UltraRunning Magazine November 2021

Athlete: Patrick Reagan

Photo: Luis Escobar

Features

24 RUN COMMUTE GEAR REVIEW

30 AL HOWIE: THE MAN WHO COULD RUN FOREVER

While most of us dream of running 100 or 200 miles, Al Howie dreamed much bigger. And then he went out and ran. Author Jared Beasley writes about his life on the run and more.

36 Voice of the Sport GRAND SLAM OF A YEAR

Ultraraces

42 LAKE SONOMA // CALIFORNIA

50 BARKLEY FALL CLASSIC

60 LEAKY HOURGLASS ULTRA // MISSOURI

Ultralife

64 Faces of Ultrarunning PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS

66 One Step Beyond THE ORIGINAL ULTRAMARATHONER

67 Reese’s Pieces WHEN YOU CAN’T OUTRUN DEPRESSION

68 Destination Unknown TIME PASSAGES

69 Sarah’s Stories ANNA FROST: FROM PODIUMS TO PARENTING

70 Running Down Under WHAT MAKES A LEGEND?

71 I Am an Ultrarunner JAKOB HERMANN

ON THE COVER: Dena Carr makes her second ascent up Rat Jaw, a 0.9-mile climb with roughly 2,000 feet of gain, at the Barkley Fall Classic 50K. JENNY THORSEN

ILove you, Man

Relationships need to be nurtured. That’s never been more apparent. After being separated from so many over the past year, I decided to pack a lot of running into the fall months, and the one thing I’ve come to realize is how much I’ve missed spending time with my ultrarunning family.

In August, my sporadic summer training finally came to a close and race weekend approached like a secret handshake – I had it memorized but wasn’t sure if I’d practiced enough. And then, one day before the race, nerves kicked me in the gut, which can happen when you haven’t raced in over a year. My appetite had been sequestered to the acid gods and I was left with a guessing game. Maybe I should eat? I think I’m full? It was hard to tell.

I bid my family adieu and made the hour-long drive southwest of Bend, Oregon, to Willamette Pass Ski Area and let me tell you what, standing at the base of a ski hill can really mess with your head when you’re planning to run 62 miles in just a few short hours. My nerves were officially shot.

Prior to the 3 a.m. “early” start, I ran into some familiar faces who gave me words of encouragement prior to my 100k journey –it was all I needed to resolve the lingering doubt in my mind. We started off as a pack in the middle of the night, slowly making our way up and around the bare slopes. Once we reached the backside, I fell into a good pace and was making sure the runners behind me were able to get by when needed. In the dark, it can be tricky to pass on the trail and one runner pulled off to the side just as I did.

“Is your name Michael?” I asked.

“Yes,” he replied.

“I don’t know if you remember me, but I ran with you at McDonald Forest back in

2014,” I said. Michael happened to be one of the people I met at my very first ultra. I knew he’d be running the race, but I didn’t expect to literally bump into him.

We caught up on life while running with just a couple headlamps to help lead the way. Our first significant climb was supposed to be rewarded with views of Waldo Lake, but the peak was shrouded in clouds. On the way down, around mile 16, I mentioned my stomach wasn’t feeling great and that I was thinking of dropping. He said he wasn’t sure this was a great day for him to be running 100k, and we continued on with a silent understanding. Unfortunately, I didn’t feel any better and at mile 20, I called it a day. We said goodbye and I thought he was off, until he walked back and asked if I needed a ride back to the start. He had ended his race, too.

While it wasn’t the day I was hoping for, I felt so grateful I got to share some miles with Michael some seven years after we first met. I didn’t know how the day would go, but getting to run with someone I rarely see meant a lot and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Ultrarunners are like long lost family when we see each other, whether it’s at a race, on a training run or just over good food and drinks.

There are so many ways to nurture your running relationships, but letting those who are important to you know how much they mean is a start. We’ve all been away from one another and it’s time to catch up from where we left off.

PO Box 6509 Bend, OR 97708 ultrarunning.com

SUBSCRIPTIONS

Laura Kantor help@ultrarunning.com

ADVERTISING SALES

Heather Pola heatherp@ultrarunning.com

PUBLISHER

Karl Hoagland karlh@ultrarunning.com

EDITOR

Amy Clark amyc@ultrarunning.com

CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

Donald Buraglio

DIRECTOR OF DIGITAL CONTENT AND OPERATIONS MANAGER

Cory Smith

ART DIRECTOR

Carly Koerner

COPY EDITOR

Hayley Pollack

SOCIAL MEDIA

Courtney Drewsen

EDITORS EMERITUS

Peter Gagarin, Fred Pilon, Stan Wagon, Don Allison, Tia Bodington, Karl Hoagland

COLUMNISTS

Lucy Bartholomew, Donald Buraglio, Meghan Canfield, Gary Cantrell, Gary Dudney, Clare Gallagher, Ellie Greenwood, Erika Hoagland, Dr. Tracy Høeg, Dean Karnazes, Jason Koop, Pete Kostelnick, Jeff Kozak, Matt Laye, Travis Macy, John Medinger, Sean Meissner, Cory Reese, Amy Rusiecki, Ian Sharman, Sarah Lavender Smith, Meredith Terranova, John Trent, Tim Tollefson, Coree Woltering

CONTRIBUTORS

Jenny Baker, Jared Beasley, Laura Presley, Gary Shaw

CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Paul Nelson, Gary Wang, Let’s Wander Photography, Joe McCladdie, Luis Escobar, Paul Encarcion, Geoff Baker Photography, Keith Facchino, Mile 90 Photography, Glenn Tachiyama, Matt Trappe, Scott Rokis, Howie Stern

PHOTOGRAPHERS

David Miller, Andrew Pielage, Jenny Thorsen, Jobie Williams

PRINTING AND CIRCULATION

Publication Printers, Denver, CO

SUBMISSIONS Articles, race reports and results, humor and photos should be submitted via email to amyc@ultrarunning.com. Unsolicited material is welcome, and will be used as space permits. Photo submissions are very welcome. Photographs should be available in high-resolution files (at least 1Mb, over 3Mb is better). Please label each photograph with: name of race/runners’ names/photographer’s name. Photos that depict effort, emotion, particularly unusual or difficult terrain or scenic courses, are especially welcome. Of course, the runners are the most important feature of an ultra, so remember to include them in scenic pictures, too! See ultrarunning.com for more examples of race reports.

JOE MCCLADDIE

Keep Moving,

I didn’t know how the day would go, but getting to run with someone I rarely see meant a lot and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

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New 24-Hour Record

Lithuanian Aleksandr Sorokin ran 192 miles at Poland’s UltraPark Weekend

24 Hour race on August 28-29. Sorokin beat Yiannis Kouros’s long-standing 24-hour record of 188 miles set in 1997.

Weather Prompts Rescue at 50K

In its first ever event, the DC Peaks 50 in Utah had to rescue almost all 89 runners while they were out on the 50-mile, point-to-point course in the Wasatch Mountains due to high winds and 12-18 inches of snow. Runners were rescued by the Davis County Sheriff’s Office, over 100 race volunteers, local first responders and search and rescue volunteers. The race includes over 12,000 feet of elevation gain, climbing peaks that overlook Salt Lake City.

Dauwalter and D’Haene Prevail at UTMB

Courtney Dauwalter saw her second win at UTMB, nabbing a course record in 22:30:54, which was previously 22:37:26, set by Rory Bosio in 2013.

Camille Bruyas was second in 24:09:42, and Mimmi Kotka finished in 25:08:29 for third.

François D’Haene captured his fourth win in a time of 20:45:59, coming off his victory at Hardrock just a month prior.

Aurélien Dunand-Pallaz was just 13 minutes behind and came in second in 20:58:31.

Mathieu Blanchard came in third in 21:12:43.

Case Wins Tor Des Glaciers

Stephanie Case finished the 450k (283 miles) Tor des Glaciers in Courmayeur, Italy, finishing first female and third overall in 6 days, 11 hours and 6 minutes (155:06:55).

First place was tied with Jules-Henri Gabioud and Luca Papi both finishing in 5 days, 18 hours (138:18). The course traverses ridges across ancient glaciers in northwest Italy between France and Switzerland.

Accident at UTMB TDS

A runner from the Czech Republic was involved in a serious fall at 62k on the 145k UTMB TDS course on August 25, and passed away due to his injuries. Because of the accident, approximately 1,200 runners were instructed to

turn around and return to the nearest aid station while 293 runners were able to continue to the finish. The race begins in Courmayeur, Italy, includes 29,885 feet of elevation gain on narrow, rocky terrain, and finishes in Chamonix, France.

Marathon Des Sables Death

A runner collapsed on October 4 during Stage 2 of the Marathon des Sables, a stage race that traverses the desert in Morocco. Runners carry supplies on their back for the 6-stage, week-long race. While the French runner was surrounded by other participants who were also doctors, along with a medical team who arrived within minutes of the medical alert, the male runner could not be revived. This is the third death in the race’s 35-year history.

New ITRA President

Janet Ng, co-director of the Vibram Hong Kong 100, has been elected to serve as the new International Trail Running Association (ITRA) president. Former president Bob Crowley resigned from the position after just over a year. He stated, “I have strived to guide ITRA to a better place than when I assumed the office. I believe together, we have achieved this goal. We have accomplished independence and steadied the organization through the disruptive times of the pandemic.”

Letters to the Editor

Dear UltraRunning Magazine,

As a transgender person and runner, I am writing to voice my concern for the article published in your latest issue titled "Transgender Athletes and Competition" by Tracey Beth Høeg MD, PhD.

This article intentionally or unintentionally reads as an argument against allowing transgender people to participate in running events and competitions. More importantly, though, the author's language and framing about gender and trans experiences is reductive and is damaging to trans people’s ability to safely and fully participate in running events.

While I understand that the author may not have intended to have this piece read asexclusionary, we cannot ignore the hurt and transphobia this article perpetuates.

Below I list the issues at hand with this article:

• Consistent use of biological essentialism throughout the article (whatever rules apply for biological women should apply for transgender women). This sort of essentialism reduces trans people to their bodies and hormone levels when we know trans experiences are so much more vast and layered.

• Language and wording perpetuates a harmful and false narrative that trans women are not women i.e. transgender women (born male).

• There reads to be an attitude that positions cisgender women as superior or more normal than transgender women (i.e. at what point are trans women biologically equal to (cis) women). Furthermore, by omitting the use of the word "cisgender" to preface "women" throughout the article, the author intentionally or unintentionally continues to perpetuate the idea that cisgender women are "the norm." Only pointing to the difference of trans women underlines and further ostracizes trans women/people as being "other."

• There is a confusing and vague portion of this article that is about "rare genetic disorders where women who appear female have testosterone levels considered normal for men" I believe the author (can't be sure since the author is unclear about

this) is talking about intersex people. Variations of sex characteristics are not rare – intersex variation occurs in an estimated 17 in every 1,000 live births (or 1.7%) – this is as common as babies born with red hair. Additionally, by calling intersex variations "rare," the author continues to render intersex people invisible which is dangerous since countless intersex people are already subject to dehumanizing and non-consensual genital surgeries to ensure their genitals "look correct" to gender assigned at birth.

I can understand that the author is making a case for "fairness for all." However, I ask, whose fairness is the author privileging or protecting? From how this article frames transgender athletes’ participation, I don’t believe the author wants fairness for transgender runners. She wants fairness for cisgender runners. “Fairness for all" has and will continue to privilege bodies and identities that control sport, social systems, politics and education in society. Marginalized people will continue to be marginalized until people in power relinquish their power and privilege to even the playing field. Until then, "fairness" will continue to work in favor of the privileged in running (i.e. cisgender, able bodied, middle to upper class, white athletes).

