Will Robinson

Middlebury, Vermont

I am an endurance hiker transitioning into an ultra runner. I started really getting into hiking just three years ago. Looking back now I can’t believe it’s only been three years. I am a Vermont native and started by hiking the 5 Vermont 4k’s. I then found out about the Adirondack 46 which took me just under a year to complete. At this point hiking had not totally engulfed my life. I then went over to the White Mountains to conquer their 48 4,000 footers. This was in the Winter of 2020. I planned to go at this slowly. Really take my time. This was before I was informed of the single season superlative. Once I knew about this.. the game changed. I quickly banged out a single season winter round of the White Mountain 48. Throughout this time in the Whites I found out about the White Mountain diretissima that Summer myself and a friend became the 15th and 16th people to ever complete the direttissima. The winter of 2021 I took it easy and walked across Vermont on the Cross Vermont trail in what I believe was 3-4 days. I would later go on to hike the Vermont Long Trail in 11 and a half days. It was the following Summer that I would start getting into ultra running. I had started to knock out some of the North East Ultra 8 hikes. I hiked the Cranberry 50 and then my uncle asked if I would ever want to run a 50 mile race. As one to never say no, I agreed immediately. We signed up for the JFK 50 and two more family members signed up as well. We spent the seasons leading up to the race cheering each other on as we trained. It was a wonderful bonding experience that I will never forget and really helped me get to where I am now. During this training I started surrounding myself with other endurance athletes, and through them ended up signing up for two other races before JFK. These were Bubbas Back Yard Ultra and RUTFest. Bubbas was my first time using Infinit Nutrition and it blew me away. I went 25 hours straight on nothing but Infinit Nutrition. It far surpassed my expectations, and I haven’t looked back since. At RUTFest, a 36 hour race I came in first place with 112 miles. Almost solely on Infinit Nutrition. My family all thought I was out of my mind doing these races before JFK. RUTFest was just 2 weeks before JFK… But it all worked out for me. When I first signed up for JFK 50 my goal was just to make the cut off time of 13 hours. Deep down I had a goal of 10 hours, but was nervous to express that with the risk of then not accomplishing it. I far exceeded my goals and finished in just under 8 hours 45 minutes. Finishing JFK qualified me for Eastern States 100. The day after the JFK 50 I was signed up for Eastern States 100. My next big adventure after JFK was supposed to be to just to a single season winter round of the Adirondack 46. I completed this round incredibly quickly. Lots of winter left to go… I was encouraged by several friends to follow this up with another single season round of the New Hampshire 48. It took little convincing and I was sold on the idea. This same winter I knew of two people going for the single season North East 115. This seemed impossible for me with my working during the winter. I knew I would be disappointed though if I didn’t try for it though… I knock of the White Mountain 48, the Vermont 5 I did as after work hikes, and then tackled the 2 4k’s in the Catskills which was more time driving than it was hiking. Winter was not over yet, and neither was I. Next I headed to Maine where I had the displeasure of breaking lots of trail to knock off all of the Maine 4k’s. By doing this I became the 4th person to ever complete a single season round of the North East 115.
My next big adventure would bring me to Colorado. I am a preschool teacher, and with the summers off I like to take full advantage of the time off and push my body and mind as far as I can. In Colorado I spent 37 days hiking all 58 of their 14 thousand foot mountains. I then followed this up with Eastern States 100 where I again primarily used Infinit Nutrition. I have a lot more planned for my future as an endurance athlete, and either on Team Infinit or not. I look forward to accomplishing it all side by side with Infinit Nutrition.