Olson’s 52-mile run fueled by 565 reasons

SANDPOINT — Six years ago Erik Olson packed his bags and moved from Wisconsin to Sandpoint, where he promised his wife that he would train to run. His wife is an ultramarathon runner, logging over 26.2 miles on any given day.

“She would get up early in the morning and go do these long runs,” Olson said. “I would just say, ‘That is the dumbest thing ever, why would you even do that?’ But then she said, ‘When we move we are going to turn over a new leaf, let’s start trail running.’”

Olson’s first serious attempt at running was in Syringa. He hated every minute of it.

“But then she kept encouraging me,” He said, “And I just kept doing small little chunks at a time. The next thing you know you are doing 10 miles a day and 50 miles a week.”

On Monday, Olson ran for his 565 students as the Principal of Farmin Stidwell Elementary School — 52 miles for the 52 days he went without seeing his students.

“I really wanted to tie it into school and kids because I have so much pride in my school, so I was sitting at the table one night and I was thinking how many days it has been since we’ve physically seen the kids,” Olson said. “I took out the calendar and started counting.”

At 5 a.m. he began his run and live streamed his progress on Facebook for the first half of the run with his wife. Four hours later he was greeted with over 80 percent of his teaching staff at City Beach, an event he had pre-planned to serve as a “mental cleanse.”

“I didn’t really have a finish line necessarily, but I just invited my staff members in particular at 9 a.m. to meet at Sand Creek just to walk with me or run or what have you,” Olson said. “It was a mental cleanse for them as well, just to get out and be with each other because it was the teachers official last day of working.”

Sixth grade teacher Renee Nigon ran alongside Olson for 14 miles, and many other teachers and friends walked for short distances throughout his journey. But at mile 50, Olson had an unanticipated mental breakdown, where he recalled being overcome with emotion. To him, running represents more than accumulating miles.

“See, I get emotional talking about it right now,” Olson said through his tears. “It’s hard to explain because the general public might say, ‘I can’t even run one mile, how can you?’ It’s just a large sense of personal fulfillment, this idea of putting your mind and body through something that most people wouldn’t even dream of doing … and then to have people along the way who are rooting for you and cheering you on and inspiring them.”

Olson equated his frustration and uncertainty during the run to his families and students and staff at Farmin Stidwell during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Through this time our families and students and teachers have had to persevere and there have been these feelings of the unknown and people were scared and frustrated and angry,” Olson said. “When you run that far, you feel all of those emotions … and you want to give up and you can’t do it.”

With tired feet and sore legs, Olson finished the 52nd mile on Lincoln Street and stopped his wife for one last video shoot. He was pumping his fist in the air to alert friends and family that he had completed the run, when he saw his assistant principal, Betsy Delassio, peeking through the rain, walking toward him to serve more congratulations.

Despite the weather and fatigue, Olson said it was his easiest 50-plus miler to date. “I had a very strong purpose behind why I was doing this, so when you keep that in the back of your mind when things are tough it just kind of motivates you,” He said.

On Tuesday, Olson even received a message from one of his student’s parents who was newly motivated to run five miles. He consistently runs 50-60 hours a week and named Selkirk firefighter Gwen Le Tutour as his inspiration for running long distances. Two years ago, Le Tutour became the first person to run 100 miles in full firefighter turnouts after he ran for his nonprofit organization focused on cancer prevention.

“Our teachers inspire kids every day and if you can do that and leave an impact or an impression to go out and do the same thing, to make them want to be a better person, whether it be physically or personally then I think that’s awesome,” Olson said. “Given all the things that are happening in our world right now, for sure with COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter, there is just a lot of unrest and this is an easy challenge.”

Olson finished his run at about 3 p.m., meeting his 10-hour goal. Olson has also started a jogging club for his students, and helped put together a 5K virtual run with all of the physical education teachers in Lake Pend Oreille School District called “We Got This” which had over 100 students participate this year. Students mapped their own 3.1 mile course, took pictures, made a video and submitted it to their physical education teacher to receive a T-shirt.

“They have a principal who runs and, by golly, we are going to support those healthy outlets,” Olson said.

Aly De Angelus can be reached by email at adeangelus@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow her on Twitter @AlyDailyBee.