Transgender people have experienced incredible amounts of heartache, hurt and exhaustion from the countless attacks on our identity in the athletic world throughout history but especially the last two years. With over 50 anti-trans sports bills having circulated in the US and countless articles citing unfounded research on the “advantages” of transgender women in sport to ban trans women from competing, this is the time when running publications (if they truly believe in inclusion) need to take action against transgender discrimination and hate. I hope that UltraRunning Magazine can reflect on this piece a bit further, acknowledge the hurt this may have caused some readers, learn more about gender and the experiences of transgender people, and look to do better in the future.

Regards,

Lee Grabarek (they/he)

Winner and course record holder, Courtney Dauwalter, reacts after her win at the 2021 UTMB. DAVID MILLER

WESTER N STATES 100-MILE ENDURANC E RUN ®

49TH ANNUAL RUN: JUNE 25 - 26, 2022 • PRESENTED BY:

NEVER

SOMETHING SO SIMPLE

COMPLICATED

Back in March, when Western States announced a change to its lottery system, we expected everyone to get it.

Well, everyone did get it. But, true to the granular lens runners use to look at our lottery, there were still lots of questions.

Per our new criteria: “Runners will no longer need to have consecutive qualifiers to keep their ticket count in the lottery. Each runner will keep his/her ticket count active after failing to get drawn in the annual lottery. The next time he/she qualifies and applies, regardless of when

that is, their ticket count will double per the WSER 2^(n-1) formula.”

Say your name is Jim and you live in Flagstaff. You previously qualified four consecutive years and did not get drawn in the most recent lottery. You had eight tickets in that lottery. The next time you qualify and apply to the WS lottery – regardless of whether that is the next year, 2025, or 2032 – your ticket count will be 16. See all the changes, including pregnancy deferrals, at: wser.org/lottery-changes

Race Director: Craig Thornley, RD@WSER.org

Joe McCladdie

...COULD BE SO

WE

THOUGHT

Improve Your Next Performance

BY IAN SHARMAN

One of the most enjoyable aspects in any pursuit is the satisfaction from learning and improving. This is a core part of ultrarunning, but it’s not easy – just think of friends who’ve had a repetitive issue ruin race after race. Helping runners with these problems is also a large part of my job as a coach, and I constantly think about this for my own running as well. Therefore, here’s a case study of the process I went through for my sixth Leadville Trail 100 this past summer.

The first step includes working out strengths and weaknesses from recent races. In my case, I’ve generally never had problems with the first two-thirds of an ultra, and my past few 100-milers have been paced well with a good level of fitness. For hot races, heat training was effective, and for events at high elevation, my altitude adaptation was nearly ideal. The main area that held me back was having issues with my stomach and not being able to consume calories. Part of that was a silly mistake in the 2019 Western States 100, using expired food that had been discontinued (should have been obvious in hindsight, but it was only a few months past the expiration date). Part of it was due to relying too much on sugary food because I had’t had significant stomach problems before, and I was taking it for granted that all would be fine no matter what I did.

Deciding on the right focus for training is the next step, by planning out the months pre-race to get the most bang for my buck. Given most things had gone well, there was no need to adjust much. Leadville has a combination of hiking at altitude and a lot of flat running, so I focused on getting into Oregon’s Cascade mountains a few times each week, including some marathon-style training,

and planning to have at least two weeks at high altitude before my race. I didn’t increase mileage compared to previous years, but aimed to feel good enough to do hard sessions well.

in splits was mainly in the last 25 miles. So, the aim on race day was to concentrate on a good process until then and not worry about the splits at all, then switch to using the poten-

I then looked at race-specific nuances from one year to the next, especially course changes. For the 2021 Leadville, pacers were allowed at mile 62 instead of being allowed over the big climb from mile 50 as in previous years. That meant planning for having the right food at the 50-mile aid station and enough calories to do a long gap between aid stations.

Closing out the race is the final key element to examine. In my previous races, this mainly came down to staying motivated and keeping everything on track to still be able to move well and not fade. Partly, that’s down to pacing and not panicking early on, and partly to having really good reasons why I’d care enough to push hard.

Overall, the race went relatively well (first masters and only 10 minutes slower than last time), but a couple of minor issues cost me almost an hour. Now it’s time to look at what needs to be improved. Nutrition was still a problem but this time I had the right mix of foods, however, I just didn’t have enough access to one type of fuel that kept going down well. Should be an easy fix for the next race, but it was still a costly mistake.

I also tried out different food options, including different gel brands, baby food packets and stroopwafels, which all went down well.

Looking at previous race splits, I saw that these were almost identical through the first 50 miles in all five of my prior Leadville runs, so I knew that the main target would be to get past the half-way point without having to push hard in order to have a sustainable race. Gaining a few minutes wouldn’t be worth it if it pushed the effort up even a little too high, and the variation

tial outcome (time and place) as a motivator only near the end. The next area to scrutinize is where time was lost or previously wasted. Aid station visits were fast with no more than about two minutes spent at each. I wanted to replicate that and discussed it with my crew and pacers. Time was lost in the previous Leadville race at mile 80 when I vomited, so that meant making sure I’d be especially dialed in for the quantity and variation of food from mile 50-80 to keep things sustainable. Luckily, there wasn’t much else to alter.

Hopefully you can get more out of your next event by using the steps above to analyze where you can improve. Plus, it should also reduce the length and amount of suffering –unless you like that kind of thing.

IAN SHARMAN is the head coach at Sharman Ultra and a podcast host. He has over 50 wins from 200 marathons and ultras, including four Leadville Trail 100 wins and nine consecutive top 10s at Western States 100.

ANDREW PIELAGE T

An Interview with Bruce Fordyce

BY ELLIE GREENWOOD

The word “legend” is often overused, but in the world of ultra-distance running, the 65-year-old South African Bruce Fordyce is truly a legend. He is the nine-time winner of the 89k Comrades Marathon, three-time winner of the London to Brighton road race, former 50-mile world record

your training evolve to help secure your first win?

In my earliest Comrades years (1977-78), the race was fairly low on the list of my priorities, holding less importance than partying at university, studying and pursuing some roles in student politics. In 1979, I decided to see what would happen at Comrades if I tried a bit harder. I started running twice a day and included some quality sessions. The results were beyond my wildest dreams. On an incredible day, I finished third and was only five minutes behind the winner, Piet Vorster. In 1980, I repeated the training program I’d used in 1979, but I also repeated the very cautious racing tactics. The problem is that in order to win, you have to be a bit bolder. I finished second to Alan Robb and learned a valuable lesson. In 1981, I increased my training a little, worked on my speed a bit more (lowering my 10k to sub-30 minutes and my marathon to 2:18) and also got used to leading small races which helped me understand the pressures of leading. An example of my training leading up to my first win in 1981:

Monday: morning 10k, afternoon 15k

holder (4:50:51 in 1983, held for 36 years until Jim Walmsley broke it by 43 seconds in 2019). But as Bruce’s website (brucefordyce.com) states, he speaks almost as well as he runs, so it was a pleasure to ask him some questions about his running career.

You first won Comrades on your fifth attempt, having worked your way up to third and second-place finishes in the years prior. How did

Tuesday: morning 10k, afternoon 400m hill repeats

Wednesday: afternoon 20-30k

Thursday: morning 10k, afternoon track session (1k repeats)

Friday: morning 10k, afternoon 15k

Saturday: cross-country club 12k race

Sunday: morning 30-60k

During your first win you wore a black armband to protest apartheid. I read this as being, “One of the proudest moments of your life.”

Yes – it is. Regrettably, in 1981, the Comrades Marathon was incorporated into the government’s celebration of 20 years of apartheid rule. There were tank parades, airplane flybys and speeches from politicians. Given that Nelson Mandela and hundreds of other activists were imprisoned, and in some cases tortured, and that millions of South Africans lived as second-class citizens, it seemed iniquitous that our race should become part of these very inappropriate celebrations. Many runners considered withdrawing from the race but some, like myself, wanted to run, so we decided to demonstrate our displeasure by wearing black armbands. We weren’t popular. I had tomatoes and eggs thrown at me while I was running, I was booed at by sections of the crowd and my small student flat was trashed. For at least a year afterwards, some runners would mock me and shout, “Where is your armband today?” I always responded to those jeers by pointing at my heart and replying, “It’s right here, in my heart.” But I won that day and took nearly eight minutes off the course record.

Did you have any favorite competitors at Comrades?

Alan Robb was a massive hero of mine when I started running. He was the reigning champion, the first runner to break 5:30, went on to win four times and run the race 43 times. In 1980 and 1982, we had two brutal races against each other where there was no quarter asked and none given. He and I are now good friends but we are polar

opposites: I am an extrovert and Alan an introvert. Alan will never mention that he’s a Comrades champion. While he was not a literal competitor, Wally Hayward is also a hero of mine. He won five Comrades Marathons in the 1930s and 1950s, and ran Comrades in 1988 in a time of 9:45, three weeks shy of his 80th birthday. You’ve run Comrades 30 times. Do you have a favorite non-winning memory?

During my 30th run, I caught Zola Budd and the two of us ran to the finish together. It was her first run. We were given a tumultuous welcome at the finish.

Are there any particular factors that you attribute to your longevity?

I raced ultras sparingly and cautiously – perhaps only one

Fordyce crosses the finish at the 1986 Comrades Marathon, winning in 5:24:07.

COURTESY BRUCE FORDYCE

The decorated Fordyce won the Comrades Marathon nine times. COURTESY BRUCE FORDYCE

or two 50-mile to 100k races per year.

You’ve had injury issues for a few years now. Are you still running, and do you still have racing ambitions?

Yes, I’ve lost all the cartilage in my right knee. I’m not in pain however, and I hobble quite quickly. I don’t plan to run another Comrades but it will be the 100th running of the Comrades in five years time, so you never know. I was a pacer for a mate at the 1985 Western States – it was such a special experience. I would love to visit the race again just

as a spectator, pacer or a guest speaker (hint, hint).

Running technology and training knowledge has changed a lot since your winning years. Do you think this has made running easier?

The current runners are not really running much faster than we were, but there are just more runners running well. Except for Gerda Steyn – her 5:58 up-run record (2019) is just mindboggling. In 1978, Alan Robb became the first sub-5:30 Comrades runner – he ran on Coke and water and wore very thin Tiger Boston shoes. That time would still win the Comrades in a slow year.

You’re the CEO of parkrun South Africa (parkrun.co.za). For someone who’s famous for running 18 times the

distance of parkrun, why are you so passionate about these 5k events?

Parkrun is a global phenomenon and I get so excited about seeing people running free 5k events every Saturday morning. It’s great to see people exercising and volunteering but more importantly, seeing communities getting together. In South Africa, we’ve grown from one parkrun to 225 parkruns with 1.2 million registered members.

ELLIE GREENWOOD is an online coach at sharmanultra.com. She is the current Western States course record holder, two-time IAU World 100k champ and has also won the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. A Scot turned Canadian, Ellie lives and trains on the trails and tarmac of North Vancouver, BC.

Fordyce set the world’s second-fastest time of 4:50:51 at the 1984 AMJA U.S. 50-mile championships in Chicago on an out-and-back course.

