Sofie Hill wanted to do an Ironman – a world-renowned race in which participants swim 2.4 miles, run 26.2 miles and ride a bike 112 miles. But the Fort Lewis College student couldn’t afford the travel and registration fees.
Instead, she decided to hold her own, solo Ironman competition. She called it the “Sofie-man.”
The plan was simple: ride, run and swim the same distance as an Ironman, but do it in and around Durango. Hill would do it with some of her other endurance-loving friends joining her and offering support along the way, and the challenge would allow her to see and appreciate the town she has come to love since attending Fort Lewis College.
“Since I was doing it for free on my own, I wanted to make it as ‘Durango’ as possible,” Hill said.
Hill started running from her front door at 1:50 a.m. Sept. 10. She went up the Skyline Trail, then across town to Animas Mountain, then over to Hogsback and finally to Smelter Mountain.
“I had to go from 2 a.m. to 6 a.m. by myself, which was a little scary, but I blasted music and had a really bright headlamp,” Hill said.
She fell down about 4 a.m. on Animas Mountain, destroying her phone screen.
She arrived at Lake Nighthorse around 7:45 a.m. After a quick break, she slipped into a swimming singlet, attached a buoy to her waist for buoyancy, then swam across Lake Nighthorse and back.
At 11:30 a.m., she changed into her biking clothes. She hopped onto her mountain bike and rode up Kennebec Pass, looped back to Zia Taqueria in north Durango for a burrito, then proceeded to ride up Missionary Ridge.
“When I went down from Missionary, I needed an extra 4 miles to complete the route, so we went to last call at the (Orio’s) Roadhouse,” Hill said. “I met some of my friends and they bought me a drink. It was great.”
By the time Hill made it to the Roadhouse, it was nearing midnight. In a little over 23 hours, she had traveled 130 miles and gained 15,246 feet of elevation, all under her own power. It was hard, she said, and there were points when she was unsure if she could continue.
“My stomach really, really hurt for 45 minutes at the beginning, and I was scared that I’d have to bail,” Hill said. “It was rainy and cold and I had no body heat. So that was hard with the swim. And then there was one hour on the bike ride where I was like, ‘This kind of sucks.’ But honestly, it wasn’t as bad as I thought, I think, because I was really prepared and trained for it.”
Hill said she prepared for weeks through a rigorous training routine.
“I trained for a month and did three long runs, three long bike rides and four long swims,” Hill said. “Then I tried to do chill bikes, runs and swims in between.”
Hill, who got into endurance sports as a teenager, said she loves traveling long distances. It is a way to show herself what she is capable of and allows her to move through the landscape in a way that lets her appreciate it.
“Being able to go really far, just being able to see a ton of stuff and the amount of distance you can go is just really cool,” Hill said. “I feel like endurance stuff involves a lot more preparation and training, but pretty much anyone can do it.”
She enjoys long-distance events because it forces her to be hyper-present.
“I feel like my brain kind of turns off for a lot of it, which I think is one of the reasons it’s so fun,” Hill said. “It’s meditation, because you learn how to be present. You can’t think about the future.”
Even though Hill put on her own solo competition, she said she wouldn’t have been able to do it without the help of her friends. For each leg of the challenge, she was joined by different companions who helped cheer her on and supported her.
Durango is a special place, she said, because so many people love doing adventure sports, are humble about their achievements and show up to support each other.
“It feels like everyone is outside always, and you get everywhere without having to drive,” she said. “And that’s pretty cool.”
sedmondson@durangoherald.com
