles – was a loosely organized excuse to get out of the house when Covid cancelled every other run in the area. About 15 runners showed up, although some felt the course was too short.  

So the Bainbridge “Ultra” got even more so: 100 miles.   

“The drive for the 100-mile distance, for me, was that it’s so hard and the probability of failure high, just getting to the end is a kind of a life accomplishment,” Heiden […]