COURTESY BRUCE FORDYCE

Karl Meltzer’s Training

BY JASON KOOP

One of the inherent problems of being a coach to both normal and elite athletes is that the former group always wants to copy the latter. Particularly in today’s world of Strava and publicly available training information, it’s relatively easy for an athlete to look at almost any elite athlete’s training program and want to copy and paste it into their own training. So, with a mountain of hesitancy, I took this month’s theme of “Legends of Ultrarunning” and pondered chronicling the training of a legendary athlete. But it just didn’t seem relatable for this readership. Plus, the last thing I would want to happen is someone blindly copying the style and strategy of some elite athlete based on the words that follow.

Enter Karl Meltzer, who unequivocally is the everyman’s elite athlete and someone who has found a training style that is relatable and applicable to all. Fancy and flashy he is not. I guarantee that you will not find a Whoop strap, compression boots, massage gun or any clothing item with colors other than earth tones in his humble home near Alta, Utah. I will bet my entire 401k that he’s never set foot in a cryogenic chamber, had routine bloodwork done or even entertained the idea of such advanced interventions. If you do have the opportunity to sit down and talk running with “the winningest 100-mile runner on earth,” what you will find is someone who is humble, brutally honest and found a training formula that worked for him. That combination, in conjunction with Meltzer’s longevity which encapsulates over three decades of competitive running from his 20s to 50s, equates to a lesson for everyone in this

readership young, old, experienced and new, alike.

20s

& 30s: A LITTLE RUNNING, MOST OF IT HARD

Early in Meltzer’s career, running shorter, harder

who predominately utilize an 80/20 structure where 80% of their miles are easy and 20% are hard, not the other way around. As for the structure of that intensity, it was dictated by the terrain, not the stopwatch or a heart rate monitor. “Every

athletes. “And, I could continue to progress in my 20s and 30s by simply increasing my volume by about 10 percent per year,” which puts him at a maximum of about 65 miles per week and 15,000 feet of vertical for a standard week of

workouts and races were a staple. “I did these not so much because I wanted to, but because I could, because I could recover,” he told me emphatically. “Eighty percent of my volume was pretty hard.” By all accounts, this is the polar opposite of what nearly all elite endurance athletes do today,

uphill was hard. So hard I couldn’t hold a conversation.”

To continue the contrarian thread, the volume that Meltzer was speaking of in his 20s and 30s was a meager (by today’s standards) 35-50 miles per week, which is easily half or even a third of the weekly volume seen in today’s elite

training. “That did the trick until I was about 45.”

So, this is what I take away from my conversation with Karl Meltzer that everyone can learn from. You can start simply. You don’t need copious mileage or overstructured intensity in order to see results. A simple plan, where the intensity

PAUL NELSON

comes from the terrain and the volume increases come at a rate of 10% per year can yield improvements for over a decade.

MID-40s: A CHANGE IN STRATEGY

“Until I was 45, mileage did the trick. Past that, I had to make some changes.” During Meltzer’s mid-40s and beyond, his mileage and intensity dropped, with more of a decrease in the latter. Fueled by a combination of age, physiology and a reduction in competitive pressure, Meltzer’s strategy shifted to one of opportunistic training. “Everyone has about 50,000 miles on their legs. I tried to make the most of mine.” Efficient training that is hyper-specific is the best way to describe Karl’s training during these years. “I always trained for the mountains, never on flats. Some of my training now is getting out and hiking, see how I feel, then I might run after that or just turn around and run back down.” Because he had trained so hard for so long, he could get away with less. “I knew how to race and that the race never starts until mile 70. So, I never had to be that fast. I just had to slow down the least.” On top of this was an acute realization that, although he could still be competitive, his best years were behind him. “I can’t top what I did in the past. I realized that and it helped with letting go of some of the training.”

The lesson here for the seasoned veterans reading this is that all of your training matters. It’s not just the last three months or six months, or even the last year of training that will determine how well you run ultramarathons. Provided that your training is reasonable in the short timeframe leading up to an event, you can lean on a lifetime of experience and training and be successful. You don’t have to be fast (particularly at the longer

distances), you just have to slow down the least.

“REST IS IMPORTANT.”

I know what you are thinking: everybody says this. But few people embrace this aspect of running like Meltzer has done over the course of his career. His old friend and

training program where they can improve. When I asked Meltzer what he would have done differently, even after several years of reflection, ever the contrarian, he answered simply, “I don’t know if I would have done anything differently. Sure, I made some mistakes and I learned the hard way from them. I accomplished a lot, and it’s hard to look back and say that I would have done better if I would have done more of this or less of that. I was very successful, and it’s hard to criticize that.” And I think he’s right. Above all else, Meltzer found a winning formula. One that consisted of low volume, high specificity and intuitively adapting to his needs over the years. He’s won a 100-mile race for 19 years in a row (and counting), a record that I firmly believe will never be broken. So, say what you

original training partner, Jim Hopkins, gave him these three important words in his 20s and they have stuck with him ever since. In fact, after interviewing Meltzer both on my podcast and for this article, it is clear to me that this advice permeates the entirety of his training from his overall mileage, to how he treats inju ries and even how to handle multiple 100-milers in a season (he won six 100-milers in 2006). “I get injured too, and as I’ve gotten older it’s harder to stay healthy and get over any injuries that I do get. So, I try to avoid them altogether with rest.” If you want to know if he does any preventive mainte nance, prehab or anything of the like, the answer is, “Nope, besides maybe drinking a beer.”

WHAT WOULD YOU DO DIFFERENTLY?

Elite athletes are always the reflective type. They are always looking for an edge to gain percentage here, add some mileage there and shave off a few grams from their pack for good measure. And even when they are successful, they can always find a hole in their

will about mega mileage and abundant vertical. Meltzer needed none of it. “Maybe a few less beers, that might have helped,” he jokingly concluded, proving that we all have our vices.

JASON KOOP is the head ultrarunning coach for CTS and author of Training Essentials for Ultrarunning. He coaches ultrarunners of all abilities and is the coach for many of today’s top ultramarathon athletes. He can be reached at jasonkoop@trainright. com and @jasonkoop (Twitter and Instagram).

“I knew how to race and that the race never starts until mile 70. So, I never had to be that fast. I just had to slow down the least.”

VelasquezNASM Personal Trainer

Becoming Legendary

BY MEGHAN CANFIELD

Legends exist in pretty much every facet of life, and the sport of ultrarunning is no exception. To help separate the latest and greatest visitor to the scene from the lasting heroes of our sport, here is a short list of the names that are those of legendary status. Full disclosure, this is my personal definition of a legend: an ultrarunner who, over the years, has completed, podiumed or won many races, shown good character/sportsmanship, contributed to the sport in numerous ways such as race directing, volunteering at races, coaching, mentoring, participating in panel discussions and continued to engage in the ultrarunning community well past their fastest years. Bear in mind that this is my personal list, it is nowhere near complete and it is definitely Western States biased.

GORDY AINSLEIGH

Ainsleigh was the first person to finish the Western States Trail Ride 100 on foot in 1974, thus giving birth to the Western States Endurance Run. Gordy has remained involved with the race ever since, and can often be seen giving free chiropractic adjustments to runners at local races.

and volunteers at races, and can announce finishers from the booth at Western States without a microphone.

SCOTT JUREK

Jurek had seven consecutive wins at Western States, as well as wins at Hardrock 100, Spartathlon, Badwater and many more. He has authored two books related to running and continues to be involved in the sport.

MAGDA LEWY-BOULET

Lewy-Boulet was an Olympian in the marathon and has won Western States. She has won a number of ultras, is a coach, works for GU Energy, volunteers at races and serves on the board of directors for Western States.

SCOTTY MILLS

and generous human. She has won Western States once and UTMB twice, where she now holds the course record. She has won Tahoe 200, and also has competed for Team USA at the 24-hour World Championships. I have witnessed her generosity and humility time and time again. She is a superstar, approachable and exudes positivity while racing. Fans young and old ask for selfies and her autograph, and she not only obliges, but asks each of them their names, showing a real interest in each of them. In my opinion, this woman is incredibly good for our sport and I envision her remaining involved with ultrarunning for decades.

TIM TWIETMEYER

Twietmeyer is a five-time winner of Western States and has 25 sub-24-hour finishes. He has contributed hours on the trail, volunteered at aid stations, has crewed and paced runners and serves on the Western States board of directors.

ANN TRASON

Trason was undefeated in her 14 finishes at Western States. She ran for many years, becoming a race director and a coach. She took up walking ultra-long distances late in her career.

ELLIE GREENWOOD

Greenwood has two wins at Western States and holds the course record for women. She’s been the World Champion at the road 100k, won the Comrades Marathon and holds several course records. She stays very active in the sport with coaching, writing, volunteering and mentoring.

ANDY JONES-WILKINS

AJW has 10 Western States finishes all under 20 hours, and came in second place in 2005. His passion for running ultras oozes from his pores. He coaches, mentors

Mills has 20 Western States finishes and 10 Hardrock finishes. Some of those were completed when Scotty was in his 60s. He was the race director for the San Diego 100 and has volunteered hundreds of hours for the sport.

CRAIG THORNLEY

Thornley is a race director and nine-time finisher of Western States. He has many other ultra finishes, and the amount of time and energy he puts into his race directing is likely unsurpassed. His mission in doing so is to create the best possible experience for every runner.

My top pick for an up-andcoming legend is Courtney Dauwalter. She crept into the ultrarunning scene a few years ago. No fanfare, just a lanky gal in long shorts, a baggy top and an amazing smile. And it turns out she is very fast. As Courtney’s race resume grew so did her reputation as a downto-earth, grounded, humble

Finally, there is the local legend. You all have one or more where you live, and for your new ultrarunning career, these are the folks you want to seek out for advice on where to run, where to find a coach, what the local races are and how to find the group runs. One of Auburn’s local legends is Martin Sengo. He can often be found at our local running store when he joins or leads group runs, mentors new runners, volunteers at races when he isn’t running in them, supports and encourages everyone and has become a race director himself. He is a mid-pack runner and possibly has more followers on Strava than anyone in town. Everyone knows Martin.

My ask is that on your journey into ultrarunning, stay long and become legendary. Dig in, volunteer, start a group run, invite, include and help grow our sport with kindness and generosity.

MEGHAN “THE QUEEN” CANFIELD and her farm animals live in Corvallis, OR, where she works as a virtual coach at coachmeghan.com. She’s a four-time Olympic Marathon Trials qualifier and has 10 top-10 finishes at Western States 100.

Montrail: The Original Trail Brand & Team

BY SEAN MEISSNER

This year celebrates the 25th anniversary of the first ultrarunning team in the US (and probably the world). One Sport’s origins go back to the early 80s in Europe as an off-shoot brand that specialized in boots, including mountaineering and hiking boots and shoes. In the mid-90s, they created one of the world’s first trail running specific shoes, the beloved Vitesse.

One Sport US was based in Seattle, and their original trail running team was created in 1996 and managed by their Northwest sales rep, Scott McCoubrey. The team included legends such as Dave Terry, Rob Lang, Sally Marcellus, Jim Kerby, Brandon Sybrowsky, Adam Chase, Dave Mackey and Ben Hian. Their shoe of choice: the Vitesse.

In 1997, One Sport became Montrail and really wanted to grow beyond its Northwest roots to a national level. They did this by creating a community through sponsoring races, giving away shoes as prizes and selecting athlete ambassadors.

McCoubrey packed up some Montrails and headed south to California to help with the Way Too Cool 50K and American River 50. While there, he created the Nor Cal Montrail Team, including Tim Twietmeyer, Rick Simonsen, Suzie Lister, Mo Bartley, Luanne Park and Kevin Sawchuck.

