For Harley Malek, spending the better part of two days walking around a farm with her mom, camping out with her sister, and eating pizza and quesadillas made by her dad was a great way to spend a weekend with her family.
On April 2-4, the 12-year-old North Carolina girl participated in The Country Mile 48 Hour, a South Carolina event that attracts fast ultrarunners, first time-trail runners, hikers, and a wide range of older and younger participants who are encouraged to run or walk as far as they want whenever they want on a 4.167-mile loop course around Beechwood Farms, a mostly flat properly known for growing strawberries, sweet corn, squash and tomatoes throughout the spring and summer.
Harley, mostly walking with her mom, Alicia Malek, completed 25 laps, which means she covered 104.1 miles to take top overall honors in the under-19 division and place 28th overall out of 277 participants. While they jogged a little bit, they were mostly walking and talking.
“It was fun, but it was hard at the same time,” said Harley Malek, who earned a silver belt buckle for her effort. “Next year I might want to try to do more, because it was fun to be out there to see what I could do. Maybe I won’t set a goal, and I’ll bring some of my friends, and we can just walk and talk and see how many miles we can do. It would be cool to show them what it’s all about.”
Harley’s younger sister, Sydney, 11, completed 10 laps for 41.67 miles to finish second overall in that age group, while Carter Reed, 16, was the boys under-19 winner with 15 laps for 62.5 miles. In all, there were a dozen kids between the ages of 8 and 17 who participated in the event.
As trail running has grown, there has been an increase in young participants accomplishing some big results. Last year, Nate Whiting, a 16-year-old from New Jersey, completed the 200-mile Three Days at the Fair event. For the past two years, 12-year-old Péma Franchi of Ecuador has competed well with adults on the international mountain running circuit, including top finishes in the Mammoth Trailfest. And in February, Marta Bontognali, 12, of Switzerland, completed the Black Canyon 50K in Arizona, in 5 hours, 39 minutes.
Alicia Malek is an experienced trail ultrarunner and insists the The Country Mile 48 Hour was a very low-key outing for the girls focused on easy exercise, fun, camping, and the community of the trail running scene and not an intense or competitive ultrarunning effort. Harley (jiu jitsu) and Sydney (gymnastics) are active in other sports and they enjoy camping and hiking on family outings.
“With this event, it’s not really about speed, it’s more about determination,” said Alicia Malek who finished sixth overall with 29 laps and 120.84 miles. “The main lesson that I want my girls to learn from my racing and now theirs, is that if they are determined to achieve a goal and work hard at it, they can do anything. I want them to take away the idea that life is about hard work and never giving up, not luck or talent.”
The family is looking forward to a fun summer of adventures and is tentatively planning to participate in the Sadlers Creek Stumble—a South Carolina event with a 32-hour division and 26.2-mile, 13.1-mile, and 10K races—as well as returning to The Country Mile next spring.
“It’s fun to watch kids do things that other kids are not doing,” says the girls’ father, Brian Malek, who served as the family cook and crew chief. “They’re not on tablets, they’re not sitting there playing video games. They’re out walking and getting exercise and talking with their mother. Some people say, ‘Oh, kids shouldn’t do this.’ And I look at it and say, ‘She spent 40 plus hours walking and talking with her mother. How can that be bad?’”
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2 comments
Ed ‘Running Jester’ Ettinghausen
Great article. So impressed seeing young people committing themselves to challenging, yet wholesome & healthy activities.
Ever UPward & ONward…
Jess Henderson
Go Harley (and Mom!) – you are so inspiring! I will be thinking about you when I attempt my first ultra race in a couple of months!
-Jess from Bainbridge Island, WA