HIGHLAND | Shortly after Jim Raymond and his family moved to Highland from Chicago, he had an excuse to start running again.

"There's a trail in back of our home, so I decided to use it," Raymond said. "When I made it to 45th Avenue (from about Ridge Road) without stopping, I told people about it.

"'Oh, that's very good, Jim,' they'd tell me. But then I met a guy out there who told me he runs from Hammond all the way to Route 30 ... All the way to Route 30!"

Now 59 years old, Raymond just completed the Ice Age 50-Mile Run, which took place on May 10 in the Kettle Moraine area in southern Wisconsin.

And he did that without stopping ... well, almost.

"There were rest areas where you could hydrate and eat," said Raymond, who completed the "technical course" in eight hours and 45 minutes -- second in his age group. "Still, the clock doesn't stop when you stop."

Accompanying Raymond at the Ice Age was fellow Calumet Region Strider member Brian Norrick.

"Soda pop, Oreo cookies, peanut butter and jelly ... anything sweet," Norrick said of the way he re-fueled along the journey.

Like Raymond, this was Norrick's first Ice Age race. The Hebron 51-year-old finished 78th overall in a field of 261 -- 199 finished the course.

For Raymond and Norrick, the Ice Age was the toughest race of their lives. And that includes last fall's brutal Chicago Marathon, which Raymond was able to finish in less than three and half hours before the unseasonable heat index and lack of water halted the race.

"But this had a lot of ups and downs ... a lot of obstacles ... rocks and tree roots you had to avoid on the way up and down hills," Raymond said. "The reason why they call it the 'Ice Age 50-Miler' because it was one the final holdouts from the Ice Age. You can see how the glaciers shaped the land."

Raymond and Norrick are members of Fossil Velocity, a running club consisting of 50-and-over-something professionals who take on extreme endurance challenges, like the recent MC200 Relay -- a 200-mile relay from Madison, Wis. to Chicago. Like most exclusive clubs, you have to be asked to join. Recently, Raymond nominated Norrick to be part of the team.

"He's the new kid on the block," Raymond said of Norrick, a multiple Jim Cox Award recipient for completing all races in the CRS Gold Cup Series. Two years ago, Norrick was honored for recording the first-ever "perfect score" -- the top-finishing Strider member in his age group for all Gold Cup races.

"So we'll see how he does."