He then headed to the Vermont 100-mile where he found Ian Torrence sleeping in his car. McCoubrey offered Ian a bed, some shoes and a spot on the team. As McCoubrey traveled back and forth across the country to help at races and give away shoes, Team Montrail kept growing with the then-current “Who’s Who” of

ultrarunning: Scott Jurek, Kirk Apt, Stephanie Ehret, David Horton, Courtney Campbell, Sue Johnston, Eric Clifton, Karl Meltzer, Dusty Olson and Dink Taylor, among others.

Team Montrail athletes all became very close friends during this time of growth, and that really helped to develop a culture within the sport. It also set a precedence for other brands as they began marketing. Everyone had to have a team of runners.

It was about this time in 1998 that Patagonia launched their Endurance Line. After seeing the success that Montrail was having within the trail running world, Patagonia’s Jeannie Wall approached McCoubrey to partner with Montrail to support athletes and events. This gave both companies more to offer to their team and event marketing, and thus, Team Montrail became “Team Montrail Patagonia.”

In 1999, McCoubrey left his job at Montrail and opened Seattle Running Company. As Montrail was a Seattlebased company, and with McCoubrey’s history with Montrail, SRC quickly became the running store for all things ultra and Seattle was the ultrarunning capitol of the US. The staff included Jurek, Krissy Moehl and Hal Koerner. Ian took over McCoubrey’s job at Montrail to manage the team and marketing efforts for a couple years, and when he left, Krissy was hired to manage the team. It was under her direction that Team Montrail Patagonia really grew in size and reputation.

Columbia Sportswear purchased Montrail in 2006, and everything was moved to Columbia’s headquarters in

Beaverton, OR. This drastically changed the team and brand, as the team size was slashed from well over 100 runners to about 20. Of course, there was also an immediate conflict of interest in having Patagonia as the clothing sponsor for the team, so that partnership went away.

In 2008, Columbia (wisely) decided to put Montrail under Mountain Hardwear’s management in Richmond, CA (Mountain Hardwear is also a Columbia-owned company). This turned out to be an excellent move, as Mountain Hardwear “got it” when it came to endurance sports, much more so than Columbia. Topher Gaylord was hired as president of Mountain Hardwear / Montrail, and under his leadership, the brand once again was on the upswing.

Several different people managed Team Montrail / Mountain Hardwear over the next decade, and the team stabilized at around 20 athletes including Ellie Greenwood, Geoff Roes, Annette Bednosky, Dakota Jones, Amy Sproston, Gary Robbins, Max King and Matt Hart. It was a solid, fun team and they were winning big events, including running women’s and men’s course records at Western States, and women’s and men’s victories at the World Championship 100K. New, lightweight shoes were created in the Rogue Racer and Rogue Fly, as well as more traditional shoes such as the Bajada, Rockridge and Fairhaven, plus Montrail’s super popular Molokai and Molokini flip-flops.

After a seven-year run of being managed by Mountain Hardwear, Columbia decided to bring Montrail back to Portland to be managed and operated, rebranding their

trail running line as Columbia Montrail. In order to bring more attention to the new name, Columbia Montrail started investing in UTMB, becoming the title sponsor for the largest trail ultramarathon festival of events in the world.

After a couple of years, more big changes came for Team Montrail, namely, the size was again slashed, this time to about a half dozen athletes, and the team manager position was quite fluid for a few years.

Looking at Columbia’s website of their current Montrail line isn’t super promising for the Montrail name, as there are only two Montrailspecific trail shoes. Columbia Montrail athlete Yassine Diboun told me earlier this year that there are some new shoes coming, so I’ve been anxiously awaiting to see what’s in store.

In 2003, Krissy selected me to become a member of Team Montrail Patagonia. I was fortunate to be able to call myself a Montrailian for 16 years, riding many of the highs and lows of the company, brand and team, along the way. Being on the team changed the trajectory of my life, both professionally and personally, and the friendships I made because of that change are some of the best of my life, for which I am grateful.

Long live Montrail.

SEAN MEISSNER has been coaching runners of all ages and abilities, and distances and terrain since 2002. He is the founded of the Peterson Ridge Rumble and has over 250 ultra and marathon finishes. Sean coaches through Sharman Ultra, and works and plays, mostly with his dogs, in the mountains surrounding Fruita, CO.

Guidelines for Reading & Interpreting Sports Science Research

BY MATT LAYE

The goal of this column when I started five years ago was to take existing research in the world of ultrarunning and endurance sports and make it translatable. It’s a lot of fun and I always learn something new. However, it’s often limited to one topic per issue and perhaps sometimes, it’s not a topic that you’re interested in. This month I want to provide you, the educated reader, some tips on how to be better consumers of scientific articles and therefore, feel more comfortable seeking out the information you are most interested in. Specifically, I’ll describe different types of studies and

some things to be aware of when reading each of them.

First, where to find these articles. The gold standard is pubmed.com which compiles articles from biomedical journals, and has some nice filter options as well. So, once you are on the site and enter your favorite ultrarunning topic, how do you know what articles to read first and which have the highest level of evidence?

The best place to start in a topic is with review articles. Review articles are typically written in the most colloquial language with the least dense statistics and methods to dig through, and they themselves aren’t doing any additional

studies, but collating the existing research on a topic. Broadly, review articles come by three different names: narrative reviews, systematic reviews and meta-analysis, all of which you can filter. A narrative review is like a story told by the existing scientific literature that might wander a little and might even have an explicit point of view or hypothesis it’s seeking to explore and discuss. An example is an article on whether success in ultras is more nurture or nature (4). A systematic review (8) has strict guidelines of what articles and topics are being reviewed (no cherry-picking allowed) and often tries to synthesize it into a table or few takeaways in a consistent and yes, systematic, way which makes it less subjective, higher evidence, than a narrative review. A meta-review (7) is similar to a systematic review, but on a topic that has a sufficient number of papers on the topic that additional statistical conclusions can be made. The meta-review is probably the hardest of this group to read, but also has the highest level of evidence and provides the most certainty of any of the review approaches. Reviews are also a great place to find links or references for the articles in which the primary science was done.

Randomized control trials (RCT) are considered the gold standard of intervention research. The RTC approach to research consists of a homogenous group of people randomized to receive either a intervention/pill/supplement/ etc versus a placebo (example (3)). RCT ensure that we can attribute any of the changes in the outcomes of interest (like VO2max, race performance, body composition, injury rates, etc) to the intervention (training, supplement, prehab

work, diet, etc). However, not all randomized control trials are of high quality. Some RCT red flags are when the intervention itself is of questionable quality. For instance, using a less than effective dose of supplement that is insufficient to cause physiological changes, using a training protocol that doesn’t result in well-known training adaptations or even an intervention with low adherence such as a super strict diet or rigorous training protocol. All of these can temper our interpretations of RCTs. Moreover, sample sizes are often small in exercise trials and therefore, any results both negative and positive should be considered skeptically and always benefit from replication from another research group. Lastly, make sure that the outcome of the study is meaningful – both in what they measured and the degree to which it changed. For instance, measuring a 3k time

Randomized control trials (RCT) are considered the gold standard of intervention research. The RTC approach to research consists of a homogenous group of people randomized to receive either a intervention/pill/ supplement/etc versus a placebo.

HIERARCHY OF RESEARCH DESIGNS & LEVELS OF SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE

Clinical Practice Guidelines

Meta-Analysis

Systematic Reviews

Randomized Controlled Trial

Prospective, tests treatment

Cohort Studies Prospective: cohort has been exposed to a risk, Observe for outcome of interest

Case Control Studies Retrospective: subjects have the outcome of interest; looking for risk factor

Case Report or Case Series

Narrative Reviews, Expert Opinions, Editorials

Animal and Laboratory Studies

SECONDARY, PREAPPRAISED, OR FILTERED STUDIES

References

OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES

PRIMARY STUDIES

NO DESIGN NOT INVOLVED W/ HUMANS

Based on ability to control for bias and to demonstrate cause and effect in humans

trial performance might not be important for ultrarunners, just like seeing a 30-second improvement in a 100-mile race is probably not that meaningful.

Learn to differentiate the types of non-randomized controlled trials. Longitudinal studies are not RCT, but describing people in detail and then following them for a long period of time does provide valuable insights. Longitudinal studies can group people based on different diets, training approaches, ages, fitness levels or anything and follow to see what happens over a period of time, whether that be years or simply the time it takes to run a race (6). Retrospective studies are where researchers look backward and try to see what might explain a current observation (being on the podium versus back-of-the-pack), and cross-sectional studies look for differences that might explain a certain trait at a single time point, such as seeing whether current strength is related to the likelihood of being injured or whether current diet is associated with a specific

body composition. Both retrospective and cross-sectional approaches are more prone to bias and spurious correlation, but provide important research insights and serve to support existing RCTs as a foundation to base further research. As a connoisseur of research with some work, you’ll be able to differentiate longitudinal, retrospective and crosssectional studies and recognize the strengths and limitations of each.

Other studies are interesting but are less generalizable to you, me or really, anyone else. For instance, animal studies include the collection of tissue and measurements that allow researchers to causally identify molecular or physiological mechanisms. But making a mouse faster or stronger seldom translates to human physiology. Similarly, a case study about one individual can be very insightful (1), but additional testing in more people is necessary given the large individual variability for most physiological traits and responses.

With that, I hope you feel empowered to explore the scientific literature on your own. As with anything, the more time you spend at it the better you will become at sleuthing out and differentiating good from poor studies. Next month, I hope to discuss how to identify misleading statistics and why significant might not mean what you think it does.

MATTHEW LAYE is an Assistant Professor in Health and Human Performance at The College of Idaho. When he is not teaching he is coaching athletes for Sharman Ultra, plotting the next experiment or running. You can follow him on Twitter @mjlaye.

1. Grosicki GJ, Durk RP, Bagley JR . Rapid gut microbiome changes in a worldclass ultramarathon runner. Physiol Rep 7: e14313, 2019.

2. Johnson SL , Stone WJ, Bunn JA , Lyons TS, Navalta JW. New Author Guidelines in Statistical Reporting: Embracing an Era Beyond p < .05. [Online]. Int J Exerc Sci 13: 1–5, 2020. /pmc/articles/ PMC7523905/ [1 Sep. 2021].

3. Kasprowicz K , Ratkowski W, Wołyniec W, Kaczmarczyk M, Witek K , Żmijewski P, Renke M, Jastrzębski Z , Rosemann T, Nikolaidis PT, Knechtle B. The Effect of Vitamin D3 Supplementation on Hepcidin, Iron, and IL-6 Responses after a 100 km Ultra-Marathon. Int J Environ Res Public Health 17, 2020.

4. Knechtle B. Ultramarathon runners: nature or nurture? Int J Sports Physiol Perform 7: 310–2, 2012.

5. Monaghan TF, Rahman SN, Agudelo CW, Wein AJ, Lazar JM, Everaert K , Dmochowski RR . Foundational Statistical Principles in Medical Research: A Tutorial on Odds Ratios, Relative Risk, Absolute Risk, and Number Needed to Treat. Int J Environ Res Public Health 18, 2021.

6. Nguyen H-T, Grenier T, Leporq B, Le Goff C , Gilles B, Grange S, Grange R , Millet GP, Beuf O, Croisille P, Viallon M. Quantitative Magnetic Resonance Imaging Assessment of the Quadriceps Changes during an Extreme Mountain Ultramarathon. Med Sci Sports Exerc 53: 869–881, 2021.

