[10/14/2004] On Monday morning, Sam Thompson woke up, went through his morning routine, then drove to the airport to catch a flight. He walked through the terminal, flew home to Mississippi, then drove to his home in Vicksburg.

It was a routine, normal way of doing things, but it still felt a little strange for Thompson, especially after the weekend he had.

None of it involved running.

Thompson, a 23-year-old Vicksburg resident, competed in four marathons in four days last weekend in Nevada and California. He finished fifth overall at the Tahoe Triple, a series of three marathons on consecutive days in Lake Tahoe, Nev., and completed the Biz Johnson Marathon in Westwood, Calif.

“By the third day, this almost felt like a job,” Thompson said with a laugh. “I get up at 5 o’clock, go through my routine, put on my running outfit and go to work. By Monday, my body was like, Hey, what? No marathon?”

Thompson’s not done running, either. This weekend he’ll participate in the Palo Duro Canyon 50-miler, a 50-mile trail run in West Texas.

Thompson is an experienced runner. Last summer, he ran the length of the 2,100-mile Appalachian Trail, which stretches from Maine to Georgia. During that run, he completed as much as 58 miles in a single day. Running for time is far different than running for its own sake, though.

“The Appalachian Trail was on no time frame. You wake up with the sun and start running, and stop every now and then. This was like, I’ve got 26.2 miles to go and can’t stop,” Thompson said. “I can’t say this was tougher on the body, but racing for four days was a lot more (demanding).”

Thompson’s experience running the Appalachian Trail indirectly led to his recent foray into marathoning.

While running the Trail, Thompson’s running shorts caused serious chafing and discomfort. This spring, he went to work with a clothing designer in Oregon to develop a non-chafing brand of running shorts. The result was a company called NuRun, which will market a line of running apparel including non-chafing shorts for men and women.

“It’s like a pair of shorts when you wear it, but it works like a skirt and it truly eliminates chafing,” Thompson said of the shorts.

Thompson planned to use the Tahoe Triple as a promotional tool for the new company. Startup delays pushed its launch back until January, but Thompson already had signed up for the marathons and wasn’t about to back out of the commitment.

He added the Biz Johnson Marathon 200 miles from Lake Tahoe and one day after the final marathon of the Triple to make the weekend truly special.

“The Triple was Thursday through Saturday. Typically, marathons are on Sunday morning, so I figured I could find another one,” Thompson said.

Thompson’s finish at the Tahoe Triple was impressive, especially for someone who had only run four marathons in his life prior to last weekend. He ran the first two events in a little over three hours, the goal for most amateur marathoners, and the third in 3 hours, 48 minutes for a total time of 10 hours, 24 minutes and 43 seconds. He finished fifth out of 118 runners, 28 seconds behind the fourth-place finisher.

His time in the Biz Johnson was much slower, about 4 hours and 7 minutes, but he said that was more of a recovery run than a competitive event.

“We took it very easy. But I never walked,” Thompson said.

This weekend’s run will be a different animal. He never has raced anywhere near that distance, but he has lofty goals.

“I’d like to do it in under eight hours, but I have nothing to base that on,” he said. “It’s a shot in the dark. I was looking on the Web site, and that’s what the winners were around last year, was eight hours.”

If he does finish near that mark, Thompson may have an even longer run in his future.

A strong performance this weekend could qualify him for the Western States 100-miler, a grueling run through the mountains of Northern California. It’s the most prestigious race in ultra marathoning.

It may be a year or two before Thompson is ready for that race, but he’s eager for the challenge.

“Based on times, I’m sure I’ll qualify for the Western States,” He said. “But it wouldn’t be smart for me to run it this year. It’s in June, and it’ll take me until August to get ready for it. But I might be ready by August, so maybe next year.”