26 | DECEMBER 12 • 2024
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N

I

t’s not easy to stay awake for near-
ly 21 hours. Evan Kline did that
while running 100 miles on a hot
day and night in mid-September.
The 36-year-old Troy resident
accomplished the feat in the inau-
gural A Day in the Park 100-mile
endurance race at Miller Ecological
Park in Lebanon, Ohio.
Kline finished the race in 20 hours,
55 minutes and 38 seconds. He was
the first runner to complete 100
miles, and it was the first time he’
d
run 100 miles in a race. He fell short
by 38 miles in 2023 in another 100-
mile race.
“I started A Day in the Park at 7
a.m. Sept. 21 and finished just before
4 a.m. Sept. 22,
” Kline said. “The
recovery was difficult. I felt afterward
like I’
d been hit by a truck.
“But this was one of those times
when you ‘savor the pain’ because you
knew you accomplished your goal,
that all your hard training paid off.
”
Kline brought along ice cubes, ice
packs and plenty of food, including
peanut butter and jelly rollups, and
he went through 3½ gallons of liquid
during the 100 miles. Most impor-
tantly, he had his father Mitch Kline
as his cheerleader and crew.
“The (1.05-mile) course was a loop,

so I saw my dad on every loop
I ran,
” Evan said. “He was great.
He gave moral support to other
runners, too.
”
Evan said his father has been
his lifelong work ethic role
model. That work ethic pushed
him through the grueling
race, Evan said, which was the
crowning achievement so far of
an ongoing four-year effort to
improve his health and challenge
himself by running long races.
He’s achieved another major
goal by qualifying to run in the
2025 Boston Marathon.
“When I was growing up, my
dad emphasized two things to me,
”
Evan said. “One was you can do any-
thing you want to do if you put in the
work. The second was ‘Klines aren’t
quitters.
’
“That phrase popped into my head
a couple times during the A Day in
the Park race. When I hit the 70-mile
mark and realized I still had 30 miles
to go, I needed a lift and that was it. I
wasn’t going to quit.
”
Evan and his wife, Lisa, have two
children: Henry, 6, and Harper, 4. On
June 30, less than three months
before A Day in the Park, the phrase
played a major role in what became a
memorable day for the Kline family.
In his first bike ride without train-
ing wheels, Henry fell off and took
quite a spill. Undaunted, he got back
on his bike and finished the ride.
When he got home, Henry had
something he wanted to do.
He wrote, “Klines aren’t quitters”
on a piece of paper, along with a
smiley face and a star, in a presenta-
tion that definitely had the mark of a
6-year-old.
“I was touched that my son
remembered something I had told
him, which is something my father
had told me,
” Evan said.
“You know, just when you think

With his father’s support, Troy resident
Evan Kline proves on a long, hot day in
Ohio that ‘Klines aren’t quitters.’

100 Miles,
One Great
Cheerleader

STEVE STEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER

SPORTS HIGHLIGHTS

ALL PHOTOS HAVE BEEN SUBMITTED

Evan Kline and his
father, Mitch Kline,
after Evan ran 100
miles in just shy
of 21 hours in an
endurance race in
Lebanon, Ohio.

The entire Kline family — Evan,
Lisa and their children Henry
and Harper — participated in the
Halloween-themed Frightful 5K
in October in Troy. The kids were
pushed in a double stroller by
Evan for most of the race.