Lee Greuel - Portfolio
I love to read and write. I grew up dreaming of being a fiction writer, and I am currently on the third draft of my first novel. My career has lead me to a different kind of writing: press releases, award submissions, newsletters, and research papers. I put in my favorite college news writing sample below.
Clark Runs With Purpose
Lee Greuel
9/25/11
350 miles.
North Dakota is 350 miles across.
For Ben Clark, that’s exactly how far he had to run.
In under a week.
Clark, a 21 year old junior at NDSU, was fishing with his friends last summer. They were brainstorming on how to help their hometown Minot, N.D., raise money for flood recovery.
“The city has billions of dollars in damages, and I had to do my job to help,” Clark said. “I thought, I’m a good runner, maybe I can do that.” Eventually the idea to run across the state came up and Clark got excited. Just like that, Ben Clark agreed to run across the state to raise money for Minot.
But Clark is not exactly the ultramarathon stereotype. “He’s a horribly organized, methodical and quirky genius,” long time friend and fellow NDSU student Leah Fagerland said. “He’s also a pretty mean saxophone player.”
Eric Bergman a friend and former classmate of Clark’s said, “He's double majoring in math and computer science. I’ve seen him do integrals in his head.” Bergman casually added that he’s seen Clark hold his breath for 4 minutes.
Clark has quietly earned the prestige of the people around him. James Owens, another friend said, “Ben is the hardest working, most focused person I know. He has the most respect I can give a person.”
Clark was not exactly crazy in his mission to run across the state. Despite the fact that he’s only been seriously training at running for three years, he had already completed the Badwater Ultramarathon. It’s advertised as the world’s most difficult ultramarathon. In 36 hours he ran 135 miles through Death Valley in the hot summer sun. As if that wasn’t enough, there is a 13,000 foot elevation gain during those 135 miles.
On Spet. 16, 2011 Clark was about to face a completely different animal in North Dakota than he did in Nevada. He started a little west of Beach N.D. and started his 350 mile jog to Fargo.
“It was a quiet start. No pressure,” Clark said. “Not too fast, not too slow.” That was his mantra. He had to cover 50 miles a day. Going out too fast could lead to injury or, hitting the dreaded “wall.” Going too slow would make for a miserable finish.
Minutes later, Frueh was again stuck. This time Clark took Frueh’s bike out from the van. Clark peddled a mile or two back to where he saw some gravel. He returned with said gravel and sprinkled it in front of the tires. The van shot right out of the mud.
The miles passed, the days went by, and Clark started to grow weary. “It was like Chinese water torture.” Clark had two blisters on his feet. One was on a toe, and the other was the size of a half dollar on his heel. He had only five toenails total and only one on his left foot. Due to constant pounding and blisters coming up under them, his nails simply fell off.
Towards the end of the run, Clark became slightly delusional. The black tar that gets laid on roads to fix cracks looked like something completely different.
“I thought the road was covered with huge boa constrictors and for some reason I kept seeing strange animals towards the sides of the road in my peripheral vision. They looked like armadillos or something. Luckily I had enough sense to know that what I was seeing wasn’t real, so I just kept running.”
Even though he often thought, “Oh my gosh, I’m never going to finish.” Clark did make it to Fargo. He had his destination, the Memorial Bridge (the bridge to Moorhead, Minnesota), in sight.
Some of his friends met with him to run the last couple miles and he actually “ran into” a high school cross country team that joined him for the finish.
There was no grand finish. No fanfare. No cheering. He had fought through thunderstorms, skunks and boa constrictors to reach his goal with two hours to spare. “I didn’t know what to do with myself,” Clark said.
There was nothing left for Clark to do except get ready for school the next day. His junior year classes at NDSU were starting and Clark isn’t the type to take a day off.
He’s not ready to sit back and relax on his running either. His next goal is the Arrowhead ultramarathon. Unlike Badwater, he thinks this is the real hardest race in the world. It’s 135 miles through the Minnesota woods over densely packed snow. The weather is commonly -30 degrees. A flashlight is the only light at night. Clark said, “It’s kind of depressing.” He attempted and failed the race last year, but he is confident that he’ll finish time around.
Clark said, “No matter how bad you feel, eventually you will get there.”
To donate to Ben Clark’s Minot flood relief fund you may go to this website.
Josh Frueh, a friend and classmate, volunteered to be part of Clark’s crew. Frueh’s job was basically to drive his van few miles ahead of Clark, wait for Clark to catch up, and refill his water bottle. “If I had to describe it in one word,” Frueh said, “boring. But it was a good experience.”
Clark hit his first bump in the road towards the end of his second day: thunderstorms.
Frueh said, “It’s 3 a.m. and all I can see is Ben running through lightning.”
Clark was running through flat North Dakota. “I was the highest thing around,” he said.
Eventually he thought enough was enough and he took a nap in the van.
Clark slept for 90 minutes every afternoon when it was hottest. That is all he would sleep. Once he slept for three hours and he just felt stiffer. His legs almost gave from under him. “I felt terrible.” He had to start walking and reestablish his rhythm. Otherwise, he made due with his afternoon nap and simple 45 minute breaks. He ran 20-21 hours every day. He kept his blood flowing fast and stayed awake.
“You’re staring at the road for all day. Time goes by so fast,” Clark said. “Hours felt like nothing.”
Toward the middle of his trek, he had his biggest scare. “All of the sudden I heard a rustling… It’s so strange that this little animal frightened me so much. I’m so much bigger that I could easily over power it.” The skunk snarled at him and started to lift his tail. Clark ran to the other side of the road as quick as he could and luckily, he got away with his smell intact. “That’s the fastest I ran the whole time.”
Maybe the most unusual part about Clark’s run was his diet. “Not much nutrition,” Frueh said. Doritos, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, Grilled Cheese, Poptarts, granola, and tomato soup rounded out his diet.
“I ate a ton.” Clark said.
“I guess to a certain point it doesn’t matter what you eat,” Frueh said. “It’s all about the calories. Ben just ate food that he liked.”
Soon after the skunk encounter came the next problem. Frueh’s van got stuck in the mud. They were on a dirt frontage road by a sunflower field a few miles after Dickinson.
Frueh said, “I noticed the road decreasing in quality, but I thought if I could just get through this patch, it will clear up. Big mistake.” It took an hour for Clark and Frueh to push it out of the mud. “We tried to call a tow truck, but when we told them the intersection we were closest too, they said those two streets never crossed. They thought it was a prank.”