At 74, Hermantown resident Michael Koppy is hardly slowing down. In fact, with nine 200+ mile ultra-marathons completed in the last seven years, he seems to be hitting his stride. But then, he’s been a busy guy with a lot of energy for some time.
In high school he ran cross-country and later worked up to marathon distance running events. Then Koppy started doing triathlons and at some point found that he enjoyed running, biking and canoeing triathlons, completing the Minnesota Border-to- Border Triathlon two years in a row, a 600-mile Triathlon event. But what stuck was the running, especially trail running.
“You just put on a pair of shoes and go run,” Koppy said. “I love running the trails. It’s so much easier on your body.”
Koppy did his first ultra marathon in 2000. What qualifies a race to be an ultramarathon is any distance more than 26.2 miles, usually a 50k or more. Unlike traditional marathons, ultramarathons often take place on trails, and often in remote areas with long stretches between aid stations. This past May, Koppy completed the Cocodona 250, an ultramarathon from the outskirts of Phoenix to Flagstaff Arizona. The trail had a cumulative elevation gain of 40,000 feet. Koppy started the race with 320 runners, of which 200 finished. Koppy finished 99th, the first runner over 70 to finish that race ever.
Koppy likes to set goals. One goal he set a few years ago was to set what’s called a FKT or fastest known time, on the Superior Hiking Trail for thru-running the entire trail. He made a first attempt in 2019 but had to end his attempt due to a stress fracture in his leg. He made a second attempt in 2020, finishing the 310-mile trail in 5 days, 3 hours and 44 minutes. Koppy’s attempt was supported, meaning that a crew was able to drop supplies and pace him along the way so that he didn’t have to carry as much with him between road crossings. He continues to hold the record for the FKT of a supported attempt. He lists this as one of his biggest accomplishments, and if you have run or even hiked on the Superior Hiking Trail, you may know it’s not easy. Add in four to five days of extreme sleep deprivation, hallucinations, muscle cramping and exhaustion, and you might wonder how Koppy stays upright. Sometimes he doesn’t. He describes the trail as “roots and rocks the whole way, mud. Concentration. You can’t just shuffle along and daydream.”
One would think that training for these races would be a full-time undertaking, but Koppy has several other full-time passions. Koppy enjoys building furniture, has a large woodshop and employs several young people to help (high school age). He has over 50 species of hardwoods in his shop and says that furniture makers come from all over for the selection of wood. He himself enjoys doing the fussy stuff, inlays and hidden compartments in the wood. One of the projects his woodworking team is working on is to furnish and mill all the lumber for a storage shed for the Wildwoods Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. It’s a volunteer project, and Koppy is donating the wood.
While his goals are often personal, there is often an outward larger charitable goal in mind as well. Next summer, Koppy plans to run the Western States 100-mile ultramarathon, one of the oldest ultramarathons in the U.S. and probably the most difficult to get into. First you have to qualify. Koppy qualified a long time ago, and after running his qualifier, he entered the lottery system. Every year you don’t get in through the lottery (there are 8,000 applicants for 365 spots), you can enter again and your lottery tickets double. After the tenth year, if you still don’t get in by lottery, you get in automatically and this will be the case. Koppy knows he is running on his automatic ticket and if he finishes, Koppy says, he will be the oldest runner to ever finish, and he could also be the fastest runner over 70 to ever finish. He hopes to break both of these records.
With all this in mind, he has set up a fundraiser for the YMCA as part of his goal for running the race. When he ran the Superior Hiking Trail FKT he raised $20,000 for the Superior Hiking Trail Association. This time he wants to raise $100,000. Supporters can donate to their local or national YMCA chapters; it will all count. Koppy says he picked the YMCA because he appreciates what an important community organization the Y is, “more than just a pool and a gym,” he said.
When asked what he attributes his ability to do these feats despite the passing years, Koppy replied that he is careful about his training and dedicated to it and doing it right. “I’ve been coached,” he said. “It does take a certain mindset. I stretch myself. I’m a goal-oriented person. I’m willing to push and sacrifice to reach those goals. I’ve been blessed that my body holds up.”
Koppy also holds a FKT for running unassisted from the Michigan border across Northern Wisconsin to the Minnesota border on the North Country Trail. On the last day running, Koppy tore his meniscus in two places and went in after finishing his run for an MRI. The orthopedic surgeon he saw told him the meniscus tear was the least of his problems. He only had 25% of the cartilage left in his knee, the surgeon told him, and he shouldn’t be doing any weight-bearing.
Another friend who is an orthopedic doctor put things a little differently, “I feel you should do what you feel you can do. You just gotta go until you get a flat tire,” his friend told him.
“Age is such a relative thing,” said Koppy, “I just ignore how I am supposed to feel.”
The donation link for Koppy’s record-setting attempt at Western States in 2025 is set up at www.duluthymca.org/runkoppy He will also be running the Arrowhead 135 Ultra that starts near International Falls at the end of January 2025.
