Skedaddling, from home: Hulstein takes on Sioux Falls half marathon in virtual fashion – Pipestone County Star

“I just run one race a year.”

And this year Pipestone’s Brandie (Pantekoek) Hulstein chose to take on the popular Skedaddle Half Marathon in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Hulstein had little need for Skedaddle’s suggested training plans for both beginner and intermediate runners, as she’d completed a full marathon and several half marathons since returning to running in 2014 at the Fargo Half Marathon. Ready to embrace a new course and, hopefully, set a new personal record (PR), Hulstein’s goals took a jolt when in mid-March everything came to a standstill – including the projected race.

“My last day of work was March 18, my daughter’s JO volleyball was cancelled and the world basically ended,” said the 2005 Pipestone Area High School graduate and mother of two. “We’re go, go, go people, and COVID disrupted everything in our lives… all of a sudden it all comes to a complete stop… WHAT?”

Fortunately, or unfortunately if you speak with Hulstein about her love-hate relationship with training, the Skedaddle promptly went to a virtual race format. Competitors plot out a course, 13.1 miles in this case, whenever and wherever they choose as long as the run is of the specified distance and times are submitted online before the deadline (May 17, 11:59 p.m.).

A three-sport athlete (volleyball, gymnastics, track & field) in high school, Hulstein was more of a sprinter than a distance runner. And it wasn’t until a ‘so-called’ friend suggested a half marathon (Fargo) that Hulstein was sucked back into the sport.

“She asked me if I wanted to run a half (marathon) and I said, ‘that sounds terrible, but I’ll try it,’” she said. “I’d never taken on long distance before, but I went along with it and found that I really enjoyed it – most of the time.”

Hulstein continued her fitness and running journey through races and teaching and taking classes at Anytime Fitness. And Hulstein joined friends and fitness junkies Tracy Musch, Shelly Ludolph, Naomi Lorenzen, Theresa Draper and Shelly Kozlowski in races and for some training, eventually doubling her efforts in taking on a full marathon in 2018.

“The training and teaching classes help me stay active and in shape, and for a lot of people running alone doesn’t help you get better,” she said. “HIIT workouts (high-intensity interval training) and lifting (weights) can make such a difference.”

Still Hulstein might not be the best poster face of distance running, and she’s the first to admit her training methods aren’t always on par with her fellow harriers.

“I’m not as diligent as I should be, and I tell myself I’ll have to be more so if I do another full (marathon) again,” she said. “Of course, it’s life and other things. Life happens, things come up, COVID happens and you don’t feel like focusing as much… get into a lazy mindset.”

However, Hulstein’s mindset proved anything but lazy after the initial weeks of the state’s stay-at-home directive and, like most, her mind and body couldn’t take it anymore.

“We were cooped up that first Thursday/Friday, at home; we didn’t have to go anywhere and didn’t have anything to do, and you’d think we could relax,” Hulstein said. “Not me, I couldn’t relax, and it was all kind of depressing. So, that Saturday, when I went out for my training run, I guess I was a little surprised.”

What had been slated as an eight-mile training segment, promptly turned into a 14-mile, mind-clearing excursion.

“It just shows you how much relief running can give you,” she said. “I needed to go out and burn some energy, yes to stay fit, but really more of a refresher… think thoughts through, burn stress or whatever you need. So sometimes, it’s nice to go for a run.”

Not only did Hulstein have a great training run that day, but also she noticed she was on track to eclipse her previous PR of two hours, five minutes for a half marathon.

And that was her goal heading into her virtual Skedaddle run Sunday, April 26 when she took off from her home, near the center of town and strode concentric squares around Pipestone.

“I tried to pick a flat course, but I don’t necessarily like to pick a course ahead of time because it wears on you mentally – knowing how much you have left,” she said. “So, I went with the flow, ended up hitting some hills, but it all worked out.

“I headed out (west) on Hwy. 30, went around the high school and went out on the back road where Douty Floral was, turned north on Hiawatha Avenue, cut east and came back into town on Hwy. 75,” Hulstein said. “I went past the golf course to the first gravel road, came back into town on Hwy. 23 and ran the square to finish. I ran a full marathon in 2018, so I have many miles logged on these roads around here and I could really gauge how I was doing. That was helpful.”

So too was having her sister by her side throughout.

“It was good; Kaila (Kooi) was on her bike and with me the whole way,” Hulstein said. “She had her bluetooth stereo going, music blaring, and she was there encouraging me the whole way. I’d wanted her there and told her not to go easy on me. It was so nice to have her along…  ‘longer strides, here comes a hill, here we go,’ – very encouraging.”

As for her time and how she’ll finish in ‘the race,’ Hulstein will have to wait until after this weekend when all the entries are in. But despite all the support and running her own course, she was too impressed with herself.

“I started off around 8 a.m. and it was sunny, not too hot and not too much wind – gorgeous,” she said. “I’d run that of that 14 miles in a good time. After that I definitely thought I had it in the bag to beat my PR of two hours, three minutes, but I came in at two hours, 10 minutes. I don’t know what happened.”

Though Hulstein is the first to knock her lack of diligence in distance training, noting how some weeks she’ll skip several days, she’s quick to urge others to give it a try.

“I have a friend who runs eight-minute miles, but tells me, ‘I can’t do that (half marathon), I could never do what you do,’” she said. “I hear that stuff all the time. I would love to run eight-minute miles and increase my speed, but running 13.1 miles or more is really just mind over matter. You just have to slow your pace down a little. I figured that out in my first half marathon in 2014… thought it was going to be the worst thing in the world. If you can get to that 3-4-mile mark, everything after that is mind over matter.”

And several in Pipestone and across the county are learning just that, as young and old alike are increasingly seen traversing Pipestone’s square, running on town streets or on gravel roads.

“We have a lot of running enthusiasts in town,” Hulstein noted. “I had someone from out of town ask me why so many people here are walking and running. You can tell it’s important to a lot of people. Maybe it’s just that we’re more active than other communities or we have people like Laura (Carrow) Wurster getting kids involved. She’s amazing and it’s great to see her so passionate – it’s good.”