I Told My Wife, “If I Ever Decide to Run 100 Miles, Please Stop Me.”
Week 6 of training for the Lake Sonoma 100. I am a chiropractor in Chelan, Washington, and this is the honest version of what a 100 mile ultramarathon is doing to me before I have even reached the start line.
I was laying in the passenger seat with my feet propped up. I could barely move without pain…
I had just finished the Sun Mountain 50 mile ultramarathon. It was my fastest 50 ever. I had also just about destroyed myself to get it.
That is when I said it.
“If I ever decide to do a 100 mile race, please stop me.”
Emily laughed.
She did not argue with me. She did not say “okay honey.” She just laughed.
Dr. Nate running an ultramarathon in Winthrop, Washington
Looking back, I think she already knew something I did not.
Because on October 17, 2026, I am running the Lake Sonoma 100. One hundred miles. Around 27,000 feet of climbing. They call it the Sufferfest.
She never stopped me.
What I did to myself at Sun Mountain
I went into that race knowing I could finish 50 miles. I had done it before. So this time I wanted more. I wanted to see what happened if I actually pushed.
Early on, my running buddy had to slow down. I kept going. I left him.
I ran most of that race alone. No music. Nobody to talk to. Just me and my own head for hours.
There is nowhere to hide out there. You cannot distract your way through it. Every mile you either dig deeper or you slow down. I dug.
I gave that race everything I had. I basically collapsed at the finish line.
Fastest time yet. And I could not walk to the car without help.
Then I said the thing about the 100.
So why did I sign up anyway
Here is the part I have to be honest about.
Running 100 miles terrifies me.
Not “oh that sounds hard” terrified. Actually terrified. I think about three things on almost every run.
The emotional rollercoaster. Twenty four hours or more of your brain turning on you. I have felt a piece of that at mile 40. I have never felt it at mile 80.
The physical pain. I already know what 50 miles does to my body. I am signing up to do that twice, back to back, without stopping.
And the time away from my family. That one is the hardest by far. It is not close.
So why on earth did I register.
Because of Chris. My running buddy challenged me. He wants to run 100 miles. And I want to be there when he does it. Some things you should not do alone.
Because of Niyah and Eli. They are 9 and 7. I can tell my kids to do hard things. Or I can show them. One of those actually works. I want them to grow up watching their dad choose something scary on purpose and go do it well.
Rest days matter as much as long runs. Our family and Chris’s out by the river. This is who I am training for, and it is what the training is supposed to protect, not take away.
Because I am curious. I want to know where my limit actually is. Not where I think it is. Where it really is. I’ve never been out that far.
Because of my patients. I treat a lot of athletes. Some of them are ultra runners. Some of them want to be. I do not want to be the guy who hands out advice from a clean office. I want to take you with me and show you what worked, what didn’t work, and how you can do this too.
And honestly, because of Emily. I want to impress my wife. There, I said it. Watching ultras is something we love doing together. We watch Cocodona 250. We watch the Monster 300. We watch running documentaries on the couch. Our favorite is Andy Glaze.
That is the part that makes the car ride funny now. She was not worried when I said “stop me.” She has watched me watch these races for years. She knew exactly where this was going.
The scale of it still does not fit in my head
Last week I ran 20 miles. It felt amazing. Best I have felt in months.
I finished, felt great about myself, and then the math showed up.
I just have to do that five more times.
Five. More. Times.
And that is just the distance. Lake Sonoma has around 27,000 feet of climbing. Everest is 29,032 feet from sea level. So I am going to climb almost the height of Everest, on my feet, in one push.
My first 50 miler was the Sawtooth. That one ended up being about 12,000 feet of elevation and it about killed me.
This is more than double that. Plus twice the distance.
I cannot fathom it. I have an idea of what it will be. I do not actually know. You do not know until you get there. That is the whole point and it is also the scary part.
The part nobody talks about
I need to say this clearly, because if you only read one section, make it this one.
I am not the one paying the most for this race.
Emily is.
Every long run is hours she covers by herself. Every Saturday morning I am gone is a morning she handles two kids alone. Breakfast, the fighting, the mess, the whole thing. The training does not come out of my schedule. It comes out of hers.
That is the sacrifice nobody posts about. You see the finish line photo. You do not see the person at home who made the finish line possible.
I did not earn this. She is giving it to me.
And she is not giving it to me while complaining about it. She is giving it to me while cheering.
If you are chasing something big right now, go look at who is carrying the weight so you can chase it. Then go tell them thank you. Out loud. Today.
I am telling mine right here.
Emily, thank you. I know exactly what this costs you. I see it.
She did not stop me
Here is how it actually ended up.
