Welcome Jase Kraft!

Hi everybody! I’m pumped to join the 605 Running staff and community! I’m only 20 years old (will be 21 this summer ;) but have been running for 10 years now, and serious competitively running since 8th grade.

I first started running on the gravel roads near Wessington Springs because my brothers decided they were going to go out for cross country. Being a fourth grader from small town, South Dakota, I had no idea what cross country was, but quickly caught on that it was some stupid sport because all my brothers did was run from the house, and back to the house. Even though I thought it was a stupid sport that was taking away from my backyard football time with them, I had a goal in life to be better than my brothers at whatever they did so I started running with them. I was nowhere close to them when they would finish, but luckily the dog would stay back with me to keep me company when the road got boring.

Once I started being able to run a mile or two comfortably I started to realize maybe my brothers weren’t crazy for trying something new. It wasn’t until I went to one of my brother’s cross country meets that I was hooked. At that point, I knew that I was going to be a runner in high school. It wasn’t until 8th grade that I started to be serious about running fast and year-round. From there I found that I much rather run fast than run far. I specialize in the 800 -1500, but love all runners of every level. I love giving athletes advice on training so feel free to ask me anything.

My biggest goal for running is to run a sub 4 minute mile in the next 2-3 years. You will probably hear some more blogs in the future of me getting wrecked by some insane workout my coach has me do. I made it through this winter training season, without falling off a treadmill, (barely) which was probably my biggest accomplishment this year so far. I’ll be down at the store and hopefully make some appearances at some of the group runs!

Can’t wait to meet all you crazy people whom we refer to as runners!

​-Jase 

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