The youngest competitor to ever run the Deadwood-Mickelson Trail Marathon will take to the trail this Sunday. Fourteen-year-old Adam Gomez of Spearfish is ready to run the 26.2 mile course.

The marathon is a first for Adam, who became interested in distance running last fall when marathoner Dean Karnazes included the Mickelson Trail as the South Dakota venue in his feat of running 50 marathons in 50 consecutive days.

In his Spearfish Middle School eighth-grade science class, Adam and his classmates read a science magazine article about Karnazes referencing the marathon runner's strides.

"Some peoples' strides roll out - some roll in - but his stride is perfect. That's why he is so good,"Gomez said.

Knowing his students were intrigued, science teacher Tom Mead called local marathon organizer Jerry Dunn. As a result, Adam and his classmates were given the opportunity to serve at the aid stations at six-mile intervals for Karnazes' Mickelson Trail run. Karnazes invited the students to run the last four miles with him and Adam saw an opportunity too good to pass up even though he wasn't well-prepared.

"My shoes weren't very good at all for running, but I just tied them up tighter. I got to talk to him about running marathons. I had a lot of fun running with him and since then I've been running."

Realizing the extent of their son's interest, his parents gave Adam Karnazes' book, "Ultra Marathon Man" for Christmas. "It was my best present," admits this lean teen who will be a freshman at Spearfish High School this fall.

Although running a full marathon will be a new experience, Adam is familiar with what it takes to run the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Half Marathon. His mother ran the half marathon last year and will be running it again Sunday.

Do mother and son train together? Cassie Gomez laughs, "No, not at all. I can't keep up with him."

Cassie has helped her son set up a training schedule similar to her own though. Following a method of training developed by Olympiad and running clinician Jeff Galloway, Adam runs 9 minutes, then walks for 1 minute, repeating this alternating sequence for the duration of his training runs.

"The varied running and walking time helps keep the lactic acid from building up in legs,"Cassie said. Since his run with Karnazes, Cassie says Adam's desire to run a full marathon has been increasing steadily.

Adam's training regiment includes a run five days a week, but during his recent track season, he says it has been difficult to take time for his regular schedule of marathon training.

It's no surprise that Adam's track events are the 800- and 3,200-meter distance runs.

Adam's training course purposely includes a steeper trail than he will be encountering Sunday. His circuitous route takes him to McGuigan Road, up Tinton Road into Spearfish and through the city park and back to his Evan's Lane home.

"The first ten miles of the marathon are uphill; my hill training should have me prepared for it." Because as he affirms, "My mom can't quite keep up with me," Adam runs solo, "I just strap on my IPOD and take off."

His goal is to finish his first marathon in under 4 hours.

Dunn, race director for the Deadwood Mickelson Trail Marathon, confirms that at fourteen, Adam is the youngest entrant in the marathon's six-year history.

He isn't apprehensive about any toll the run will take on Adam's youthful body, "Some people think it's too young. If he were some kid who was just thinking, 'Hey, it'd be cool to run a marathon' and wasn't a runner, it would be different. Running is not a new thing to him."

Dunn admits that 26.2 miles will put stress on Adam's body, but is confident the run will not present any long term damaging effects.

"Of course it's going to be stressful on his body. It's stressful on a 50-year-old body."

As with all entrants under the age of 18, Dunn required Adam to provide written permission from his parents for participation in the marathon.

Adam is one of 365 entrants pre-registered for Sunday's full marathon. Half marathon entries have reached 1,300 according to Dunn. The five person marathon relay, an addition to the event roster last year is gaining in popularity as the number of teams has doubled since year. Dunn notes that 52 percent of all entrants are South Dakota residents; the other 48 percent of entrants represent all but two of the 50 states and runners from Canada and Denmark have registered for the event.

While Adam is the youngest partipant this year, the oldest entrant for the full marathon is 75 years of age. An eighty-one year old is registered to run the half-marathon. The races will begin simultaneously in Rochford and one mile north of the Dumont Trail Head with a common finish line at Deadwood Bicycles in Deadwood's Sherman Street parking lot.

As his first marathon draws near, Adam is now in the tapering or resting portion of his preparatory training. That has been helpful this week; this teenager has been busy with the classroom portion of his Driver's Education class.