7. Rubio-Arias JÁ , Andreu L , MartínezAranda LM, Martínez-Rodríguez A , Manonelles P, Ramos-Campo DJ. Effects of medium- and long-distance running on cardiac damage markers in amateur runners: a systematic review, meta-analysis, and metaregression. J Sport Heal Sci 10: 192–200, 2021.

8. de Waal SJ, Gomez-Ezeiza J, Venter RE , Lamberts RP. Physiological Indicators of Trail Running Performance: A Systematic Review. Int J Sports Physiol Perform 16: 325–332, 2021.

Where is Your Mind?

BY PETE KOSTELNICK

Both of the times I ran across the US, I got asked a lot of the typical questions. “How much do you eat?” and “How many pairs of shoes have you gone through?” These are questions you might expect. These are all straightforward questions that get answered with very measurable and honest answers. However, I’ve found in my own investigation that the most fascinating and perhaps personal question you can ask an ultrarunner is, “So, what do you think about during all those hours of running?” This question is difficult to answer in under 30 seconds, because I honestly think of everything to a degree. What fascinates me about this question is not so much the what, but the how. How do you think while running?

The way I like to rationalize it, taking part in an endurance sport provides you the ability to truly run free with your thoughts. We might stop for a few minutes here or there during the day as we look away from a computer, TV, phone or the person we’re talking with to let our mind wander. But it’s usually not for very long. I’m mostly serious when I say half of the reason I run ultramarathons is to get away from my phone. I’ve noticed while I’m out running that my state of mind falls across three different spectrums: positive vs. negative, present vs. elsewhere and logical vs. emotional. Just like training my heart in different zones, I’ve found it useful to train my mind across these dimensions.

Hopefully most of our runs are in a positive state of mind. However, it’s inevitable that thoughts can shift to negative, whether it’s something you’re dealing with in the “real world” or struggling to get from point A to point B in an expected time. Certainly, during a race

your mind will trend negative if you’re asking your body to deliver as much as it can, so it makes sense to participate in a little negativity in training as well. I usually don’t have a problem finding training runs that go sour and turn negative, but a very positive friend of mine likes to put a rock in his shoe to enhance the negative feelings while training. I think there is some merit in purposely forcing yourself past the edge of your comfort zone in some way without necessarily going physically overboard. There are often things that happen on race day outside of our control that can be spun negatively, so being prepared to run on negative can be a positive.

When it comes to being present vs. elsewhere during a run, I’m usually elsewhere. I’ve been blamed for not saying hi to friends and not being aware of my surroundings while running on many occasions. It’s not on purpose, it just means my mind has completely

wandered off. I’ve noticed that “being elsewhere” during a run can be productive on multiple levels, and I find that during a race I can deal with fatigue better when I’m not thinking about each step hitting the ground. I also rarely dread knocking out long, boring runs when the track or treadmill come calling, because I know I can mentally leave these venues behind.

Humans are emotional creatures and unfortunately, emotions use up essential energy and cause us to make bad decisions (i.e., run too fast) in ultrarunning. On the other hand, almost any reason to run a marathon leans toward emotion over logic, creating a catch 22. I’ve found one thing in common in most great ultrarunners, and that’s their ability to remain logical while running, regardless of the situation. Whether they haven’t slept in over a day or just threw up what they ate, they save all their emotional ammo for when they really need it—the home stretch or when they need to convince themselves that their race isn’t over just yet.

If you’ve struggled like me to pinpoint why a certain run or race went better or worse than expected, the missing piece may very well be what your mental state was, what kind of thoughts were running through your head and how you arrived at those mental destinations. For example, I’ve always struggled with what my high school tennis coach called tanking, so I try to always be aware of my tendency to exaggerate negative states of mind when things aren’t going well to salvage a race from disaster. I can be disappointed at the end result, but I try to save negative thoughts for post-race and remain focused on the “mission.” I also notice that since I started wearing a

GPS watch five years ago, I can gravitate toward becoming too present in my surroundings simply by looking at my watch too often. Therefore, one thing I’ve worked on is using my watch as occasional confirmation instead of allowing it to become the metronome. I’ve found better outcomes when letting my mind go with my instincts dictating the pace.

Music plays a big part in almost everything I do. Even if it’s a terrible song stuck in my head, which it almost always is, having a natural rhythm running through my mind that is in sync with the effort level which feels right is the best way I’ve found to dial in a sustainable mental calm during races. When it comes to actually listening to music, I usually find myself spending too much emotional energy for it to become sustainable for more than a few songs in both training and racing. On the other hand, listening to comedy podcasts while training keeps things unemotional and positive.

There are a lot of tricks to training your mind and in our world today, it’s never been more important to use them to your advantage. With negative and emotional distractions everywhere, it’s easy to let your mental game become shattered and fragmented by outside forces. Recognizing which mental states you run best in and how to navigate those can be a game changing superpower.

PETE KOSTELNICK is a numbers guy from northeast Ohio who finds balance as a HOKA ONE ONE and Squirrel’s Nut Butter athlete, specializing in races of over 100 miles and occasionally finding time to cross continents on foot. He is also a coach with the Chaski Endurance Collective.

I’ve noticed while I’m out running that my state of mind falls across three different spectrums: positive versus negative, present versus elsewhere, and logical versus emotional. Just like training my heart in different zones, I’ve found it useful to train my mind across these dimensions.

The Number 100

BY GARY DUDNEY

I love the idea of doing a 100-mile race on the anniversary of 9/11. It will give me a chance to do something special and positive on that day, and it will also give me a wonderful backdrop for reflecting on these last 20 years of my life, which I consider, in my case, something of a special gift. In the fall of 2001, I was accompanying my son to his first year of college on the East Coast and the initial plan was for me to drop him off and then fly home on United flight 93 from Newark, New Jersey, to San Francisco, California. The date of that flight was to be Tuesday, 9/11/01.

The plan changed, however, when my son was offered a chance to come out a week early, meet a group of new classmates and do some outdoor activities with them. Consequently, we traveled a week earlier, and I returned home without incident on Flight 93 on Tuesday, 9/4/01. Exactly one week later I stood in front of a television and learned that Flight 93 had crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania, after the passengers on board had tried to overcome the four hijackers who had taken control of the plane. Thus was born my conviction that these last 20 years have been a gift.

Part of what I did with that gift was to run a lot of 100-mile races. The Virgil Crest 100 will be the 86th time I’ve started a 100-mile race. If I stay on schedule, my 100th start will fall about mid-year in 2023. It will be a big deal for me facing up to that challenge yet again for the 100th time knowing full well what hell often ensues. I didn’t set out to run a hundred 100s. It just happened in the course of finding so much joy and satisfaction in running that distance over and over again. I’ve compounded the joy and

adventure by also setting out to run a 100-mile race in every state. Thus, I’ve traveled widely and sampled a

known, but exceptionally well-managed and enjoyable races. Of the 85 I’ve done, I’ve run 65 different races. Not intentionally having the goal of running one hundred 100s is a common theme among the 19 runners who have officially finished a hundred 100-mile races. (Davy Crockett has documented the phenomena of running a hundred 100s in an article and podcast that can be found on his website ultrarunninghistory.com.) Many of these runners described just piling up 100-mile finishes until one day, realizing they were close, they decided to make 100 finishes a goal. That’s my story as well, but I should note that I’m well shy of joining this elite group. I’ll hit 100 starts in 2023 but only official finishes count under Crockett’s criteria. DNFs don’t count, self-supported non-organized runs don’t count, completing the 100 miles and even being awarded a belt buckle doesn’t count if you didn’t make the final time cutoff, and of course

incomplete races caused by cancellations or some other circumstances beyond your control don’t count. I was once pulled from a race for missing a cutoff only later to find out that a mistake had been made and I’d reached that aid station under what should have been the cutoff.

My enthusiasm for this quest hasn’t waned one bit as time passes. I’d happily chase after 100 finishes even if I were only halfway there, but the fact is, I’m no longer a spring chicken. I’ll turn 69 soon. How long will it be before running 100 miles is beyond me? It is hard to say. But even this race between advancing age and knocking down those last 100-mile finishes is intriguing. If the outcome were certain, the struggle to get there would not be nearly as interesting. Like with so many things, it is the possibility of failure that imbues this goal with so much excitement and will give it so much meaning if I were to win through against the odds and achieve it.

Something else that I’ve done since ducking that bullet on 9/11 was to get serious about writing. I’d dabbled at

writing all my life but I made a conscious effort to use my 20-year gift to really get focused and write more about running. Two books resulted, The Tao of Running and The Mindful Runner, as well as a very long stint writing as a columnist for UltraRunning Magazine. In fact, wouldn’t you know it, the column you’re reading right now is rather auspicious; it’s column number 100.

GARY DUDNEY has been writing about ultrarunning for nearly 30 years. He’s finished close to 200 ultras, including over sixty 100-milers, but still finds every race a fresh and thrilling experience. He has written two books, The Tao of Running and The Mindful Runner.

The Silent Pandemic of Unhealthy Air

BY TRACY BETH HOEG MD, PHD

The West Coast saw another bad fire season in 2021, and we can only expect this to increase in the future. Summer wildfire frequency in the United States has escalated 18-fold between 1972 and 2018, with a five-fold annual increase in area burned (Chen, 2021). We know that poor air quality has negative health impacts, but we also know that lack of exercise is detrimental for our bodies. What many athletes are not discussing is this: at what point does lack of exercise become worse than exercising in bad air? Not getting out to exercise one day is no big deal, but what about a majority of the summer? Practicing medicine in Northern California, I have seen one patient after another who has explained that they stopped getting in their hikes/ run/rides because of so many days with poor air quality, and then just never started again. For these patients, I wonder, “Would it not have been better for them to actually just get out on some of the questionable air quality days rather than finding themselves in a place where they have gained weight/become depressed and are entirely out of the habit of getting exercise?” This issue has also grown even more in magnitude during the last two years with many fitness centers either being closed or people avoiding them due to concerns about COVID-19.

A recent study (Guo, 2020) provided some insight. In Taiwan, both high levels of particulate matter exposure and no physical activity were associated with decreased lung function. However, those who exercised the most saw the smallest decrease in lung function among all of those exposed daily to high levels of air pollutant. It’s important to note

FIGURE 1.

that this was mostly outdoor exercise as <10% of Taiwanese report exercising indoors (DOPEME, 2017). But still, the combination of good air and high/vigorous exercise was the best at least in terms of FVC (forced vital capacity) or the amount of air a person can exhale.

The moral of the story is exercise and good air is the best, but in settings of continuous bad air, the people who got out and exercised saw the lowest decreases in lung function.

While the study above addressed lungs, another research group in Taiwan found that regular physical exercise also attenuated inflammatory markers independent of levels of air pollution (Zhang, 2018). These studies together still don’t give an overall picture of health benefits vs. risks of bad air and lack of exercise, but give one reason to pause about imposing too long of a stretch of being sedentary due to bad air.

Another epidemiological analysis from Holland (Hartog, 2010) found that the benefits of regular cycling outdoors greatly outweighed the risks of increased exposure to air pollutants. A Danish study found that the associated beneficial effects of exercise were not attenuated by high levels of exposure to N02 (Andersen, 2015). What we don’t have is study of regular exercise indoors vs. outdoors in settings of high levels of air pollutants, though there is little doubt that cleaner air is better.

Increased risks of heart attack or arrythmia while running or exercising has been a theorized concern, but no studies have definitively demonstrated this (Giorgini, 2016). However, one study

showed that some people with heart disease developed EKG changes while exercising in poor air. Furthermore, the risk these so-called “ST- segment changes” on an EKG decreased if the subject was wearing a mask exercising in the bad air (Giorgini, 2016). One review article in Nature recommends surgical masks over cloth masks in smoky or polluted conditions given cloth masks may actually concentrate particulate matter and increase exposure (Holm, 2021).

