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  • Mankato East teachers and coaches Neil Paarmann (left) and Todd Coyour recently completed the grueling 530-mile Border-to-Border endurance race from Luverne to Crane Lake. Pat Christman

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September 1, 2010

Mankato East coaches push it to the max

By Jim Rueda Free Press Staff Writer

— Neil Paarmann and Todd Coyour are still not sure exactly what possessed them to do it, but they did and it’s an experience that will stick with them for awhile.

Paarmann and Coyour are both teachers and cross country/track coaches at Mankato East High School. They also happen to be into endurance races.

About eight years ago, the duo joined forces with another fitness fanatic and did the annual 530-mile Border-to-Border race from Luverne to Crane Lake as a three-person team.

They had a blast, and Paarmann and Coyour started talking about doing it again — just themselves as a two-person squad. Most teams in the Border-to-Border are comprised of four people, some have three and very, very few have two.

“We kind of put it on the back burner for awhile and then Todd called me last year and said are we ever going to get around to it,” Paarmann said. “At that point I realized I wasn’t getting any younger so we decided to go for it.”

Paarmann, by the way, just turned 46 and Coyour is 40.

The four-day race in late July consists of a 220-mile bike ride on Day 1, another 210-mile bike ride on Day 2, a 50-mile run on Day 3 and a 50-mile canoe trek on Day 4.

Paarmann admits he had some reservations on the ride to Luverne, even before the competition began. Some serious second thoughts set in on the first day when their two bikes got tangled going about 20-miles per hour during a transfer point and they each went sprawling. Both suffered some serious scrapes to their backs, shoulder and limbs and Paarmann also cracked the back of his helmet, rendering it unusable.

“When I had to climb on that bike after the fall and start riding, that was the first time I questioned the wisdom of what we were doing,” Coyour said. “I bet I asked myself, ‘Why?’ at least 200 more times before we got to the end of the race.”

Paarmann was asking himself the same question, but when they were able to continue with the bike ride on the second day after being all stiff and cut up, he figured they had a chance to get through it.

When the race began there were only two other two-person teams in the competition. One of them dropped out after the first day.

“They must have found their center and realized what they had gotten themselves into,” Paarmann quipped.

The conditions for the race were not ideal, either. The first day was competed amid 90-degree temperatures and high humidity. The second was into a stiff 15-mile per hour wind.

There was no time for sleeping. The longest down time either competitor had was about 15 minutes during the biking portion. On the run, each guy ran anywhere from a two-tenths of a mile to a half mile before the other one would take over.

“Time was paramount,” Coyour said. “You had to figure out a rotation and pace that would enable you to cover the ground most quickly and that’s what we came up with.”

Coyour said one of the reasons he wanted to do the two-man was to find the limits of his endurance.

“I found them on the third day,” he said. “They were scattered all over the road. I’ve run marathons before, but to run one after biking more than 200 miles, that’s a whole different animal.”

The duo finished the final 50 miles sharing a canoe.

“It was rainy and dark that last day,” Paarmann said. “We started paddling fast when we got close to the end or I don’t know if we would have made it.”

They finished and both men experienced a feeling of exhilaration when it was over. And both said they’d never want to do it again.

“The last thing my wife said to me before I left home was to be careful and don’t do anything dumb,” Paarmann said. “I had to chuckle.

“There I was on the way to Luverne to start this thing. Could there be anything dumber?”



Jim Rueda is the Free Press sports editor. To contact him, call 344-6381 or e-mail him at jrueda@mankatofreepress.com

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