When a 20-mile run isn't enough
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How to be an ultra runner
10/10/2008 -
DETROIT — Imagine yourself running along a wooded trail. The leaves gently swish overhead, changing the patterns the sun makes on your T-shirt. The smell of the dirt fills your nose with faint hints of oak, loam, vanilla.It is quiet, peaceful. You're alone with your thoughts, the feel of your feet hitting the dirt and the sound of your breath, evenly whooshing in and out.
Now picture yourself doing that for 7 or 10 hours at a time.
This is what keeps some ultramarathoners — runners who get a rush from races longer than a marathon's 26.2 miles — coming back, year after year.
They are the hard core in a sport that is itself hard-core. They think marathons are fun, and find them useful as training for the real races that are 50 kilometers, 50 miles, even 100 miles.
There are hundreds of those races a year worldwide. Participation varies from event to event. The 89K Comrades Marathon in South Africa, one of the world's most famous ultramarathons, draws about 12,000 runners.
They do it for lots of reasons. Sometimes because of a health scare. Sometimes for inspiration. Sometimes to lose weight or quit smoking. Sometimes for the sheer thrill.
Goodbye, diabetes
Tony Hanks of Livonia, Mich., was stunned last year when his doctor handed him a prescription for a medicine to treat insulin resistance. At 32, he was facing adult onset diabetes. His sedentary lifestyle included a job in sales at Phillips Service Industries, also in Livonia, where he shuffled between making phone calls from his desk and site calls in his car.
"I had gained a lot of weight, and I was out of shape," said Hanks, now 33. "I thought, 'I really need to get myself back together.' "
That was a year ago. Hanks quickly set an ambitious goal: Having never run more than 10 miles, he decided he was going to finish the Detroit Marathon. And not only finish it, but qualify for the Boston Marathon. He laughs about it now.
"You have these lofty goals," he said.
But once he started training, he knew this was the sport for him. And not only was he going to do the marathon, he was going to do longer distances, too. His new goal became to complete the Detroit Marathon in five hours, because it would qualify him for the ultramarathon training class.
"It was a journey I was on, and this was just the first leg of it," he said. "I realized the ultra distances were in beautiful places, and that's where I wanted to go. The 50K and above is what I like to do."
The pounds melted away. He went from 250, to 240, to 230, until finally he was down to a muscular 188 pounds. The first marathon was a rude awakening: He had trained too much on the treadmill instead of the road. He drank sports drinks he wasn't used to and got sick, had a side ache for miles, and nearly had to sprint the last mile to make it in time: 4 hours, 59 minutes, 20 seconds. But he finished it.
"I was in a significant amount of pain, but I kept pressing on," he said. "It was not one of my easier races."
Neither was his first ultramarathon, a 50K in Pinckney, Mich., in December. The trail was icy, the course brutal and the support minimal. Again, he finished — dead last in 8 hours and 15 minutes. And he achieved his most important goal, he said.
"I wanted to go from couch potato to ultra runner in less than one year," Hanks said.
He no longer needs diabetes medication. He has run several marathons and ultramarathons since then with better results — now that he knows what to expect.
"Because the events are a little smaller, you get to know people better," he said. "It's a whole 'nuther world. It's not about winning the race. You show up at an ultra, and people are laughing and patting each other on the back. You're taking a journey together."
He's proud to say he became an inspiration to his family. His brothers-in-law picked up running. His wife started running and is training for her first marathon. His sister-in-law started writing again after seeing him accomplish his goal and told him that he was her inspiration.
"It fueled me to keep going, and raise the bar higher," Hanks said.
'Trying to defy the odds'
Mandi Tuite has always been a runner. She was on the track and cross country teams in middle school and high school. In 2000, a couple of years into college at Madonna University, some friends talked her into running a marathon.
"It was a living nightmare," said Tuite, 27, of South Lyon, Mich. "We all thought, we're used to that mileage a week. We just thought we could just do it. We finished, but we didn't feel so great afterwards."
That only spurred her to keep going, she said.
"I'm very self-motivated and very competitive within myself," she said. "I felt like I let myself down."
She got serious about ultramarathons about a year ago, when a health scare made her dive into running. Tests showed she might have a precursor to cervical cancer. And while she says she's OK now, she hasn't stopped running. She keeps going to support cancer research and to make the most of what she's been given.
"It's a test. I'm trying to defy the odds," Tuite said. "Once I got the news that things were well, I kept going."
And it's not just the events that keep her running. The long training days, timed around her job as a third -and fourth-grade math and science teacher at Daycroft Montessori in Ann Arbor, Mich., keep her mind clear, too.
"I use the parks as my Zen, my mental playground," she said. "I give my cares over to the world. It's entrancing when you get into the woods. You lose the moments. You lose the time. You're just out there."