There is some consensus (Reynolds, 2020) that exercise in the Orange (or an AQI of <150 ) is acceptable enough for the benefits of outdoor exercise to outweigh the harms. In terms of collegiate sports, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA, 2021) recommends shortening outdoor exercise duration when the AQI is >150. It is not until an AQI of >300 that they recommend either moving the event indoors or canceling if that is not possible.

Some runners reading this may know they are in a sensitive group and, having spent many a day exercising in bad air around Tahoe this summer, I know first-hand that performance is impacted. I don’t think any runners doubt this. But this is also borne out in the research – that athletic performance is consistently impaired in bad air quality. (Giorgini, 2016).

Increased levels of PM 10 (inhalable particles, with diameters 10 micrometers or smaller) are correlated with slower marathon finishing times, significantly so in women, and one can see the same trend in men (though it was not found to be significant in this study) (Marr, 2010).

Figure 1. Lung function as a product of amount of exercise and amount of particulate matter in the air (4th PM 2.5 being the highest)

FIGURE 3. L

The above study did not subdivide PM 10 into even finer particles of PM2.5 and UFPs (ultra-fine particles), which are less than 2.5 and 0.1 microns, respectively. The ultra-fine particles are of greatest concern as they are so small they can be directly absorbed into organs and have been associated with increased heart disease, stroke and premature death

(Schraufnagel, 2020; IQ Air, 2021). These are unfortunately found in wildfire smoke. It would stand to reason that the more frequently one breathes, the more particles are absorbed, but this is still not known for certain. In terms of exposure to light, medium and dense amounts of smoke, exercising or not, there is a clear dose response relationship: the more

FIGURE 3. R

exposure, the more heart and lung problems one develops. This is seen most clearly in adults over age 65.

A recent review of multiple studies (Heo, 2021) described very concerning associations between suicide and PM 2.5 , PM10, NO2 , and NO2 , with weak evidence for O 3 , SO2 , and CO. Whether this is a direct effect of pollutant exposure or

AIR QUALITY INDEX

the indirect effect of less time outside/exercising/in the sun is not certain. However, this is simply one more troubling aspect of the “silent pandemic” of increasingly smoky and polluted air.

It is, however, clear (so to speak) that on days with high air quality index, certainly over 300, that it is best to cancel events and move things

Air quality is satisfactory and air pollution poses little or no risk

Air quality is acceptable. However, there may be a risk for some people, particularly those who are unusually sensitive to air pollution

Member of sensitive groups may experience health effects

The general public is less likely to be affected

Some members of the general public may experience health effects; members of sensitive groups may experience more serious health effects

Health alert: The risk of health effects is increased for everyone

Health warning of emergency condition; everyone is more likely to be affected

Figure 3. Levels of particulate matter (PM)10 and percentage off of marathon course records for women (left, significant correlation) and men (right, insignificant correlation)

ALL-CAUSED CARDIOVASCULAR

ALL-CAUSED RESPIRATORY

April 2016 - Volume 36 - Issue 2 - p 84-95 doi: 10.1097/HCR.0000000000000139

Guo C, Bo Y, Chan TC, et al. Does fine particulate matter (PM2.5) affect the benefits of habitual physical activity on lung function in adults: a longitudinal cohort study. BMC Med. 2020;18(1):134. Published 2020 May 13. doi:10.1186/ s12916-020-01570-5

Department of Physical Education Ministry of Education, 2017. Report of active cities, Taiwan. http://isports. sa.gov.tw/Apps/TIS08/TIS0801M_01V1. aspx?MENU_CD=M07&;ITEM_ CD=T01&;MENU_PRG_CD=12&LEFT_ MENU_ACTIVE_ID=26

Heo S, Lee W, Bell ML. Suicide and Associations with Air Pollution and Ambient Temperature: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021;18(14):7699. Published 2021 Jul 20. doi:10.3390/ ijerph18147699

indoors. If one has easy access to a gym with a treadmill, even at 150 or above, this is probably the healthier option. But then there is the question of – will you exercise if you don’t go outside? And what are the hardto-quantify benefits of simply being outdoors? And this is where the gray area of risks vs. benefits is, especially in places with persistently bad air. Exercise in some ways seems to attenuate the negative impacts of pollution exposure, so it is important, likely both physically and mentally. But we also want to minimize exposure to the extent we reasonably can, and for each individual it will be a balance of risk and benefit.

Entirely canceling outdoor events for air quality between 100 and 150 (as I have witnessed recently in California) may result in too much canceled exercise and time outdoors to justify compared with effects of these relatively lower levels of pollutants. We have to be careful not to excessively cancel or discourage outdoor exercise (such as group runs, trail races, children’s sports practices and outdoor physical education) as the harms of doing so could quickly outweigh the benefits when there are no good indoor alternatives. This may be especially important to

consider if one lives in a place of consistently bad air. But with that aside, making national and statewide efforts to decrease risks from smoke and pollutants will have manifold health benefits for all. For those of us who enjoy running in the beautiful outdoors, this is a cause we should be willing to fight for and contribute to.

TRACY BETH HØEG, MD, PHD, practices

Sports, Spine and Regenerative Medicine in Northern California. She is affiliated with the University of California-Davis and has a passion for ultramarathon and regenerative medicine research. She is a DanishAmerican double citizen, married to Rasmus Høeg, MD, and they have four children. Tracy has run for the US Trail Ultramarathon Team and the Danish Long Distance Mountain Running Team.

References

Andersen ZJ, de Nazelle A, Mendez MA, Garcia-Aymerich J, Hertel O, Tjønneland A, Overvad K, Raaschou-Nielsen O, Nieuwenhuijsen MJ. A study of the combined effects of physical activity and air pollution on mortality in elderly urban residents: the Danish Diet, Cancer, and Health Cohort. Environ Health Perspect. 2015 Jun;123(6):557-63

Chen H, et al. (2021). Cardiovascular health impacts of wildfire smoke exposure. Particle and Fibre Toxicology. DOI: 10.1186/s12989-020-00394-8

Giorgini, Paolo MD; Rubenfire, Melvyn MD; Bard, Robert L. MS; Jackson, Elizabeth A. MD; Ferri, Claudio MD; Brook, Robert D. MD Air Pollution and Exercise, Journal of Cardiopulmonary Rehabilitation and Prevention: March/

Holm, S.M., Miller, M.D. & Balmes, J.R. Health effects of wildfire smoke in children and public health tools: a narrative review. J Expo Sci Environ Epidemiol 31, 1–20 (2021).

IQ Air. 10 Most harmful pollutants you’re breathing every day. March 11 2021. https://www.iqair.com/us/blog/ health-and-wellness/10-most-harmfulair-pollutants.

Johan de Hartog J, Boogaard H, Nijland H, Hoek G. Do the health benefits of cycling outweigh the risks?. Environ Health Perspect. 2010;118(8):1109-1116. doi:10.1289/ehp.0901747

Marr LC, Ely MR. Effect of air pollution on marathon running performance. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2010 Mar;42(3):585-91. NCAA. Air Quality. https://www.ncaa. org/sport-science-institute/air-quality Accessed 9/26/2021.

Reynolds G. Is it safe to exercise if the air is hazy with wildfire smoke? New York Times. 9/23/2020. https://www.nytimes. com/2020/09/23/well/move/is-it-safeto-exercise-if-the-air-is-hazy-with-wildfire-smoke.html

Schraufnagel, D.E. The health effects of ultrafine particles. Exp Mol Med 52, 311–317 (2020).

Zhang Z, Hoek G, Chang LY, Chan TC, Guo C, Chuang YC, Chan J, Lin C, Jiang WK, Guo Y, Vermeulen R, Yeoh EK, Tam T, Lau AKH, Griffiths S, Lao XQ. Particulate matter air pollution, physical activity and systemic inflammation in Taiwanese adults. Int J Hyg Environ Health. 2018 Jan;221(1):41-47. doi: 10.1016/j.ijheh.2017.10.001. Epub 2017 Oct 7. PMID: 29030094.

Closing a Race

BY GARY CANTRELL

One of the most underrated aspects of an athlete’s performance is closing. Whether the sport is golf or ultrarunning, all the training in the world, the best pacing, the best nutrition—none of that matters if the athlete does not have the ability to close.

While we may not think of it in those terms, we all recognize the difference between someone who can close out a competition and someone who cannot. We have all seen the athletes or teams who never lose a lead or habitually come from behind at the end. Likewise, we can immediately recall those who are known for losing at the very end. Ah, the failure to close. We all recognize that attribute. It even has its own uncomplimentary name: choke.

Failure to close, however, is not a result of some personal weakness or moral turpitude. Closing is just like every other part of our athletic performance, something that we can prepare for and develop.

Closing is not a frantic 50-yard sprint at the end of the race. Somehow those always leave me with the suspicion that too much was left on the field during the dark period about three-quarters of the way through an ultra, when the discomfort is at its greatest and the finish seems all too remote. Closing is pushing through the dark period and then continuing the drive to the finish, extracting every last drop from the race.

A strong close is not a tool in your toolkit that is only pulled out when needed. Closing out a race has to become a part of who you are as a runner. It might not be noticeable until the day you erase a huge deficit, or get that last extra lap just before time expires. But, to close when it counts, closing needs to be an

integral part of who you are as a runner.

Every race is an opportunity to mold yourself as an athlete. Every race does mold you as an athlete, whether you recognize it or not. Our mind plays insidious little tricks on us. It wants to reduce the discomfort — one of our mind’s cleverest

“could have” gotten one more lap, but I would have had to really hurt to make the cutoff. So I stopped with time on the clock. I finished the third loop of the Barkley with time on the clock, but if I went back out it “could have” been a long, miserable night and I would probably have been timed out anyway.

down to the very last second? Of course you will. That is who you are and that is what you do. You will calculate the best possible outcome and go for it.

tricks is “could have.” “Could have” is the enemy of your development. I “could have” broken 6 hours, but it would have been really close and no one was going to catch me anyway. So I ran in easy. I

Maybe you would have run a 6:01 instead. Maybe you would have missed the cutoff by a minute and ran a lap that didn’t count. Maybe you would have been timed out and had to drop during the fourth loop. But more importantly, by continuing you would be developing the habit of running the race to the end. The decision is being removed. After a while, the question is never asked. Do I try to break 6? Do I go after one more lap? Do I run

That is how an athlete should play the game. Any game. Whether we are a lifelong runner or came to it later in life, there is a finite time for improvement. When you look back on your career, the highlights should not be “could haves,” they should be “I dids.”

Every race is an opportunity to mold yourself as an athlete.

GARY CANTRELL has spent over 50 years as a runner, race director and writer, and is currently the race director for the Barkley Marathons and Big’s Backyard Ultra.

GEAR FOR YOUR RUN COMMUTE

BY DONALD BURAGLIO

Run commuting is one of those things that everyone says they would like to do, but relatively few of us actually do it. However, the advantages are enormous. It’s a consistent and relatively easy way to build base mileage into your training, allows you to get comfortable running with a full pack and minimizes your carbon footprint while saving gas money. An added bonus in the post-pandemic environment is that it allows you to avoid crowded public transportation vehicles.

The obstacles to run commuting can be equally daunting and typically revolve around logistics and gear. Particularly in the winter months when daylight hours are short and weather conditions can be nasty, it’s important to have the right equipment and a good plan in place. We’ve provided a rundown of recommended gear, as well as some practical considerations to make the whole process easier.

