Name: Lance Parker Age: 22

Lives in: Montpelier Occupation: High school behavior interventionist/River guide

“You will regret this,” warns the registration for entrants who choose the 888k option of the Infinitus, a series of rugged trail races staged by the Endurance Society in Goshen, Vermont.

Lance Parker, however, has no regrets. On Friday, June 2, the 22-year-old from Montpelier won the 551-mile, 10-day event that’s designed to drive athletes to their limits. Powered partially by chocolate milk, Snickers and yogurt, Parker was the only participant out of 11 to finish the 888-kilometer course. He did it in a total time of 229 hours and 51 minutes.

Parker is no novice: he’s run a number of ultra races, including Wyoming’s Bighorn 100 last year. He works as a behavior interventionist for the special education department at Spaulding High School in Barre, and is spending this summer guiding whitewater-rafting trips for Adirondack River Outfitters. Two feet, two wheels and in person are the ways that Parker rolls: he has no car and no phone.

Born and raised mostly on the Maine coast, Parker was naturally peripatetic, thanks to a stepfather in the military; that side of the family never spent more than three years in the same place. We did manage to get Parker to spend more than a few minutes slowing down to share his story with Vermont Sports.

VS: How did you get into running?

LP: My college (Sterling College) had no organized sports. But I got introduced to the concept of ultras, and thought it was amazing but ridiculous. The summer of 2013, Heather Anderson set the self-supported speed record on the Pacific Crest Trail, hiking 45 miles a day. About this same time I learned about a 50k race at Jay Peak, and got into minimalist running shoes. These three things, combined with a large amount of naivety, led me to sign up for a 50k that was less than a month away. I had only ever run 11 miles going into that race, and my longest race was a 10k on roads. I took fourth, and that changed my perspective on running. Two months later I ran a 50-miler, then my first 100 six months after that. I’ve done the Race to the Top of Vermont three years in a row, but I’ve always done a double on it.