We would like to welcome our good friend Sean Hilsdon into the 50/400 club. He doesn’t just make it into the 50/400 club, he does it with the special notation that he ran 100 miles instead of 50!

This entry to the 50/400 club is special to me. We have a lot of really great runners here in the Memphis area where we live. I normally assume that most of these bad ass runners just think I’m silly for having a 50/400 club to begin with. So when I heard Sean wanted to pull a 400 pound deadlift and had been training to get into the club I was SUPER stoked. We did a 24 hour race a little while back, and I brought a bar, mat and 400 pounds worth of Rogue goodness (see image below) so that he could pull 400 lbs. after running a…HUNDO just a little while before. It made me so happy to be able to be there and watch him do it.  Here’s a little info about the man of the hour:

Sean is a civil engineer from Millington, TN. He now calls Southaven, MS his home, along with his wife April and three very active children, Mitchell, Garrett, and Madison. Growing up, his youth athletics consisted mainly of competitive soccer from years 4 up until graduating college. Following college, he quickly found that working behind a computer screen all day, compounded by an unhealthy lifestyle, equaled lots of weight gain. So he tried the local gym thing for a few years, dabbling in weight and running machines to try and get back right. However, despite the fact he changed to more healthy food choices, he just loved to eat a lot. So in 2014, motivated by his wife, he started training for his first long distance race, the Memphis St Jude 1/2 Marathon. He was hooked on running, which was great, but started slacking in the gym. Then in early 2016, he got hooked up with the LHRL Community and has been continually inspired to see how far he can run and lift, while training for both, simultaneously. In November 2017 Sean completed his first 50-mile race at Tunnell Hill, but was only able to successfully pull 385-pounds at the time. He then focused on longer distances in 2018 and said “the hell with the deadlift”. Then in 2019, after finding out he got into both the Georgia Death Race 74-miler (GDR) and the Bear 100-miler trail races, he decided to give it another whirl. Following his success at GDR in March, he prepared an 18-week plan for his first 100, while also incorporating deadlifts whenever time would allow. On September 27th, he successfully completed the Bear 100 in a time of 33:33:15. Two weeks later, at the Tour D’Esprit 24-hour race, he pulled 400-pounds (big shoutouts to Von “the Rev” Ralls for bringing the bar & plates and also to Brian “Big Thirsty” Swanson for judging and motivating!). Sean’s 2019 season had many PR’s: first 100K (LOViT 100K); first 100-miler (The Bear 100); first Western States 100 qualifiers (GDR & Bear 100); first Hardrock 100 qualifier (Bear 100); first UTMB qualifiers (GDR 5-points, Elkhorn Crest 50 4-points, & Bear 100 6-points); and the deadlift PR of 400-pounds.

5K: 19:52 (2018 O.B. Mayfest 5K)
10K: 43:02 (2015 Hernando Water Tower 10K)
1/2 Marathon: 1:29:22 (2016 St Jude Memphis 1/2 Marathon)
Marathon: 3:29:34 (2018 Little Rock Marathon)
50K: 4:55:56 (3rd OA @ 2017 Stanky Creek 50K)
50-Miler: 8:52:55 (2017 Tunnel Hill 50)

Congrats, Sean, and I look forward to seeing what you accomplish next!

-The Rev