NATHAN STREAK REFLECTIVE VEST ($30)

Safety should always be a primary concern when run commuting, and the Streak vest is a very affordable item to ensure that you are seen by cars after dark. At less than two ounces, you’ll barely notice it on your body, and the minimalist vest design won’t interfere with your arm swing. Reflective elements on the Streak are detectable from up to 1,200 feet away, and are positioned on all sides of the body. We generally wear this vest underneath a fastpack in the rear, but if you wear the straps loosely and your pack is thin, it’s possible to stretch the Streak on top of your pack. nathansports.com

is about the size of a lipstick tube, with a similarly functioning twist-top mechanism to prevent accidental discharge. Its minimal size slides easily into a small pocket, and it also has a snap clip for attaching to a key chain if you prefer. The small size doesn’t detract from its effectiveness, as the container provides 16 bursts that can spray up to 12 feet away. The chemical compound also contains UV marking dye for future identification of an attacker. Buy this for the cheap peace of mind it provides, and hope you’ll never have to use it. sabrered.com

IBEX WOOLIES TECH LONG SLEEVE CREW ($105)

make this shirt easy to layer under a pair of gloves if necessary. Woolies Tech shirts come in six solid color options for both men and women, and the darker shades hide sweat moisture well if you want to keep this layer on for a while before changing clothes. ibex.com

SABRE MIGHTY DISCREET PEPPER SPRAY ($10)

Running in the dark brings increased consideration for your personal safety, and some runners like to have a reliable defense available if needed. This pepper spray container

This shirt offers the benefits of merino wool in a midweight thickness that provides strong insulation on its own, but layers under a jacket easily when needed. Fabric construction combines 81 percent merino wool that is core-spun around nylon filaments which give added durability and enhanced moisture-wicking ability. Raglan sleeves and flatlock construction allow freedom of movement without chafing, and

TRACKSMITH REGGIE HALF TIGHTS - LINED ($72)

We like tight-style shorts for insulation and comfort in inclement weather, as they provide longer coverage down the thigh, and don’t retain water during rainfall. One traditional downside of tights is the question of what to wear underneath, as most of them are unlined. Enter the Reggie Half Tights - Lined, which add a soft lightweight liner to the company’s dynamic

Inverno Italian fabric that has a brushed skin surface and a durable external surface that sheds light precipitation. This fabric blend dries quickly and has a nice stretch component for full range of motion, with a soft elastic waistband and flatlock seam construction to prevent chafing. Another advantage of tight-style shorts like the Reggie are their ability to easily slide under an outer layer when needed.

tracksmith.com

PETZL IKO CORE HEADLAMP ($ 90)

This lamp is a literal shape shifter: the unique AirFit headband can be twisted and contorted into a variety of shapes for use as a lantern or camp light, and it rests almost imperceptibly on your head when used as a traditional headlamp. The rechargeable IKO CORE weighs only 79g, but multiple LEDs give a max brightness of 500 lumens with an even distribution that projects 100m, with a burn time of 2.5 hours and IPX4 rain resistance. A posterior battery compartment balances the weight distribution from front to back, and has reflective details on the cover for improved visibility from the rear. The flexible headband can be folded flat when not in use, and the IKO CORE comes with a pouch for easy storage inside your pack, where the lamp can be locked to prevent accidental burning during the day. petzl.com

ULTIMATE DIRECTION FASTPACK 20 ($150)

Obviously one of the most important pieces of run commute gear is what you’ll be carrying everything in. The Fastpack 20 is designed for moving light on all-day or overnight adventures, but it works equally as well for an everyday run commute piece. Durable ripstop mesh construction has a great strength-to-weight ratio, keeping the overall weight quite low for packs with similar storage capacity. A large, roll-top main compartment provides plenty of storage for your work gear, and external stretch pouches easily accommodate extra layers or medium-sized items. Multiple pockets on the front straps allow easy access to your phone, wallet or keys, and they can also hold water flasks if you want fluids at your disposal. We love this pack for the way it secures the cargo against your body, and for how comfortable

LIGHT HS HOODED JACKET ($219)

If you’re dedicated to run commuting in all seasons, having a true waterproof barrier is a must. The Kento Light HS is a dependable hard shell jacket that provides full upper body coverage, including an adjustable hood, but weighs a mere 153g. The entire jacket compresses down to approximately grapefruit-size, and stashes in an included pouch for convenient storage when not in use. The torso cut is fairly roomy, making it possible to wear over the top of your pack and prevent water intrusion onto your work clothes. Although the Kento Light HS is fully waterproof, it has a small amount of

breathability and the interior surface is smooth and comfortable against bare skin. We wore this jacket in mountain 100-mile races during the summer over just a t-shirt, and it handled a wide range of temperatures efficiently. mammut.com

ARC’TERYX

VENTA MITTEN ($59)

Mittens provide much stronger insulation than gloves, but they can often be cumbersome when it comes to manual dexterity. The Venta Mitten addresses these drawbacks with a relatively slim profile, making it easy to grip objects, and sensors on the thumbs that allow use of touchscreens without exposing your fingers. Thin, breathable insulation maintains warmth, and Gore-Tex Infinium fabric on the exterior is windproof and weather resistant. Elasticized wrists stretch easily when the mittens go on and off, and hold their position well in between. arcteryx.com

HOKA ONE ONE CHALLENGER ATR 6 SHOES ($ 130)

Often the most direct route (or the most scenic one) to work doesn’t stick to paved roads, and if your run commute includes greenbelts or city parks, you want shoes that are equally comfortable on asphalt or dirt. The Challenger ATR 6 is made specifically for hybrid terrain, and stack heights of 37mm heel/30mm forefoot provide plenty of cushioning even when you’re carrying extra weight. Lightweight EVA foam has great responsiveness and keeps the spec weight of this shoe under 10oz. Comfort features abound such as moderate padding around the collar, a wide forefoot to prevent bunching, and breathable mesh that sheds moisture and dries easily. This shoe is also available in a GTX version for an additional $10. hoka.com

BUFF MERINO LIGHTWEIGHT BEANIE ($27)

Another easily compressible item for harsh conditions, this beanie is super thin and soft, and will easily tuck into a small pocket when not in use. Made from 100% eco-friendly merino wool, it provides excellent insulation to weight, is naturally odor resistant and has dynamic thermoregulation when temperatures are warmer. The Merino Lightweight Beanie has virtually no bulk when layered under a hood, but keeps your ears impressively warm when worn alone. buffusa.com

RABBIT HIGH COUNTRY FLANNEL SHIRT ($85)

“Performance” and “flannel” are two words you don’t typically hear in the same sentence, but the high country isn’t your typical shirt. The high country is an offshoot of the short sleeve plaid button-down shirt rabbit introduced this spring, and this version cranks the mountain vibes up to 11. It’s a long sleeve snap-closure plaid flannel shirt that has moisture-wicking capability from recycled polyester fabric, with a small amount of merino wool for softness. The high country is soft enough to wear without an undershirt, but it excels as an outer layer on top of a short sleeve shirt. The styling can easily pull double-duty if your work attire is on the casual side, or if you’re setting up shop at a coffeehouse for the day. runinrabbit.com

ALCALA DEODORIZING BODY WIPES ($28 FOR 30)

It’s always nice to have a shower after running to work, but in the event that one isn’t available, these individually packaged wipes are very effective at making you presentable. Each wipe is 10” x 10” and about twice as thick as a baby wipe. Alcala wipes are made

from all-natural ingredients including aloe, green tea oil and tea tree oil, with a light fragrance that works for men or women. Their cleaning power is impressive – we’ve used these wipes to remove thick mud as well as bike grease – but they don’t leave a sticky residue like standard wipes. Best of all, they are composed of viscose made from 100% bamboo, making them responsibly sourced and biodegradable. These are also great to stash in your car for quick clean-up after an ultra. alcalasandiego.com

DARN TOUGH HIKER BOOT MIDWEIGHT HIKING SOCKS ($26)

This is the workhorse of the Darn Tough lineup, with strong durability for multi-day hikes but equally suitable as a rugged winter running sock. It is a full-cushioned model for increased insulation and cushioning, with comfortable seamless construction and effective moisture-wicking away from the skin. High merino content (64%) ensures comfort in a wide range of temperatures, provides insulation when wet, and keeps the odor down with repeated uses. This sock has a boot height that sits at mid-calf, and comes in several subtle color options that can easily pass as work socks with a pair of dress shoes if needed. darntough.com

PATAGONIA WIND SHIELD PANTS ($159)

If you need increased coverage on cold days, the Wind Shield provides lightweight soft shell protection on the front panels, with moderate stretchiness and a DWR finish for weather resistance. These are combined with breathable panels on the waistband, sides and posterior lower legs to prevent excess heat buildup. Capilene Cool fabric on the interior is soft against the skin and wicks moisture efficiently. Zippered leg openings and stretch-woven gussets at the cuffs make the Wind Shield pants easy to put on or remove over your running shoes. patagonia.com

PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS FOR RUN COMMUTING

Even with a perfect gear setup, run commuting requires an advanced level of planning and logistical considerations compared to your regular weekly mileage. Here are some tips to help your transition to run commuting go more smoothly.

SCOUT A ROUTE IN ADVANCE

Your first run to the office isn’t a time to go exploring, so spend some time in advance of your maiden commute determining the best route to run. There are several digital mechanisms you can use for this process.

Google Maps has a pedestrian option that shows you the most direct route between two points on foot, inclusive of roads, trails and all public access areas. Apply your own judgement to this process though; remember that sometimes the most direct route isn’t the best for running. This is particularly true in city environments where stoplights and traffic congestion can take the joy out of your commute in a hurry. A small detour to a greenbelt or bike path that helps you avoid gridlock is definitely worth the extra mileage. Also use the satellite option on Google Maps to better identify landmarks or tricky directional changes along the way.

One of the subscription features on Strava is a routebuilder function, which uses crowd sourced data to show the most popular routes between two given points. These tend to be the easiest ways to get around town, and will often include the parks, canals and other running paths you may

not be aware of. You can also add surface preferences – if you want to maximize the amount of dirt, for example – and see the elevation profile of any particular route so you’re not surprised by any climbs along the way. Other platforms like Garmin Connect and Polar Flow have heatmap overlays that also reflect the popularity of running routes in a defined geographic area, but they don’t allow as much customization as the Strava feature.

After you’ve determined a route, do some recon running in those areas during the time of day you will be commuting. This will give you a sense of lighting conditions and foot traffic at a particular time of day, and you can also be on the lookout for potential red flags or safety concerns before you have to think about clocking in on time.

PACKING YOUR BAG

As a general rule, try to carry as little as possible. In particular, try to do without your laptop. Even lightweight laptops can become burdensome after a few miles, and traditional hard disk drives have moving parts that will become damaged with the constant jostling and bouncing that comes with running. Solid state drives are better in this regard, but you’ll still be

concerned about sweat intrusion, since the laptop usually rides right against your back.

If you have a place to store clothes or shoes at work, do that in advance and save yourself the need to carry them in your pack. This is especially effective if you’re an intermittent run commuter; on the day before you plan to run to work, bring whatever clothes or shoes you will need for the next day, and store them in a closet or locker.

When you do need to carry a full change of clothes, load your pack with heavier items on the bottom so the weight is closer to your center of gravity. We usually put our shoes on the bottom, inside a shoe bag so they don’t get dirt or grime inside the pack. On top of this goes our hygiene bag with soap, deodorant, shaving items, etc., with clothing at the top. We like to fold our shirt and pants, then set the shirt on top of the pants and fold them together like a taco to protect the shirt more than the pants. One key tip we’ve developed over the years is to invest in wrinkle-resistant work clothing, so they come out of the bag looking relatively fresh.

