The first couple of Wisconsin's trails

Many in the Midwest consider them to be the "president and first lady" of trail running, or at least of the Kettle Moraine trails in southeastern Wisconsin. This year the first couple of the trails, Tom and Lorraine Bunk, celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary.

And how did they celebrate? How else? With a 50K run joined by family and friends on the trails they love. "We couldn't think of a better way to do it," Tom Bunk said.

The two met when they were high school students in the tiny town of Kendall, Wisconsin. "We had a small class," Tom said. "There were 19 total and only four were girls. Lorraine was the 'hot one!'"

Tom married that "hot one" on September 3, 1960.

Their sports background is a familiar story. Tom played the basic big three sports of football, basketball and baseball, while Lorraine stayed on the sidelines as a cheerleader.

Tom said that Lorraine finally got off the sidelines once their children, Craig (now 40) and Kim (now 47), started displaying athleticism.

"Lorraine got sick of waiting for the three of us to come home for supper," Tom said.

It was a wager in 1977 that started Tom's running career. "A neighbor bet me that I couldn't run two miles," he said. "My 180-pound body lost the bet."

That neighbor would have a hard time recognizing Tom now. He may have been a winded heavyweight 43 years ago, but at 68, he easily falls under the welterweight limit and has finished near the front of dozens of ultras around the country.

After losing that initial bet, Tom decided to keep lacing up his running shoes. He entered a few short races and then tried his first marathon in 1980. He fell into the familiar cycle of doing three to four marathons a year, he said, "and after coming in right at 2:50:50 a couple of times, I got talked into giving the Ice Age 50 a try."

His first trail run was two weeks before the race. "I got lost, dehydrated and humbled," he recalled. "I was so sore that I wasn't able to run for a week." After taking advice from veteran trail runner G.E. Jensen, "to walk the hills in the beginning and then see how much I could run in the second half," Tom said he managed to finish that first 50. "The recovery was painful but I was hooked."

Three weeks later, he ran a 2:46 marathon. "But that was the end of my road racing goals. I was hooked on trail running and it has been my passion ever since that first Ice Age in 1983," he said.

His most recent Ice Age was in May of this year, which he finished in 9:41:34.

Lorraine started running just as Tom was getting into marathoning. She began with 5Ks, racing just about every weekend and often winning her age group.

In 1987, she decided to try a marathon. Tom thought that he was giving his wife good advice, telling her that she would "feel good until about 20 miles and then hit the wall." Lorraine did what wives often do when their husbands talk: She didn't listen. And she didn't hit that wall.

"She never hits the wall in a marathon," Tom said. "She has qualified and run Boston eight times and still hasn't found that wall in a marathon."

In 1989 she ran her first Ice Age 50. She now has 19 finisher's buckles in her collection and a PR of 9:03 which she set when she was 57. She is now 69.

She tried for her 20th Ice Age finish this year, but while she did finish, she missed coming under the 12-hour cut-off. Lorraine plans to give the Ice Age another try in 2011. She doggedly wants that "official" 20th finish.

Finally hit the wall

Lorraine never hit the wall at a marathon, or even at Ice Age, but she finally met her limit at the Western States 100 in California.

"Her quads never hurt in a race before that," Tom said. However, after a couple of those long canyon descents Lorraine finally found that wall that Tom had been talking about years ago. "But Lorraine never thinks of quitting. There are points in some events when I think about it, but the idea never crosses Lorraine's mind."

Tom said that pacing Lorraine to her Western States finish remains one of his favorite running moments. "She was so positive and steady through the whole run," he said. "She went into the race without any mountain running experience and simply thought that it would be fun."

And while her quads did finally bang into that proverbial wall, she did have fun, and finished Western in 29:21 at the age of 57. Tom was right there with her as she hit the track in Auburn.

Although Lorraine and Tom have run ultras around the country, their favorites remain the Ice Age 50, Glacial Trail 50 and Kettle Moraine 100 in southern Wisconsin and Voyageur 50 in northern Minnesota.

After so many races, you'd think that they would have a house full of trophies and other trinkets. Instead, the house is covered in teddy bears - one of Lorraine's other obsessions besides running.

"We have a rule in our house about racing," Tom said. "We talk about a race for about a week and then put away the trinkets. You can't live on what you did; you must move on to what the next day will bring."

After years of ultrarunning, do the Bunks have any advice for those new to the sport?

"Trail running comes from within your spirit and listening to your breathing and fueling the body with what it needs," Tom said. "Do not be fooled by the watch that says you are going too slow or too fast. The body knows when to push and when to back down."

Near the trails they love

The Bunks' are practically synonymous with trail running in southern Wisconsin. Their home is just a short jog from their favorite trails in Wisconsin's Southern Kettle Moraine. Knowing the trails better than most, Tom often marks them for events as large as Ice Age and as small as the local trail runners' Fat Ass runs. When The North Face brought its series to the area two years ago, the organizers knew Tom was the one to contact for help with the course.

Occasionally slowed by injuries or health setbacks, Tom isn't always able to compete in his favorite events. But he is invariably on hand as a volunteer or crew member for a local runner, including Lorraine.

Celebrating with friends

On a warm summer day this past August, about 35 friends and family joined the Bunks for their 50th wedding anniversary run at the Nordic Trails near La Grange, Wisconsin. The Nordic trail system is the staging area for both the Ice Age 50 and the Kettle Moraine 100 races.

Tom set up a 50K course complete with two well-stocked aid stations. About a dozen people ran the full 50K (including Craig Swartwout, who had run the Leadville 100 the week before) while others did a bit less. Even the Bunks' son Craig, whose interests moved from the trails to the weightroom a few years ago, came out to run a loop.

During the first four-mile loop, Tom and Lorraine found themselves chatting with friends. When Tom came to the end of the loop, he realized his lovely bride was nowhere in sight. But by the time he refilled his bottle he could hear Lorraine and her girlfriends coming around the corner. After that first loop the two stayed together, doing another 18 before calling it a day. By then, more friends and family had arrived, as well as the catered food.

Although they didn't do the full 50K, it was time to get out of the running shoes and be party hosts. Under a rented tent, about 75 people joined the Bunks in celebrating their anniversary. The occasion brought a few people to the trails who hadn't set foot on them for years.

"I'm surprised so many people came," Tom said, humble as always.

Will they do the same thing for their 75th?

"Maybe," he said. "But I don't think it will be 75K. Maybe we'll drop the 'kilo' and just do the meters."

Mary Gorski is a Milwaukee, Wisconsin, runner who often shares the Southern Kettle Moraine trails with the Bunks. An ultrarunner since 1993, Gorski has completed the Western States 100, Badwater 135 and the 56-mile Comrades Marathon in south Africa. She is an avid Nordic skier, with at least a dozen Birkie finisher pins, and is an occasional triathlete. Gorski ran with the Bunks for most of their anniversary run and she was welcomed at the finish of the Western States 100 by Lorraine "whooping and hollering like I had just won the Olympic marathon and cured childhood cancer all at the same time." When she isn't playing outside, Gorski is the communications director for a nonprofit. A version of this story first appeared in UltraRunning Magazine.