If you thought being an electric cooperative lineworker required dedication, put yourself in Stormy Hild’s shoes for an hour or two.
Or five or 10 or even 55 hours, because that’s how long it took the Illinois lineworker-turned-endurance athlete to run more than 230 miles to raise money for the greenway and trails in Menard County, about a half-hour northwest of Springfield.
“It was a good way to turn some of my miles into money for a good cause, and it was also an incentive for me to keep going,” Hild said.
Say it again slowly. 55 hours. 230 miles. Running in daylight and darkness, weather aside. Hild placed third recently in the grueling Queeny Backyard Ultra, a last man standing competition in St. Louis, where his performance brought in nearly $5,000 for the New Salem Habitat Restoration Project near where Abraham Lincoln lived.
“It’s where I do a lot of my training and they’ve got some nice trails. I wanted to do what I can to do give back to that park because I spend a lot of time there,” he said.
A resident of Athens, Illinois, Hild is a journeyman lineworker with Menard Electric Cooperative in Petersburg. He’s been at the co-op since 2013 but only got into high-mileage running in the last few years after being a serious high school wrestler who helped his school win the dual state championship in 2010.
“It’s a crazy thing. I don’t know how I got sucked into it,” he said. “I never did start running until I was probably 25 or so and I never did track or any of that in high school.”
His second career, though, has almost been as rewarding as his first. He ran a few local races from a 5K to a couple of marathons, when he chanced upon a longer format competition in a social media post.
“I thought that sounded interesting and it was close to me. That year, I started going for 50 miles and I did it, and just kept wanting to go further and further. It progressed from there.”
Backyard ultras, or last man standing, consist of an outdoor trail of a shade less than 4.2 miles. The St. Louis course, for instance, had 430 feet of ascent and 430 feet of descent across dirt trails and hardpacked stone and gravel.
Racers must complete the trail in less than an hour; Hild shoots for 48 to 50 minutes. “Then I’ve got 10 minutes to do whatever I need to do to go back out. I am able to stay pretty consistent until the last few hours when I burn it all.” Simply put, the last person who can run the course successfully is crowned champion.
Hild is making a name for himself in the sport. The St. Louis race marked his best finish in the last man format against some elite athletes; in fact, the winner earned a spot on the U.S. national team.
Just as important was what he did for Menard County Trails and Greenways through his Pledge to the Park fundraiser.
About a month before the race, he solicited pledges of $50 for each loop that he completed, seeking 60 donors to inspire him to run 60 hours. The response was slightly overwhelming, Hild said. He put the names of 90 pledges on Lego bricks and pulled out one after each completed loop to solidify the donation.
“On top of that, awareness of the race brought another $2,000 in donations from other people, so we ended up at $4,800,” he said. That built on an impressive showing in 2024, when Hild logged 150 miles in 36 hours to raise $3,000 for another park.
Hild’s recent showing in Missouri and his passion for his community has impressed fellow endurance runner and lineworker Derek Snakenberg of Grundy County REC in Grundy Center, Iowa.
“The weather threw everything it had at him and he never wavered. A true lineman trait and mindset,” he said. “He makes me proud to be part of the cooperative world of lineman we call brothers.”
Hild has another contest in September in Iowa, where he met Snakenberg. A normal day sees him run six to eight miles before he reports to duty at the co-op. Working 10 hours a day, four days a week, he has extra time for distance runs on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays.
“I started at maybe three miles per day and worked my way up. Now, I’m at the point to where if I don’t do that, my body feels off at work. So I think it actually makes me more productive and sharper throughout the day. On a day-to-day basis, it’s a fairly healthy habit.”
Ultrarunning has become a family business as Hild and his wife, Samantha—they have two young children—operate Hard Work Company, an online retailer specializing in T-shirts, joggers and apparel that promotes the endurance brand and the desire to do hard things.
Such as his participation in a 250-mile race across the Arizona desert from Phoenix and Flagstaff in 2025. That was not a last man standing format, but the nature of the contest required runners to carry water and necessities in a 15-pound pack until they reached the next aid station.
“At first, I set a goal and once I got to that goal, I just called it quits,” Hild said. “Now, it’s like I want to find my absolute limit,” he said.
“I keep setting new limits for myself and I keep wanting to break those, keep pushing further and further to see what the body can actually do.”
Steven Johnson is a contributing writer for NRECA.