When Erica Van Vlack laced up her shoes at the Klondike Road Relay’s checkpoint 7, the longest she’d ever run continuously was 56 kilometres.

Seven hours, 23 minutes and 6 seconds later, she had upped the ante to 70K.

The Whitehorse runner was the lone entrant and finisher in the Klondike Trail of ‘98 Road Relay’s ultra category, starting in Carcross.

“It was just a new experience that I thought was worth tackling,” she said.

She had run marathons and half marathons before, but wanted a new challenge.

She began training this spring after consulting some running coaches to create a training plan that would allow her to safely build up to the ultra distance.

In running, ultras are classified as distances over the typical 42.2K marathon.

It’s common to have ultras on trails where the jarring stride is softened rather than 70k on straight pavement.

“Running pavement for that long of a distance is tough,” said Van Vlack. “It’s a hard battle to just run on, just on its own.”

Early Saturday morning under the cover of darkness and in the pouring rain, Van Vlack set out with the youth relay teams from checkpoint 7.

She was nervous and it was cold and wet. She was trying to think of it as a normal run, but the race aspect kept creeping into her mind.

The darkness lasted almost two hours, but Van Vlack can’t be sure. She wasn’t keeping track of the time. The rain lasted until about leg 8.

The kids that she’d started with in Carcross took notice when she didn’t stop at the next checkpoint, but kept powering through, and again at the one after that.

Their cheering for her got louder.

“It was cool just to have a bunch of kids look up and be like,’wow, that’s so cool,’” she said. “All the youth groups I started with were phenomenal.”

Seven hours on the highway with only your thoughts for company can be rough and by the second half of leg 9, with a marathon already under her belt, she hit a wall.

“There was a long straight stretch and this last big hill,” said Van Vlack. She was coming up to the Carcross cutoff.

“That was probably the most challenging part. I was tired. I was exhausted. I just wanted to get to the Alaska Highway.”

That’s where she’d logged many of her training miles and she was familiar with its shoulders.

As female runners passed her on their own leg 10 journey, they yelled encouragements to her.

You’re amazing. Don’t stop. You’re blowing my mind right now.

The women that she looked up to were inspired by her.

She persevered, getting into home territory, but another thought popped into her head.

The trail would soon veer off the Alaska Highway and onto the Miles Canyon Road, where support vehicles weren’t allowed. She would be alone and in her own head.

“What if I just start walking?” she asked her partner as she ran by.

Living up to his “amazing support” moniker, he threw on his own running gear and ran with her through the section.

“Him and I chatted the whole way through,” said Van Vlack. “I don’t think I would have finished without him. ... My support was amazing.”

Then coming up to the SS Klondike she felt awesome, but so ready to stop. A mixed cocktail of emotion.

“I didn’t really know how to feel,” she said. “It was an overwhelming feeling.”

Mid-Saturday afternoon, Van Vlack crossed the finish line at Rotary Peace Park, exhausted but happy.

“The support of everybody volunteering was amazing,” she said.

The grassroots energy of the race and the positive energy of everyone involved helped fuel her run to the finish.

“It’s not all competition. A lot of it is people getting together and enjoying positive outdoor energy,” said Van Vlack, “and I think that’s one of the reasons why I finished.”

And while she isn’t ruling out another ultra in her future, Van Vlack is ready to train for something a little bit different again.

A triathlon may be the next new challenge. Just what the doctor ordered.