Bountiful couple finds fresh challenge in the Wasatch 100

BOUNTIFUL — In recent years, those 26.2-mile marathons had been getting to be ho-hum, too easy, a little passe for runners Don and Kathy Milligan.

So, over the course of two days on Sept. 11 and 12, they'll try a little walk in the park called the Wasatch 100 Mile Endurance Run, known in running parlance as an ultra-marathon.

Do they have what it takes to finish? No one, not even the sport's elite endurance runners, knows the answer to that question until long after the gun goes off.

Are the Milligans prepared? Well, ready as they'll ever be.

These two love to run, particularly as a pair.

The Milligans met 27 years ago while running, began training together 26 years ago and, 25 years ago, as of this past March, they married.

For years, Kathy Milligan, now 46, held the 800-meter race record at Viewmont High, where one of her three grown children still owns the 100-meter record.

"She's the athlete," her husband says.

Friends will agree and are in awe of her natural running abilities.

"Kathy is an amazing athlete," said Andrea Peterson.

She and Kathy Milligan, through the years, have benefited from venting during so-called therapy runs, when what is said on the road "stays on the road," according to Peterson. She'll be a pacer for her friend during the Wasatch 100.

Don Milligan, 49, the less chatty, more introspective of the Milligan running duo, has never outgrown his love of pounding the pavement and will always, somehow, find time to lace up a pair.

Hard to believe he runs at all when you figure in family time and his two full-time jobs. By day, he's an administrator at the Huntsman Cancer Institute. Often, after work, the necktie stays on for this bishop of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' Bountiful Heights 54th Ward, which has about 300 members he checks in on.

These days, the Milligans will sometimes leave early in the morning on a weekday and run to Don Milligan's work. Or they'll run after work. They ran home after a marathon in Salt Lake City this past spring.

In short, they make time to run — no lame excuses.

So, Mom and Dad Milligan, all these years later, are still running together.

Their sprinting days are over. Now, running is more about distance, longevity, testing limits, setting loftier goals.

Marathons have lost their allure for the Milligans. They've been looking for a new challenge. A feat of a friend and fellow runner Charley Allen became an inspiration, the catalyst that compelled the Milligans to dream bigger.

In 1986 and 1988, Allen — then in his late 30s — finished the Wasatch 100. Most ultra runners tend to be in their 30s or 40s, but sometimes Wasatch 100 competitors and finishers are in their 60s or even 70s.