With the outline of Wisconsin inked on the side of his arm, Summit County resident Benjamin Jones won't have to look far if he gets lost while running alongside of the roads that cut across the Badger State.
Jones will not be competing in a marathon or even an organized race for that matter. Instead, Jones will be running 384 miles across his home state of Wisconsin for what he is expecting to be the most important and impactful "race" of his life.
"The whole family is back in Wisconsin, and they all kind of live in the Lakeshore area," Jones said. "... We are going to add some little stops in there. I am not going to be a slouch about it, but I am also not sprinting my way across."
With expertise and experience in ultramarathon running, the run across Wisconsin is not expected to be foreign to Jones, but will still be beyond trying. When fatigue starts to overwhelm Jones, he will lean on the cause for the nearly 400-mile journey -- his sister-in-law.
In September of 2024, Olivia LeClair-Jones was diagnosed with a cranial cerebrospinal fluid leak. Further imaging revealed a weakened area in her skull with a hole extending through her brain lining, skull and nasal tissue.
"Last fall, my sister-in-law was leaking some weird stuff out of her nose," Jones said. "She thought it was just a cold, but it turned out it was the cerebrospinal fluid coming out."
LeClair-Jones underwent a successful surgery in November of 2024 to repair the leak. She also had surgery to install a medical device that regulates the amount of cranial cerebrospinal fluid inside of her head because her body produces too much.
Although LeClair-Jones has successfully recovered from the surgeries, she is currently uninsured. As a result, medical bills have rapidly accumulated while she was forced to miss numerous days at work for surgeries and treatment. In total, LeClair-Jones and her family are in need of close to $74,000.
Seeing that his family needed assistance, Jones decided to use his gift of running and pushing his body to help his sister-in-law.
"My one talent is that I can turn off my brain and run really far," Jones said. "So I found an epic run, and I got it on social media and got it on the internet."
The route will begin at the westernmost part of the state near Grantsburg before traveling through Leinie Lodge, to Green Bay's historic Lambeau Field and then through Door County and the Door Peninsula.
Jones' journey will conclude near Gills Rock, where ferries transport people to the islands off the peninsula. Jones is expected to be running for close to 18 hours a day. If Jones stays on track with his schedule, he will finish the run in about a week's time -- an average of about 50 miles a day.
"I am going to put a foot in the Mississippi River and take off from there," Jones said. "From the Mississippi River to the Leinie Lodge is like 104 miles. It is about pushing myself. I have done a couple hundreds, but that is far as I have gone. I want to do that in one stretch -- take a quick nap and hopefully be in Green Bay, Door County by the weekend."
Since getting out of the Army, Jones has had an affinity for skiing, running and enjoying the great outdoors. Jones moved to Summit County this past winter season, working at Daylight Donuts for a short time before attaining a job at Breckenridge Grand Vacations.
When not on the clock, Jones is logging miles on nearby trails or "cross-training" by skiing lines across Breckenridge Ski Resort.
"I have been training all winter," Jones said, "logging a lot of miles in Breckenridge. One of the nice things is that Summit County has so many nice trails, and there are so many places to train. It is a great place to train if you are an endurance athlete."
Along the journey across Wisconsin, Jones will be followed by his girlfriend and parents in his RV, which will serve as his support vehicle for sleep, food and any first aid.
Knowing that he will need plenty of calories in order to fuel his daring run, Jones will choose to keep his fueling strategy simple and true to his Midwest roots.
"I am not one of the big science guys," Jones said. "I am more on the bum side of ultra running. It is going to be a lot of glazed donuts from Kwik Trip and a lot of Culver's butter burgers to be honest. I don't overthink the nutrition side of it too much."
Beyond the notion of helping out his sister-in-law, Jones is looking forward to logging miles back in his home state and taking in its beauty.
"Wisconsin is a different type of beautiful compared to Colorado," Jones said. "... A few highlights will be going through Chippewa Falls, which is the home of Leinenkugel's, going through Wausau and then obviously Green Bay."
LeClair-Jones is expected to join her brother-in-law for a few miles during the run.
Jones began his run on Monday, April 28. To stay up to date on his journey across Wisconsin, visit Run4Olivia.com. For live updates, people can follow @PositvelyBuck on Instagram.
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