The runners outside the Trinidad Murphy’s. Photo courtesy of Pete Ciotti.


PREVIOUSLY

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What drives someone to run 60 miles in a day? To experience a sense of accomplishment, to thrill at doing something very few people can, maybe to revel in the scenery? Sometimes, it’s for a hot bar, snacks, and some company. 

Around 20 people made the trek on Saturday to some or all of the five Murphy’s grocery stores, from Glendale to Arcata to Trinidad, down to Cutten and up to Sunny Brae — almost exactly 60 miles on foot. For a few, the run was their first ultramarathon. For others, it was just the latest entry in a long list. Most ran chunks of the route, starting at one Murphy’s and dropping out one or two later. The majority just did the portion from Arcata to Trinidad. Three people did the whole thing: local ultrarunners Thomas Nolan, Tom Davies, and the event’s organizer, Pete Ciotti. 

No one tried to win the run. They ran and chatted in a pack. Completing the challenge was the point, but waiting for them at every Murphy’s was a spread of snacks and hot food. The seven people who started in Glendale got breakfast, too. 

Murphy’s spokesperson Kelsie Ng told the Outpost that they thought it was “amazing” that someone (let alone about two dozen people) would want to spend their free time running in between their stores. She helped coordinate the event, and set up snack boxes for them at the stores.

“I’m just glad it wasn’t me running it,” she said. “I was just in such admiration, you know? It’s great that we’re doing this for the community. They’re not getting paid. No one’s forcing them to run all of that.”

The last few miles were brutal, Ciotti told the Outpost. 

“I definitely felt pretty broken when we finished, but mostly it was mental more than physical,” he said. “It was just — brain swimming around, being a little calorie deficient and just, kind of, over it, you know. Over the challenge…We could just smell the finish, but we still had to keep going. I was stoked when it was over.”

Ciotti is an experienced ultrarunner, and somewhat of an evangelizer for the sport. He was back hiking with his family the next day. Dealing with a sick baby the last few days has been worse, he said. 

Besides being an excuse to spend an entire day running — 7 a.m. start, 10:15 p.m. finish — the event was also a fundraiser for victims of the Jan. 2 Arcata fire. Murphy’s presented customers with an option to round their totals up to the nearest dollar, which raised about $500, according to Ng. Ciotti, himself a small business owner, took the loss of Northtown Books hard, and wanted to do something about it. 

“I’ve been buying my kids a library there for the last 20 years,” he said. “It was really tough to start the new year with that devastating fire…I hope that it’s going to come back even better than it was, which was pretty awesome. So hopefully the businesses can bounce back, the community can bounce back, and we get something special in its place.”

Ciotti and Ng said they’re planning on doing it again next year. Ciotti’s already working on putting together yet another endurance challenge that involves running from the Eureka Los Bagels to the Arcata location as many times as possible in a single month. The winner gets a Los Bagels gift card.

Running that far would have been a lot less fun without the food, Ciotti said. 

“Thank god for Murphy’s.”