Runner Completes Alaska’s 92-Mile Denali Park Road

It was his second attempt to be the first person to complete the feat.

Persevering through a sore hip and fending off wild caribou, Bill VonderMehden, a 34-year-old distance runner, ran the entire length of the road that stretches through Denali National Park in Alaska. VonderMehden is a chef who works in one of the park’s lodges. He completed the trek in approximately 25 hours from July 21-22.

“It’s one thing to do a road race where there are aid stations and people cheering you on,” he said. “Out there, there’s no aid stations. It’s just you and the moose and the bears.”

VonderMehden is the first person on record to complete this run.

His first attempt was last year, but had to cut the run short due to an injured ankle. “I was really just kind of upset because I knew my time could have been several hours faster,” he recalls.

In this year’s run, VonderMehden remembers he nearly had a head-on collision with a caribou, but the animal veered off before the two hit.

For More: Reuters