Local pastor plans 100 mile run

On a fine Kansas day, Mike Neifert ran 32 miles. He returned home barely able to walk and his daughter laughed at his efforts to climb the steps into his house.

In November, he plans to triple the distance, running from Wichita to Haviland. A pastor at Pratt Friends Church, he likes the concept of Run for Missions, which provides scholarships to Evangelical Friends students studying for the mission field. Since the program began, all but one recipient have been from Barclay College.

On a more personal note, Neifert said his wife grew up with missionary parents.

"It's on my heart, something important to me to be able to help out," he explained.

There are shorter runs, scheduled for Oct. 27 in Haviland. Neifert will run the longest of those, a 13.1-mile half marathon, for training purposes. The half marathon begins at 8 a.m. and the 5K and 10K events an hour later. Online registration at www.runformissions.org closes on Oct. 25, but can be taken up to 15 minutes before the start of the race, in front of Hockett Auditorium on the Barclay College campus. All race registration fees are donations to the Run for Missions Scholarship Fund.

The 100-mile run begins at 5 a.m. Nov. 9 at the Friends Ministry Center in Wichita and ends at Barclay College. It's actually 103.9 miles, but after 100, who's counting? Neifert queried.

Allen Smelser and Adam Monaghan started the run in 2008, and Monaghan has continued the tradition, inviting anyone who wants to run all or part of the way with him. Neifert accepted the invitation, along with a commitment to help raise funds. They each challenged their churches to raise 10 percent of the $25,000 goal.

Donations can be made through the website or by mail. Make checks to EFC-MAYM, memo: Run for Missions and send to 2018 Maple, Wichita, KS 67213.

They will run for approximately 24 hours, pausing at a support vehicle for a few minutes every three to five miles to fill water bottles and grab some food for the road. Energy gels are good, Gatorade is better than water, gummy bears are easily carried and peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches are awesome, according to Neifert. He'll go light on protein, because running shuts down the digestive system

Starting on 21st Street in Wichita, they'll take to county roads for about 60 miles, then dirt roads, until they get to Pratt, where they merge onto K-61, then U.S. 54 to the west side of town. The run through Pratt may be about 10:30 p.m. or as late as midnight. They should finish in Haviland before daylight Saturday.

The plan is that the church associate and youth pastor, Marc Compton, will preach at Sunday's worship service — unless the Barclay College soccer team he coaches makes it to national playoffs. Then Neifert will be in the pulpit, along with some ice packs.

Training consists of "putting a lot of miles under my feet, as many miles as I have time for," Neifert said. In addition to his duties as pastor, he teaches a class two days a week at Barclay and is a reserve emergency medical technician.

He started bicycling eight or nine years ago, but has been a serious runner for only a couple of years. In the third year of Run for Missions, they added the 5K and 10K races, and Neifert started training for the 10K. His goal was to beat the best time he ran in high school — "to beat the skinny kid." He did, by 22 seconds.

The 100-mile run is not a race, he stressed. There are such events, and competitors can finish a course in less than 14 hours.

"That's not going to happen with me," Neifert promised.

Several friends will run parts of the distance, to keep Monaghan and Neifert encouraged and keep the pace up. The most challenging part is the 60-90 mile segment, Monaghan noted on the Run for Missions website, as he invited anyone wanting some slow running to contact him for details and come along.