Otto man completes 100-mile Big Horn Trail Run

Otto native Coulter Neves competed in the 100-mile Big Horn Trail Run this past weekend. Three hundred runners from across the nation and outside the country started the race and 195 finished the grueling trail run. Neves finished with a time of 28 hours and 54 minutes for a 58th-place finish overall and a 24th place finish in his age group.
This is Neves’ second time competing in the Trail Run and he took two and half hours off his previous time. “I had a better idea of what to expect this year,” he said. “Last year, I watched a couple of YouTube videos about the race, looked at the elevation profile and hoped for the best. This time, I knew that the really steep elevation change on the elevation profile actually meant I’d be hiking straight up a huge hill. Instead of just a scary looking line on the page, I knew that it was a scary looking hill. … Knowing exactly what I was in for helped me prepare for what was coming. Additionally, last year was extremely wet and muddy which makes a lot of the course more challenging. There were many fewer face-plants this year, which was less entertaining, but made for a faster run.”
Neves’ gives credit for his inspiration to compete to a few of his mentors and friends. “I think I can place most of the blame on Mark Wiles. I have gone on a few ‘adventures’ with him and he always seemed to advocate for the excitement and fun that comes with these ultramarathon type races. Then the illustrious Ryan Olson ran a 100 miler and did an amazing job of it, despite being referred to as ‘that little, grey-haired old man’ during the race. If a little, grey-haired old man can do it, surely I can too right? David Loveland can also take quite a bit of credit. He’s been great to train with and is always encouraging me to keep going. Katy (Neves’ wife) has always been very supportive of any sort of running. She is the only one in our house who actually knows anything about running, so any good decision I’ve made, or bad decision I’ve avoided, is due to her influence.”
For her part, Katy said of her husband: “I’m really proud of how he dealt with and overcame varying obstacles. He can put his mind to something and really accomplish hard things. The course is brutal but it is also enlivening to be deep in God’s masterfully-made mountains. Our crew was indispensable and really contributed to his success. I was most surprised when waiting at mile 82 to begin my segment of running with him, I casually looked into the binoculars and saw him and Ryan already nearly upon us. They’d been passing people all night!”
Neves’ also wanted to mention the power of watching others compete in races like this one. “As I spent some quality time on YouTube watching races and interviews with some of the top runners, I found the most intriguing part was how the race gave them the opportunity to push themselves to complete exhaustion and then to keep going despite the pain, fatigue, nausea, injury, etc. I thought that was neat and wanted to see if I possessed any of that willpower.”
Planning a strategy for a race that long seems daunting, but Neves says it’s pretty simple. “Just make it to the next aid station. Whatever was going on with my legs, the trail or the weather, I always knew there were snacks and something to drink in 6-8 miles. If a problem arose such as a cramp or an issue with my shoes or feet, I’d try to address it immediately to prevent the problem from escalating. Sometimes that meant stopping to stretch for a few minutes, but in a 100 miler that has very little effect on my overall time.”
Wiles, Olson, Katy and Eric McNiven were pacers for Neves’ run this year. “They probably have the worst job of anyone. They have to hang out with me when I’m tired, nauseated, hungry and in pain. They have to be a motivational speaker, psychologist, physical therapist, fitness guru and sensei. They have to be able to lie with a straight face and tell me I’m looking great, that we’ve been making really good time, that they’re glad I asked them to pace and they’re looking forward to doing it again next year… so an easy job really. It really makes a huge difference to have them there to talk to and reason through the issues that come up. David and his wife Claudia organized and coordinated getting the pacers to the right spot at the right time. it was nice to not worry about that issue.”
As far as looking forward to next year, Neves says it’s a solid maybe. “I will probably try to do the MAC which is a race outside of
Meeteetse. There are many races out there and it might be fun to try a new 100 miler, but the Big Horn 100 is so close that it’s easy to just want to go up there again.”