Michael Versteeg
Melia Coury: Alright, I’m Melia Coury sitting here with Michael Versteeg, the Whiskey Man and you just won the Silverton Alpine Marathon.
Michael Versteeg: Oh yeah, I did.
Melia: Yeah, that happened today.
Versteeg: Yep, it was fun. It’s been a long week but I’m glad I did it.
M: Well you did run the Silverton 1000 this week.
V: Well I didn’t run all 1000.
M: True, but you did run 100.
V: Yeah I ran 100 this week so that’s pretty good.
M: So how was the legs and everything feeling during the marathon?
V: Legs felt okay. Obviously it has been a big week up at 12 and a half thousand feet trying to run up hill wasn’t happening. But I mean that’s expected and it felt really good to get up there and run around up there. It was absolutely beautiful today, just clear and really amazing.
M: Was there a favorite view on the course?
V: I mean really when you get up in the high alpine and there’s old mines everywhere it’s very cool, it’s very unique, it’s very Silverton. It’s very Silverton that’s the best way to describe it.
M: Just nothing like it.
V: Yeah, nothing like it.
M: Was there any particular hard part other than the hill section?
V: Ah, it was pretty good. I underestimated the climb in the sense I thought it was going to be shorter and steeper and not so long and prolonged. I was definitely wanting it to end. I have never been up there before so I didn’t exactly know where the pass was or where it was so I was trying to look around see where the road goes and the pass was. So that was, I screwed up a little bit mentally like I said, I just thought it was going to be steeper and shorter. But it was fine.
M: It worked out well for you.
V: Yeah and I’m finally coming around to the elevation up here. You know this is the first week in my life I haven’t been acclimated to elevation because I spent practically all summer in Alaska essentially at sea level. But I’ve been here for a few weeks now so today I was pretty good.
M: Do you have any races that you are looking to do later on in this fall?
V: I really don’t even these races I did this week are just training for an Arizona Trail Fastest Known Time project I’m doing starting like October 3rd. So that’s why this week has been so big for me as far as millage and elevation goes because I’m really trying to get up to that 55 to 60 miles per day thing, um, and so this was really good for that. I feel really good. My legs feel great and my body feels great. To be able to come here and do this today was amazing on top of everything.
M: And will that be a month long Arizona Trail project?
V: If I’m able to hit my millage it will be a little over two weeks.
M: Oh, wow that’s fast.
V: Yeah its about 800 miles so 55 miles a day will put you right at 14 days. We will see if not it will be a little longer.
M: Best of luck with that and congrats on today. I just have one other question, why whiskey? Is there something about it?
V: The whole things started, with the Whiskey Man thing, which I would like to take credit for but it was mostly Jamil’s idea. Once we got the Whiskey Basin trail runs in Prescott (Arizona) we teamed it up with…there are three events around April in Prescott. The ultra, mountain bike race and the marathon and if you do all three back to back to back and all races have the name Whiskey in it: Whiskey Basin Trail Run, Whiskey Off-Road Bike Race and Whiskey Row Marathon. And to it’s the accumulation of the events that we call the Whiskey Man. I mean I don’t need an excuse to drink more but embracing the Whiskey Man persona is fine with me.