MUD in the MOMENT is SUNMUD's community series spotlighting the athletes, adventurers, and everyday humans doing cool shit in the outdoors, while wearing the mud. These are their moments.
Most of us have a hard enough time running a single mile. Pat Accomando ran 100 of them — back to back, through the night, up and over the Continental Divide and in 2026, he crossed that finish line.
The Copper Kings 100 is a single-loop, 100-mile endurance run starting and ending at the Belmont Mine in Butte, Montana, tracing 63 miles of the Continental Divide Trail through some of the most remote and unforgiving terrain in the American West. With a starting elevation of 5,650 feet, a high point of 8,400 feet, nearly 14,000 feet of total vertical gain and loss, and a 40-hour cutoff to get it done, finishing isn't just an achievement. It's a statement.
We interviewed Pat two weeks post-race to talk training, gear, mile 80 and yes, he had a SUNMUD stick on him the entire time. Miles 1 through 100.
This is his moment.
Most people wouldn't even drive 100 miles on a Saturday. Why did you sign up to run the Cooper Kings 100?
I signed up for a combination of a couple different reasons. First, I always like to challenge myself with a goal or two every year that I know will be hard to achieve. Like really hard and seemingly not possible oftentimes. Second, I have an extremely addictive personality and once I begin something I tend to take it pretty far. Lastly, after realizing that a 100 miler was the plan, researching and learning of Copper Kings was a no brainer as I used to live in Montana and it’s a special place to me for a number of reasons. So basically, this race was the culmination of my first full year of running, the subsequent addiction that created, and a great excuse to take the family on a Montana vacation.
How did you train for this and what's the one thing you wish you'd done differently?
I trained for this event specifically for 6 months, but I had also been running and training for another ultra running event the six months prior, so technically I trained for the better part of a year. I had never been a runner before, despised it in fact, so my knowledge prior to that year of training was non-existent. I read, watched YouTube’s, scoured reddit, and constantly digested as much information as possible regarding training and increasing mileage safely and efficiently. Then I just followed what I thought was the best approach based on everything I had learned.
The key aspect was staying consistent. I ran 5 days a week and made sure to never miss a long run (once a week somewhere between 10-15 miles). I also was able to accomplish two longer efforts of 30+ miles during the training which were helpful in practicing nutrition, foot care and other parts of the race that were to that point unknown.
One thing I wish I had done differently was strength training! I never did any strength training because I was so focused on increasing mileage and felt I was wasting an opportunity to run by strength training. During the race, I developed a knee issue that I’m convinced could have been avoided had I done more strength training.
Walk us through mile 80.
Haha such a good mile to pick for this question. Mile 80 was a relief and a blessing for many reasons. I had just finished the two hardest sections of the race, they were a total of 30 miles with 9k+ of vertical gain and loss, and with only one aid station in the middle which was not accessible by your crew. So I was really in the thick of it physically and mentally throughout the entire night, and I finally finished those sections at mile 78. The next four miles (including mile 80) were on dirt or paved roads. No more kicking boulders and crushing my toes which was what I had been doing for the previous 8 hours. But even better, the sun was just beginning to rise which was exciting and motivating, and the end was finally seeming to be in reach. After 3+ marathons in, the thought of having less than one to go finally felt attainable. So ya, mile 80 was a good one!
What did you eat, carry, and wear, give us the full kit breakdown.
Oh man, this answer can get really long as my gear, kit, and nutrition literally changed with every section, and even within each section depending on the weather. I’ll try to be brief.
For nutrition, I stuck to Gu gels every 35 minutes for the first 48 miles. In addition to these, I would eat real food at each aid station (peanut butter banana honey quesadillas, potato wedges, chicken broth, bars, trail mix, etc). For liquids, I carried 2 liters of water and .5 liters of electrolytes (1000mg of sodium in water) on every section. I would be sure to finish all of the liquids and refill at every aid station. Towards the end of the race, I was replacing the electrolyte bottles with ginger ale or Coca Cola. I also became less consistent with the gels as my stomach wouldn’t allow much, but tried to continue with them the best I could and supplemented that with more real food at aid stations.
For gear, the weather was extremely volatile with predictions of plenty of rain, snow and freezing temps at the higher points of the course, and warm high 70’s low 80’s during the first day. So gear was all over the place, but basically I started the day with warm weather stuff and put cold weather gear with my crew or in drop bags for later sections of the race. I had a SUNMUD stick, first aid kit, bathroom emergency kit, and rain jacket/dry change of pants on me at all times during the race. At night, it was gloves, cold weather gear, head lamp, waist lamp, changes of batteries for both, and hiking poles for the big climbs.
Do you have a moment from the race that you'll never forget?
Man, another tough question! There is so much of the race that will always be important to me. Two sentimental ones for sure that will be with me forever are as follows: the incredible amount of support and sacrifice my wife provided over the course of training and throughout the race weekend. She supports me chasing these wild dreams, and having two kids (two and under) makes it that much harder for us both to achieve them. I could have never gotten to the starting line of this race without her support and sacrifice and I’ll always be grateful for that.
Number two is my crew that came together for this. Three of my closest friends, all from different parts of my life and all that didn’t know each other before this race, came together and worked incredibly well together to help me achieve this goal. Pretty incredible to experience and I’ll be forever grateful for all three of those friends and all of their support.
What's next and has this changed what you think you're capable of?
Great question. First things first is recovery. We’re two weeks out now and I’m still pretty rough around the edges so to speak. Slowly ramping back into some normal mileage is the goal, but it seems it’ll be a long process as I have some lingering aches and pains. I’m targeting my next big race in July 2027. Now with some experience and having more time to put a solid training block down, I’ll have some pretty ambitious goals for that one!
Feeling inspired? Shop Pat's Kit
This includes SUNMUD tinted sport stick he carried miles 1 through 100, and the muscle salve he's going to need a lot of during recovery.
