By Chris Faulkner
Tomi Hagan never ran in high school and didn’t even do fun runs as a young adult.
“I used to say, ‘I don’t even run when something’s chasing me,’ ” Hagan said. “I would just lie down and play dead. It’s safer that way.”
Yet two years ago, Hagan ran a 50-kilometer (31-mile) race for her 50th birthday. She had already run a half-marathon before that.
However, her longest endeavor has been a 100-mile race, and this past May, she ran her second such distance in the annual Keys Race, which starts in Key Largo, Fla., and ends in Key West.
Hagan finished first in the 50-54 age group, running, walking, taking food and bathroom breaks, and completing the challenge in 25 hours, 52 minutes, and 19 seconds.
That’s five hours faster than last year.
As reference points, this year’s overall winner, Brett Sanborn of Albuquerque, New Mexico, finished in 14:21:41, and the top female, Nicole Coccia of Riverview, Fla., finished in 18:24:42.
Hagan placed 46th out of the 131 who finished, not counting the dozens of runners who started but didn’t finish.
Her daughter-in-law, Jacey Hagan, served as her crew chief and helped Hagan become more efficient during breaks, thereby reducing the overall time.
Her son, Bryar, and her husband, Troy, also served as part of the crew.
Although her family supports her, “They think it’s a little nutty,” Hagan said of her long-distance runs.
Started in Her 40s
Hagan grew up in South Dakota, moved to Missouri in 1995, and started working at the hospital in Burlington in 2018. She and Troy still have a home in Missouri.
In 2021, Hagan finally took her first running step. “I had a neighbor I worked out with at the gym,” she said. “She talked me into doing some run-walking a little bit.”
A few years earlier, she had met her dad for the first time, having found him on ancestry.com. He was in South Dakota, where she grew up, and after she started running, they would run together whenever she visited. Her first big race was with him at the Rock and Roll 10K in Las Vegas.
“It just kind of blossomed from there,” Hagan said.
A half-marathon (13 miles) was next, but she soon had bigger ambitions.
She was 49 when she heard a podcaster say that people should look for Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals.
“I thought, ‘I need a BHAG goal, and I’m going to run an ultramarathon,” she said, the shortest of which is a 50K.
The 50K was a trail race, and those are her favorites because of the terrain and the challenges.
Hagan then ran the Keys race in 2024 and, in March of this year, ran the Glades 50-mile run, also in Florida.
“That was my son-in-law’s first ultramarathon,” she said of Jade Slaughter.
“There were gators and snakes and all those things.”
They are now training for the Black Hills 100 in her home state.
“My dad is going to come out and pace me some,” Hagan said.
Separation Anxiety
At the Keys event, Hagan suffered a leg cramp.
“I was scared when I first got separated from my running partners, and I was alone,” Hagan said. “I was really terrified.”
But Jacey, who doesn’t run, ended up pacing her for an eight-mile stretch and nine more later on.
“We shared a sunset on the Seven-mile Bridge, which is something I’ll never forget,” Hagan said.
As for sleep, there’s no rule against naps, but Hagan doesn’t even do those, and she doesn’t get much sleep the night before a race because she’s too nervous.
“Afterwards, it takes several days to get your sleep back to regulated,” she said. “You don’t sleep more than four to six hours at a time.”
As daunting a task as those races would be for most of the population, when it comes time to find a bathroom, “That’s probably about one of the most stressful parts,” Hagan said.
“When I stopped at mile 95, the gas station wasn’t open yet.
I thought there would be a porta-potty at 98. Literally from mile 92 to the end, I really had to go to the bathroom, and I just had to wait,” she said.
Training Spots
Hagan lives downtown, and that’s one of her training spots.
“When I’m running in the morning before work, it’s up and down Jefferson and Main and down by the river,” Hagan said.
She also runs by Starr’s Cave and at Geode State Park.
“We’re really lucky here,” she said. “We’ve got a lot of good places to get out and move.”
She’ll run for 45 minutes on Tuesdays and Thursdays, alternating between easy runs, hill work, and speed work. There’s a group that does a Run to the Pub downtown on Thursdays.
Leading into a 100-mile race, she’ll run 20 miles three days in a row and then three 10-hour runs two to four hours apart.
“I listen to a lot of podcasts,” she said. “It’s very nice to have that time to myself.”
Double the Fun
Next year, Hagan plans on running two 100-mile races in June and October. She’ll take on a 200-mile race in 2027.
“My goal is to run as long as I can physically do it,” she said.
“The race director from Keys is 81, and he just finished the 135-mile race Badwater through the desert.” It’s in Death Valley, California. “He is my hero.”
“My biggest message is (that) everybody can do more than they think they can,” Hagan said. “You’re capable of a lot more than you realize.”