225BatonRouge.com

She seems neither nuts nor obsessed, but you have to shake your head when Our Lady of the Lake registered dietician Amanda Perron talks about running 100 miles.

Without stopping.

For somewhere between 29 and 32 hours.

She runs about 65 miles a week to prepare for races such as the Big Horn 100, which Perron ran this summer in Sheridan, Wyo. The toughest part, she jokes, was all the teasing she got for her really thick Cajun accent. The 33-year-old native of New Iberia is a graduate of the University of Louisiana- Lafayette and has worked at the Lake for seven years.

She started out running shorter races, graduated to a marathon, and now does 50K races and a 50-miler in winter to prepare for the century run in the summer. This year’s Wyoming 100-miler was her fourth.

How does she feel afterwards?

“It hurts,” Perron admits.

The 5-foot-6.5-inch, 123-pound Perron runs the grueling races for fun. She doesn’t over-train, she says, eats well—“a lot of pasta”—and she’s careful to vary her exercise time among running, lifting weights and riding a bike. She’s never sustained an injury.

But you have to ask: Do your friends and loved ones think you’re crazy?

“In a way, yeah,” Perron says with a smile. “I’m the only one in my family who exercises on a regular basis.”