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Nelk Boys And Kyle Forgeard Ran 100-Mile Ultramarathon From Area 51 To Las Vegas And Raised $332K+ For Veterans With Cancer

#Ultramarathons
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Nelk Boys Area 51 Las Vegas Marathon Aliens

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The sport of running has never been more popular than it is right now, and by extension neither has participation in ultramarathons. Case in point, Kyle Forgeard and the Nelk Boys just completed a 100-mile ultramarathon from Area 51 to Las Vegas where they raised over $332K along the way.

An ultramarathon is technically any distance longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon. Typically, they come in 30 miles, 50K (31mi), 50 miles, 100K, and 100 miles. And then there are the big boys, the 200s, 250s (like Cocodona), and even longer.

Nelk Boys And Kyle Forgeard Finish 100-Mile Ultramarathon For Cancer Charity

Finishing a 100-mile race without tapping out requires incredible mental strength on top of physical fitness. At some point, everyone enters the ‘Pain Cave,’ a term coined by ultrarunner Courtney Dauwalter who set records in the Western States 100, UTMB, and Hardrock 100 in the same year.

The key to finishing a race that long, according to Courtney is to embrace the pain. Entering the Pain Cave is an inevitability. Humans cannot run 100 miles without struggling. But embracing it, expecting it, knowing that you are right where you need to be when it arrives because you chased after it, that is all part of the experience and now Kyle Forgeard and Nelk Boys can say they’ve entered the Pain Cave and made it out on the other side in one piece.

Their race began on January 21st and ended yesterday around lunchtime on the East Coast as they were sprayed with champagne by ultraunner Andy Glaze and others who ran alongside them, helped crew, and paced the race.

A New Era For Influencers

To me, this seemed to mark a paradigm shift for influencers. Gone are the days of people willing to listen to podcasters talk the talk without ever walking the walk.

Anyone can talk into a microphone and give advice but can everyone run a 100-mile ultramarathon?

The overarching goal of this Nelk Boys 100 Mile challenge was to raise funds for the HunterSeven Foundation. It is a foundation dedicated to prevention and detection of cancer in veterans.

The Nelk Boys raised a whopping $332,082.98 along the way. That included a $150,000 donation from Drake!

Naturally, the entire 100-mile Nelk run from Area 51 to Las Vegas was live streamed. They had pacers. Vans with food and water and medical professionals on hand. At one point I checked the stream and they had been pulled over by police on the side of the highway but it didn’t deter the runners who kept trudging along.

Andy Glaze, who was running his THIRD 100-MILE RACE SO FAR IN 2026 with the Nelk Boys helped them keep pace and spirits high. If you don’t follow Andy on Instagram or TikTok you are missing OUT. Go do that now.

With 17-miles left, Kyle Forgeard had to hop in the van to get checked out by the medical team. Mind you he had been running all night through the desert and medical checks are standard in ultramarathons.

Then came the finish line hours later. A sweet moment of catharsis for all involved:

Just an absolutely incredible achievement to see this group all complete their first 100-miles together. Hopefully more of the media world embraces this in the months/years ahead. I signed up for an IronMan 70.3 later this year. Plan on running some races as well. Let’s put in the work together!