Ultrarunner moves 1,600 miles so he can run during impending lockdown

Like many runners around the world right now, U.S. ultrarunner Kallin Khan had his worries about whether national lockdowns and law-enforced quarantines would prevent him from training. In the span of just a few days, Khan and his fiancée, Hannah Carolus, went from just considering a move to actually doing it, packing up their apartment in Portland, Ore., and moving to Carolus’ family farm in Iowa (a distance of more than 2,500 kilometres), where he could still run if any mandatory quarantines were enacted. Khan told the Des Moines Register his plans for the 2020 season (if the races aren’t cancelled) and how he and his fiancée decided to uproot and move cross-country.

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Khan ran at the University of Iowa, and he is now a member of the Bowerman Track Club Elite (the amateur division of the club). Since graduating from university in 2018, Khan has increased his mileage and taken to ultra distances. In early March, he won the USATF 50K Road Championships in New York in a time of 2:57:51. Two weeks later, he went off-road and up in distance in California at the USATF 50 Mile Trail Championships, where he placed third.

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Khan is now preparing for his first 100-mile race, which he hopes will be the North Downs Way 100 in Farnham, U.K., in August, assuming it isn’t cancelled or postponed. If there is a lockdown, he has enough space at the Iowa farm to train for the 100-miler.

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“I just made a 2K cross-country loop,” he told the Register. “It’s a little rough, but I figure if I run it about 100 times it will be beat down enough for me to run on it.”

Running wasn’t the only reason Khan and Carolus decided to move. They’re getting married in Iowa in July, and with all of the uncertainty surrounding a potential lockdown and how long it might last, they didn’t want to get stuck in Portland and have to postpone their big day. Khan already works from home for a startup company, so the ability to work from wherever he wants made the decision to move even easier.

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Not everyone is as lucky as Khan, and if there are lockdowns nationwide in the U.S. and Canada, runners will be stuck training inside at home. Hopefully it doesn’t come to that, but runners always find a way to work in their daily training.