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It’s been kind of awhile.
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Erik Mundahl placed first with a time of 16 minutes, 15 seconds. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
Saturday, Mundahl won the 29th Annual Goodview Gallop 5K in 16 minutes, 18 seconds — more than 30 seconds faster than second-place Joe Alexander (16:47).
It’s been nearly two years since he’s felt this good. It was the fall of 2006 that he contracted lyme disease from a tick bite while working in Winona.
“It hit me so hard,” Mundahl said. “I felt fatigued for years. I would have week-long spells where I couldn’t do anything.”
Mundahl is heading into his senior year at Michigan Tech. He’s an environmental engineering major, and also competes in cross country and Nordic Skiing. After getting bit, however, he really struggled to do anything.
“I was incredibly fatigued,” Mundahl said. “I would sleep for 14 hours, wake up and feel like I never went to bed. For four months, I slept 14-16 hours a night. I would try to go to class. My grades suffered a little bit, but the teachers were really good about it.”
Mundahl sometimes even struggled walking to and from class. He talked about how he had to walk three-quarters of a mile home one night, and it took him an hour and 45 minutes. He said he had to stop, sit down and rest every 20 minutes.
It wasn’t until last February that Mundahl started feeling normal. He spent this summer in Alaska working an environmental engineering internship and working out like he used to.
“I am finally back in shape again,” said Mundahl, who maintains a 3.34 grade-point average according to the Michigan Tech Web site. “I feel great. I was training with some of the most elite skiers in the country up there (in Alaska). I did a lot of mountain running, where it’s three miles up hill.”
Now, the only problem Mundahl has is reeling himself in and not overdoing his workouts.
“I understand what to do,” Mundahl said. “I try to balance training where I’m not killing myself.”
Like the last two years, Mundahl started off his Michigan Tech career kind of rough, breaking his foot just a few meets into cross country season. He recovered nicely, however, and earned rookie of the year honors in Nordic Skiing.
Mundahl did not use a redshirt when he was affected by lyme disease.
“I just used my eligibility to run slow,” Mundahl joked.
He gradually worked his way to where he is now. He started out being able to work out a few days, before being fatigued for a week. Then the opposite took effect, and he could workout a few weeks and need just a few days off to rest.
Mundahl is a 2005 Winona Senior High School graduate. He was an all-state skier his senior year, and also participated on the cross country team that took sixth place at state in 2003.
