Running on trails, tenacity and tradition

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — A two-year running tradition between two friends started with zero planning.

“I remember meeting up with him and being like, you know, ‘I don’t know how far I’m going to go today. Maybe six miles or something,'” Lance Smith said.

Six miles turned into 20. Twenty miles turned into a tradition.

Flowers that last forever

“During the run, we formulated the plan like, hey, our challenge for 2023 will be let’s do it once a month for the rest of the year,” Smith said.

Since then, Barry Sackett and Lance Smith have dedicated at least one day a month to running the entire Sioux Falls trail loop together.

“The neat thing is we usually get some other people to run with us. Like on January 1st of this year, we had nine, I think, which was our biggest group that we’ve ever had,” Sackett said.

The trail system begins at Falls Park and heads south. Around mile 4, it runs alongside I-229. After going through Yankton Park, it curves north, passing by the country club all the way to the Sanford Sports Complex. At mile 15, the loop turns back south. It goes by the State Penitentiary before returning to its starting point.

“19.3 miles I think if you stick on the path. We’ve come to say when we do it, we just keep running until we hit 20 miles,” Smith said.

The runners don’t take on the trail without the extra companionship of Sackett’s dog, Darwin, who, quite frankly, is just as dedicated as they are.

“Darwin’s done everyone with us,” Sackett said. “He never fails. He’s always ready to go and probably go much further than we could.”

Rain or shine, you’ll find Sackett and Smith running outside more often than not. For Sackett, it’s part of his 16-year streak of running at least one mile every day- although usually it’s way more.

“Amazingly, I really haven’t been sick for 16 years. I mean, I can’t say completely never sick. I got COVID. I ran through COVID,” Sackett said.

The two have also had some fun running to multiple gas stations in the Sioux Falls area one chain at a time.

“The Get n Go’s, the Casey’s. I’ve run to the Circle K’s which then used to be the Holidays,” Smith said. “It’s a good, long run, you know. Some of those are a marathon to a 50K when you string them all together, and it just kind of gave a purpose to a really long runs, something fun to do.”

One could argue running 20 miles is a lot or making it to every gas station in town sounds crazy. But for these two, their friendship was built on an even bigger challenge: a 100-mile race.

It’s not the first place most people would think to meet a lifelong friend, but for Sackett and Smith, that’s exactly what happened in 2019.

“I was raising some funds for the Norfolk Senior Center, so I had the idea to run my first 100-mile race on a trail in northeast Nebraska called the Cowboy Trail. So, I was trying to get as many runners involved back at that time,” Smith said. “Barry was part of that relay team.”

Two years later, Sackett and Smith reconnected. It was the start of a friendship that led to a string of accomplishments. Now, they’re setting their sights on the next milestone—continuing year three of running the Sioux Falls loop each month.

“Everywhere you are, as long as you’ve got a pair of shoes, you can go and explore the world and kind of get that daily being outside,” Sackett said.

Logging miles on foot and by paw.

Smith shares some of his running experiences on his YouTube channel. Sackett hosts a podcast where he interviews other runners.