'Things kind of evaporate'
Dion Bourque smoked two packs a day for 15 years, until May 4, 2007. That's when he decided that he really was going to quit, once and for all. But how to make it stick? And how to prove to himself that it was making a difference?
He'd run, he decided. He works nights as a server at Bonefish Grill in Novi, Mich., so his days were free to train. He headed out for his first training run full of confidence.
"I ran around the block and felt like I was going to have a heart attack," said Bourque, 34, of West Bloomfield, Mich. "Ever since then, I've been running more and more."
His first 5K race was a trail run in June 2007, and was great — and terrible.
"I ran that, finished and threw up," Bourque said. "I said, 'I love this.' I had a blast."
He knew he needed another goal, so he chose a marathon taking place barely seven months later. He finished in 3 hours, 59 minutes. That made him set his sights on a new target: Dances with Dirt, an ultramarathon in Hell, Mich., held last month.
"I wanted to see how much I could do, how far I could push my body, while I still had the desire to do it and the time and the opportunity," he said. "Hopefully, it'll be my first, and not my last."
Ultra running can be a mind-clearing experience, he said.
"I think about everything. What my life is, and why I'm doing what I'm doing. Things kind of evaporate, and you're left with just the things that matter to you. You get very, very focused on just one thing at a time," Bourque said. "You have to pick and choose things to dream about at the finish line.
"I think about the kids with wheelchairs and diseases, and I just keep pushing myself for those that can't. I'm truly grateful to have a fully functioning body, and I want to push it as far as I can." Bourque placed 46th, with a time of 13 hours, 18 minutes.
'You can run slower'
Bill Moyer had been out of the Army for two years in 1978 when he decided to wage war on his fat. His fitness had slipped away, he said, and he figured it was time to do something about it. So he strapped on his combat boots and went for a run.
"I figured I had run in them in the Army, so they were OK," said Moyer, 59, of Berkley, Mich. He was trying for a mile. He made it three blocks.
He gave in and bought a pair of running shoes, and kept on running. Just nine months later he entered his first marathon in Detroit. A year later, he did his first 50-miler. He runs a 10K in Berkley every year, mostly out of tradition — in general he avoids the shorter distances, he said.
"It's too hard," Moyer explained. "You run too fast, too short of a distance. At longer distances, you can run slower and take it easier. They say I'm crazy. But I enjoy the distance. I've met the nicest people in my life running."
So he's been running two to six ultras a year for the past 29 years with the help of his wife, Janice, 60. He squeezes them in around his job as a buyer for Detroit Medical Center.
"If we go to a race, she can do anything she wants beforehand. But the day of the race, she's my crew," Moyer said.
The couple jokes that CREW stands for Cranky Runner, Endless Waiting. Janice Moyer goes from aid station to aid station when her husband runs an ultra, carrying a bag with extra clothing, shoes, food, drinks, a jacket or anything else he might need. They pack baby powder to keep his feet dry, gel for fast eating, fig bars, peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, salt tablets, bananas, potato chips, Coke — whatever will pump calories and salts back into his body.
Ultramarathoners have odd diets. At Dances with Dirt, for example, Moyer was volunteering at the Hell store aid station, offering runners quarters of baked potatoes with bowls of salt.
"A lot of it doesn't stay down all the time," he said, chuckling.
While ultras are run on roads, tracks and trails, many of them are on dirt roads and trails just because of the distance.
"It's a game between you, your mind and the course," he said. "I don't wear an iPod. I just do the running. It challenges you to get yourself through it. I write memos in my head. I think of how to get from point A to point B. Am I eating enough? Am I drinking enough? Who's behind me, who's in front?"
Despite the relatively slow pace that ultras demand, Moyer says he's very competitive.
"People see gray hair and they say oh, I can beat him," he said. "My friends say, 'Don't challenge him to a race, will you? Mile for mile, he'll bury you.' "
GETTING STARTED
So you want to run an ultra? It's not as intimidating as it appears at first, because most ultra races are run at much slower paces than competitive marathons — and they might have lots of walking breaks. Some tips to start you off:
Start slowly. If you haven't run recently, start by alternating running and walking until you're able to run continuously. Enter shorter events, like 5K and 10K distances.
Do marathons first. When you've got a couple of marathons under your belt, you're ready for an ultra.
There are plenty of ultra training programs online. One was crafted by the famous (in running circles) Hal Higdon, and is available at www.halhigdon.com. His advice maps out a six-month program.
Be prepared to spend a little money. Ultras will burn through more pairs of shoes in training, and you'll probably want a backup pair at races after yours get wet. Many races are tracked on GPS courses, and handheld GPS units are common for navigation. You'll be packing food, too.
Read up. There are plenty of good books about ultra running, and there's even UltraRunning magazine (www.ultrarunning.com).
Be safe. This is strenuous, even if you take it slowly; check with your doctor before you begin. Always stay properly fed and hydrated for long runs.
