Murrysville native looks to organize 100-mile endurance race in Westmoreland County
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Physical endurance isn’t something new to Murrysville native Darren Miller.
Shortly after his 30th birthday, Miller completed the Ocean’s Seven, a global open-water swimming challenge, including a 9-mile swim in 3 hours, 42 minutes across the Strait of Gibraltar between Spain and Morocco.
But endurance swimming just happened to be a side project Miller took on.
His primary exercise passion always has been running. On Nov. 2, Miller pitched an event that would bring his enthusiasm to the trails of Westmoreland County: a 100-mile endurance race.
“Most people who do these races would probably bring this in under 20 hours, but we’d probably set the cut-off somewhere around 30 hours,” Miller told Murrysville council. “That’s pretty typical for a race of this distance.”
Miller said he’d like to organize the race to take place in roughly a year’s time.
“The last couple weeks have been really stunning around here, and I think this time of year would be ideal for the race, before the leaves all fall,” he said.
Miller said despite running regularly, he only recently discovered many of the region’s trails.
“There were a lot of them I didn’t even know about,” he said. “I only started running the West Penn Trail about a year or so ago.”
Miller told council that ideally, the run would begin along the Westmoreland Heritage Trail behind Export Floral in Export and head east, picking the trail back up in Delmont running the roughly eight miles to Saltsburg and .
“We could then take the West Penn Trail spur toward the Conemaugh Dam north of Blairsville,” he said. Runners then would reverse course, head back down the West Penn and Westmoreland Heritage Trails to Trafford and back, including two laps through Duff and Pleasant Valley parks before returning to Export to make 100 miles.
Starting in Export and heading east, however, means traversing a section of the Westmoreland Heritage Trail that hasn’t been built yet.
At a recent meeting, trail officials said they are in talks to acquire three of the remaining four miles in the trail’s “middle gap” between Export and Delmont.
“It’s possible that trail could be well on its way to being finished by the time we do this,” Miller said. “But even if not, as long as we can get the property owners on board, we can maybe run the rough-cut section.”
Miller, who has organized the Three Rivers Marathon Swim in Pittsburgh for past decade, said he is planning each step of the endurance race meticulously.
“There’s no rush,” he said. “I want to take my time and do it right.”
Murrysville Chief Administrator Michael Nestico said Miller can connect with local emergency services and other municipalities where the race would run to coordinate logistics as plans move forward.
“We certainly have a lot of time to plan for it,” Nestico said.
Miller said the route he’s considering is easily accessible, “which is different from a lot of these races I’ve done previously.”
“There are a lot of great places along the route where people can park,” he said. “We’ll set up aid stations for runners to fill up their packs and water and food.”
Mostly, Miller said, he just wants to showcase the region.
“We have so many of these beautiful amenities in our communities, and I want to bring some attention to them,” he said.