Emily is getting into running now. And on race day, she is going to pace me for about 24 miles.
Not the easy part either. She is joining me after mile 50, when I am cooked and my brain is falling apart and I need someone to walk beside me in the dark.
Early morning run near Pateros with my love. She laughed when I told her to stop me. Now she is training to pace me for 24 miles of it.
I asked her to stop me from doing this.
Instead she is going to be out there running it with me.
That is a better story than anything I had planned.
Where I actually am right now
I am 6 weeks into an 18 week build. Race day is October 17.
Base is coming along. I am running around 45 miles a week and staying mostly in zone 2, which means slow. Slower than my ego wants. That is the point. I ran a 40K in Sedona earlier this year and I have been stacking on that ever since.
Dr. Nate, Chiropractor and ultramarathon runner, training for Lake Sonoma 100 mile ultramarathon.
Tonight I am heading out for an evening run. It will not be dark yet, but that is coming. Sonoma starts at 5 in the morning, which means the first 90 minutes are run by headlamp. I have to get comfortable running when I cannot see the trail. That is a skill, and right now I do not have it.
My strength days are happening. Core, legs, arms. I would not call them amazing. But they are getting done, and done beats perfect.
I also got my first real pelvic pain this week. Lots of miles will do that. I made sure to get adjusted, and it was a good reminder of something I tell my patients constantly. You cannot out train misalignment. Your body will let you get away with it for a while. Then it sends the bill.
That is not a sales pitch. That is just the truest thing I know about bodies, and I learned it the hard way on my own. If you are training for something and you have been ignoring a nagging thing, go get it looked at before it becomes the reason you stop.
Three questions I get every time this comes up
How do you train for a 100 mile ultramarathon?
Slowly, and mostly easy. I am 6 weeks into an 18 week build, running about 45 miles per week, and the large majority of it is zone 2. That means conversational pace. It feels too slow. That is how you know it is working. The plan builds to back to back long run weekends, a 50K, and two 30 plus mile runs before it tapers. I will share my training schedule in future posts. Volume is not the hard part. Recovering from volume is the hard part.
How much elevation is the Lake Sonoma 100?
Around 27,000 feet of climbing across 100 miles. For comparison, Everest is 29,032 feet from sea level. The course is low elevation, between 400 and 1,200 feet, so there is no altitude to deal with. It is just relentless climbing and descending on a multi loop course.
Can a normal person with a job and kids run 100 miles?
I am going to find out with you. I run a chiropractic practice, I have two kids, and I am not a professional athlete. What I have is a plan, a family that supports it, and a willingness to be honest about the parts that hurt. If you want the foundation I built all of this on, it is in my guide (free here with this link) 7 Keys to Unlocking Your Health.
What this is
I am going to write one of these every week until October.
You will get the training. The nutrition. The recovery. The stuff that works and the stuff I get wrong. There will be a lot of both. If you want to see the supplements I actually take every day, I keep that updated in one place.
But mostly you are going to get the truth about what it takes to become the kind of person who can do something that scares him.
I have run 50 miles. I know who I am at mile 50.
On October 17, I am going to find out who I am at mile 51.
Come with me.
Now your turn
I do not want this to be me talking at you for 14 weeks. I want to hear from you.
So tell me in the comments:
What are you training for right now? Big or small. A 100 miler, a 5K, your first walk around the block after an injury. I want to hear it.
What is the hardest thing you have ever done on your feet? Tell me the story. I read every one of these.
And who is your Emily? Who is the person making your thing possible? Tag them. Say it out loud.
If you have a question about training, fueling, recovery, injuries, any of it, drop it below. I will answer it here or I will answer it in a future post. Nothing is off limits.
Subscribe below and I will send you every post. I am writing this all the way to the finish line, or all the way to wherever I stop. Either way, you will get the real version.
Dr. Nate and his wife Emily out surfing on Lake Chelan, WA.
About the author
Dr. Nate Moller, D.C. is a chiropractor, nutritional coach, and ultramarathon runner. He owns Living Well Family Chiropractic at 218 E Woodin Ave in Chelan, Washington, where he has spent over a decade helping athletes, runners, parents, and desk professionals get out of pain and back to the life they love, naturally.
He specializes in sports chiropractic, applied kinesiology, nutrition response testing, and Neuro Emotional Technique. He has finished three 50 mile ultramarathons and is currently training for the Lake Sonoma 100 on October 17, 2026.
This post is for educational purposes only and is not medical advice. If you are in pain or starting a new training program, talk to a qualified provider first.
Have a question about running injuries or back pain? Ask in the comments and Dr. Nate will personally answer. If you found this helpful, please share it with a friend!
