By: NICOLAS FIERRO
Salina Post
A Salina woman is preparing to take on a Ragnar Trail, an overnight, team-based trail running event that comprises of running a 120-mile course.
Kari Fear has zero fears, as the 52-year old Salinan looks to successfully complete the course in May 8-9, 2026 at Zion National Park in Utah.
Fear grew up in Iowa and lived across the Midwest, who is a licensed clinical therapist. She moved to Salina in 2011 and started swimming for the first time recreationally. Four years later she met Amanda Wishaar in Salina, who encouraged her to do a triathlon.
"She (Amanda) was super supportive about trying a triathlon and thought she was kind of crazy," said Fear.
However that did not stop her because in 2021, Fear trained for a full Ironman and successfully completed the event that following year. Fear continued to push herself to the greatest heights, as she completed a half Ironman along with considering to participate in a Ragnar Trial.
Her first Ragnar Trail was the Texas Hill Country in 2024 and competed with a team of 8. This event is where she crossed paths with Wishaar unintentionally. Now she is currently preparing for the 2026 Ragnar Trail in Utah, where she will reunite with Wishaar on the same team.
Fear's team for this year's event is comprised of members from Virginia, Washington state, Arizona and Texas.
Taking advantage of every opportunity
Fear decided to participate in Ragnar Trails by taking advantage of every opportunity to test herself and just say she "did it."
"When you just say yes to something, it just naturally leads to the next yes and so you just accomplishing all these things without even intending to."
For example, before she completed the Ironman (a long-distance endurance race comprising a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bike ride, and a 26.2-mile marathon run, totaling 140.6 miles) people had questioned if she really wanted to do it.
She told herself, "she could" and she was right.
Takeaways from the events
Fear told Salina Post she was personally going through a rough patch during the Ironman in 2022.
"Genuinely my goal was for it to beat me. I thought if I can push for something and fail at it, it would actually feel pretty good. You just keep going and you end up getting stronger, so I did it."
When participating in the events, Fear said her favorite part about it is "finding out who you really are."
In her first Ragnar Trail, she enjoyed the team aspect, especially during the overnight hours and "soul searching" when running.
"You really just find out who you are when you are out there in the middle of nowhere, while getting to know people. I am a lone wolf runner, so I only ever run alone and Ragnar really allowed me to be apart of a team of like-minded people. But when you are out there at 2:00 am in the morning and there is nothing but you and the Milky Way, you just do that soul searching."
Mental approach before and during each event
Before each event, Fear is always anticipating finishing the race well for her team. During the event she pushes herself to complete the race, by putting her team first before herself.
"Ninety-five percent of the time I am thinking about my team, so that they are not waiting on you."
Fear still has plans of continuing to participate in more Ragnar events after Utah.
She hopes to assemble a full Salina Ragnar Trail team in the future.
"I would love to be apart of a Salina Ragnar team."