When Greeta Soderholm decided to engage in competitive long-distance trail running last year, she sought forms of inspiration to help guide her along the steep, rooty terrain she’d be committing to pacing for miles at a time.
Along with a number of friends who became training partners near her Underhill, Vt., home, she found encouragement by connecting with her late father, David Soderholm, who died in 2006 at the age of 58, as well as her older brother, Ben, who died unexpectedly in 2013.
Soderholm, 39, carries a container with some of her dad’s ashes while she runs, often thinking of both him and Ben while traversing the rugged landscapes.
“Running was a always a big part of our family when I was a kid,” said Soderholm, who grew up in Norwich and graduated from Hanover High School in 1995. “I ran cross country and track, and my dad was always there as an assistant coach. My brother was a remarkable athlete.
“One thing about the kind of running I do now is that it’s so intense. You’re going along for so long that you really need something outside yourself to keep you going. The cool thing is that competing through nature, it makes it easy to connect with them.”
Soderholm’s motivation is obviously strong. She’s amassed four top-five finishes among females since April, including a win at last Saturday’s Moosalamoo Ultra Half Marathon in Goshen, Vt., where her time of 2 hours, 38 minutes and 33 seconds was behind only three men.
Prior to that, she placed third among women and 18th overall at the Runamuck 50K along dirt roads and trails surrounding Mount Ascutney; fifth among women at both the Rollin Irish half marathon in Essex, Vt., and the Catamount Ultra in Stowe, Vt.; and as the 11th woman (47th overall) at Iceland’s Laugavegur Ultra Marathon, a challenging 55K over glacial and volcanic terrain.
After feeling run down and exhausted following a community race last year, Soderholm intensified her training. She found friends in north-central Vermont to train with her at Mount Mansfield — Vermont’s highest summit at 4,393 feet.
In September 2015, she placed 16th among women and 54th overall at the Jay Peak Running Festival 25K, clocking in at 4:24:18 with energy to spare.
“There’s something like 6,000 feet of elevation gain on that 25K, because you get to the top of Jay Peak, then go back down a ways and back up,” Soderholm said. “I remember thinking, ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this,’ but when I finished, it was exciting because I didn’t feel horrible. It was amazing, the difference once I actually began training.”
Soderholm and her friends took advantage of last winter’s mild conditions to continue running on Mount Mansfield, and it paid off in early April when she finished the Runamuck 50K in 4:59:30, eclipsing by 30 seconds her goal of five hours. Her time of 1:42:31 two weeks later at the Rollin Irish Half Marathon, fifth among women, was eight minutes faster than what she’d run there the previous year.
After again placing fifth among women in June at the Catamount Ultra 25K — a sturdy jaunt along the cross country trails owned and maintained by Stowe’s Trapp Family Lodge — Soderholm prepared for her longest and most arduous race yet: the Laugavegur Ultra Marathon 55K in Iceland’s Southern Highlands region.
Rollicking over southwestern Iceland’s unfettered combination of rocky pastures, jagged peaks, volcanoes, ice caps and hot springs, it was also her most scenic excursion to date as she met her goal of six hours — give or take a tenth of a second — finishing in 6:00:10.
“(My family and I) had vacationed in Iceland a few years ago and I’d been looking for a reason to go back,” said Soderholm, who is married with two sons ages 9 and 5. “I got a couple of friends to go with me and cheer me on and it was quite an experience. It was a 4½-hour bus ride just to get to the trail and the bus had to drive across a few rivers along the way.”
Weather conditions are known to be volatile at Laugavegur, a popular hiking and backpacking trail, but Soderholm and the race’s more than 400 participants enjoyed ideal running conditions.
“It was 60 degrees and overcast, so we couldn’t have asked for much better,” Soderholm said. “A lot of the people who were already there talked about how lucky we were, because apparently it was raining sheets and really windy there the day before. I was prepared for conditions to be harsh, but we lucked out. It allowed us to take in the spectacular scenery and all of the hikers were cheering us on.”
Soderholm followed up last weekend with a fourth-place overall finish and winning the female division in 2:38:33 at the Moosalamoo half marathon.
“It was a nice surprise,” Soderholm said. “There are two different races that start at the same time, a 36-miler and the half marathon. I was under the impression that there were a number of women ahead of me, but I guess they were all doing the 36.”
Soderholm is now preparing for next month’s Vermont 50, the charitable 50-miler beginning and ending at Mount Ascutney Resort in Brownsville, and the Trapp Lodge Mountain Marathon in October.
Her family also is planning a vacation in Costa Rica in December, and Soderholm admits it’s tempting to enter a long distance race she discovered in the country’s mountainous Monte Verde region.
“I go online and find these races, and it’s hard not to sign up,” Soderholm said. “It goes back to why I started these competitive runs to begin with, which is to set goals and challenge myself.”