SHOWERING AND CHANGING

Having a shower and changing area accessible can be the biggest obstacle to consistent run commuting,

and this can vary dramatically depending on your work environment. If you’re fortunate enough to have a shower on your work premises, check with your employer to confirm the hours that it is available, and also whether there are lockers or storage options to stash clothing as described above. Be sure to inquire about the towel situation, and plan to bring one of your own if needed.

If your employer doesn’t have showers, look around the immediate surroundings for a health club or YMCA that is within walking distance of work. Often these businesses will have day-use fees you can pay on your run commute days, or if you become consistent enough with run commuting, a gym membership might be justified simply for the convenience and frequency of using the shower facilities.

The last option, if you don’t have shower facilities available, is to practice one-way run commuting. Take public transportation or get a ride to work in the morning, then run home at the end of the day. Or plan to run commute on days when you can work by yourself without worrying about being fully presentable – the body wipes in our gear section work great for this.

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Want to run the world’s oldest 100-mile ultra? We thought so. We’re awarding our sponsor entry in the 2022 Western States Endurance Run to a reader who can tell us why they want to run Western States.

Entering is easy. Just head over to UltraRunning.com to get started for a chance to run this legendary race.

The Man Who Could Run Forever

BY JARED BEASLEY

LEFT: Howie finished the Sri Chinmoy 1,000-mile, just one of the many mind-blowing distances he covered during his lifetime.

COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

BELOW: Al Howie’s passport shows details including his birthplace of Scotland.

COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

From 24-hour runs to six-day races to 1,300-milers, Howie ran on pavement in thin Ron Hill sneakers and lived on a diet of fish and chips and beer. Yet, he managed a staggering 84% winning percentage the first decade of his ultra career with zero injuries. If you’ve heard of him, you’ve wondered if he was myth or man? The truth is, he was both.

Howie’s world records in ultrarunning, just one of the many mind-blowing distances he covered during his lifetime, are thoroughly documented. Two still stand today: his 360-mile non-stop run at UVIC Stadium in 1987 and his 4,500-mile FKT across Canada from St. John’s, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia. Both runs were meticulously monitored by the University of Victoria along with hundreds of witnesses and extensively covered by journalists, often interviewing him while he was running. But those runs may not even be his most impressive. It is said record books are like phone books: a lot of numbers and no truth. For that you need context.

Sri Chinmoy was a guru from Bangladesh, singularly obsessed with records. From pogo-stick records, to weightlifting records, to walking backwards and chewing gum records; he wanted his

followers to win them all. But his core fixation was on extreme distance running. He was so meticulous in the creation of his races that he insisted on a lap counter for each runner, who worked in shifts throughout the event. He also wanted the runners that braved his races to find the edge of themselves. So, in the 1980’s he created the longest certified races in the world. First, it was 700 miles then 1,000 miles, all around a one-mile loop in Queens, New York. But both races had multiple finishers. In response, he created a monster: the 1,300. It was so difficult that the first two years it was held, no one could finish it. And it wasn’t just the distance,

which would take you from New York to Miami. It was the cutoff. The guru set it at 18 days. Frank Shorter called it “physically impossible,” and hence it was dubbed the “Impossibility Race.”

But in 1989, they let in a non-Sri Chinmoy follower, a long-haired hippie from Victoria, British Columbia. Five-footeight and a buck 45, Howie had penetrating eyes, a fiery beard and wild, blonde hair that stuck out in all directions. When the race started, he took off in a sprint, running the first marathon under three hours. “He was nuts,” Trishul Cherns says. “I thought he was going to die.” He lapped the other runners so many times it was comical. He ran 113 miles the first day and reached 573 miles the first week. And here lies one of the many perplexing aspects to Howie. Earlier in the year, he’d won a seven-day race on a nearly identical course with 511 miles. Now, his seven-day split in the 1,300 was 62 miles farther with over 700 miles to go.

Al Howie was on the lam from Interpol and living as an illegal alien in Canada when he became one of the most stupefying runners in history.

It is said record books are like phone books: a lot of numbers and no truth. For that you need context.

OPPOSITE: Al Howie poses before his run across the length of Britain (874 miles), which he completed in 11 days.

COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

Howie crushed the “impossible,” crossing the finish line in 17 days, 9 hours, becoming the first to ever do it. “He was fresh as a daisy,” says Jesse Riley, who was well behind cutoff pace. “It was unbelievable.” He wasn’t the only one astonished at what they were witnessing. Seeing a victorious Howie holding a Canadian flag and the Lion Rampant banner of Scotland high above his head, the guru, the runners, the spectators, all had the same question: Who is this man?

Al Howie was a creation, an alter ego of Arthur John Howie born in 1945 in Saltcoats, Scotland. A bookish boy, his reading glasses earned him his first nickname, “the professor.” Escaping his Victorian upbringing with smokes and motorcycles, he developed many names: Alf, Alfie, AJ, Alistair. After failing to go to university, he wandered down to England for work and met a woman. Full of excess, the marriage was rocky. While Howie pulled out of the harder drugs, his wife became hooked on heroin. Howie left on an impulse and took their four-year-old son Gabe with him. The note read: “Going on Holiday.” Interpol would follow. His life on the run had begun.

First, he and Gabe went to Amsterdam, then Greece, before settling in Turkey. It was well-known in the ‘70s that if you didn’t want to be found, Turkey was the

place. They lived in caves and communes and hippie groups along the beach in Marmaris and Oludeniz. The two were happy being in such an exotic land, but Howie would leave Gabe with friends and go on extensive treks. He often went up the Lycian Trail with a bag of grass and the dream of someday doing something great. He soon met a Canadian woman, June Corfield. Educated and caring, she convinced him to move back with her to Toronto; it was better for Gabe, she said. It was a risky move, but Howie took it. He chopped off his hair, shaved his beard, and used fake names and IDs, often

mixing his initials with German words or using his brother’s name. His paranoia was overpowering. He combatted it by smoking three packs-a-day. But it wasn’t long until Interpol found Howie working in the Toronto foundries. To make matters more complicated, his ex-wife had gotten into serious trouble with the law and had apparently lied to authorities about several aspects of the case. June stood up for

With long, wild, tangled blond hair and a mountainman beard, he’d come to the line wearing barelythere Tartan shorts. When

he spoke, his thick, Scottish brogue was often unintelligible.

LEFT: Howie with his son, Gabe. COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

ABOVE: Howie runs in 1989 at Around the Lake Run. COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

Howie and made a strong push for the father and son staying together in Canada. Surprisingly, the case was dropped, and Howie was granted full custody.

However, he and June wouldn’t last, and Howie and Gabe moved to the west coast of Canada. A new start. But paranoia had become a festering demon that would haunt him the rest of his life. He would become phobic of any kind of governmental building or official paperwork, often freezing or vomiting. Having dropped smokes cold turkey, he dealt with this turmoil by running as far as he could. He would outrun his fear. To his surprise, he found he was good at it, and it was then that he created Al Howie.

He first began to gain notice as a non-competitive journey-runner. In 1978,

he ran the length of Vancouver Island to support the United Way, over 360 miles in five days eight hours. The next spring, for UNICEF, he ran 300 miles from Port Hardy to Victoria in three days 15 hours. And in 1981, he ran 466 miles from Kelowna to Courtney as a part of the opening ceremony of the B.C. Games, the stadium rising to their feet with applause.

In his early 30s, he entered and won six of his first nine ultras. They ranged from 50 miles to 100k to 24-hour events. And he didn’t just win them, he did it with panache. For starters, he looked different than any runner there. With long, wild, tangled blond hair and a mountain-man beard, he’d come to the line wearing barely-there Tartan shorts. When he spoke, his thick, Scottish brogue was often unintelligible. While the other runners were stretching and warming up, he’d down a pint of beer in plain view of the field, then

stash away a poverty pack (four beers of a six pack) around the course. When the race started, Howie went out fast – too fast. “What’s the point of holding back?” he’d say. “You’re just going to get tired anyway.”

Perpetually broke, working seasonal jobs as a tree-planter, he became a running vagabond. He would run hundreds of miles to and from marathons and ultraraces, shipping his clothes ahead of him on buses. He refused to conform to what other runners thought he should be. When told if he wouldn’t run hundreds of miles to the start of races, he’d be an even faster runner, he didn’t care. The 2:29 marathoner lived by his own code of beer, books, weed and extreme running.

In 1983, Miller Beer sponsored him to run 1,383 miles from Winnipeg to Ottawa. The conditions were simple: he wore their logo, they supplied him with beer. “He was at a 17 beer-a-day pace,” a rep for the company said. When he got to Ottawa, he entered the Sri Chinmoy 24-hour race and won it with 121 miles. Low for him, but understandable under the conditions. This was just one of many, non-FKT, journey runs between 1978 and 1985.

The most absurd of these came in 1985, and it nearly killed him. He planned to run 15,000 miles from Prince Rupert near the Alaskan panhandle across Canada, then down to Tierra del Fuego and back. He left with a letter from Emery Barnes, a representative of parliament, to carry to the capitol of Ottawa. Barnes, a former NFL player wrote, “He [Howie] is blessed with one of the most incredibly efficient physical and mental systems I have ever known.” With no crew, Howie’s route was not direct. He ran to Prince George to stay with race director Tom Masich. Then through Jasper National Forest, he slept on the side of the road and later with friends, with strangers, with anybody. He made it 2,945 miles to Ottawa, his face covered with black fly bites and sun burn; his nose was a roasted peanut. Unthinkable

Howie had an extreme lifestyle, which included drinking beer while running.

COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

as it was bizarre, he entered the Ottawa 24-hour race. To everyone’s amazement, he won, pounding 138 miles into the 400-meter track. He left Ottawa with a letter from Prime Minister Mulroney to give to the president of Mexico. However, one day later, Howie stopped his run. He weighed 98 pounds.

In 1989, Howie finally received proper paperwork and became a permanent resident of Canada after marrying a Canadian citizen. Gabe, however, was unable to stay in the country. He was arrested on drug charges and deported back to Scotland. Howie was devastated. His response was to put absolutely everything he had into training for an FKT across Canada set for the summer of 1991. Secretly, he wanted more; he wanted to find and push the edge of himself.

He was 45 years old when he dipped his seven-ounce Brook’s Kona into the Atlantic to start across Canada from East to West. Seventy-two days and 10 hours later, a skin-and-bones Howie, sun-bronzed and wild-eyed, appeared

over Parliament Hill in Victoria, British Columbia, with 4,500 miles in his legs. He let loose in a burst and dropped his crew van and his escort of running buddies. He did the last mile in just over five minutes. His golden hair streamed behind him like a flame as he ran through the finish line, down the steps to the beach and dove into the Pacific. It was typical Howie. He didn’t think about the award ceremony and that he didn’t have a change of clothes. So, he sat there like a wet dog while sponsors and politicians gave their speeches. It was the fastest known crossing of Canada on record. And it still stands today.

A mere two weeks later, Howie returned to the Sri Chinmoy 1,300-miler. If he did it, if he finished the “impossible” again and

under these circumstances, it would be a one-two punch so absurd it would border on inhuman. Howie, who had just averaged 63 miles-a-day across the continent, put in 112 miles the first day of the race then averaged 86 miles a day the next 10. He crossed the 1,000-mile mark in the third fastest time in history and finished “the impossible” for the second time, breaking his own record by 14 hours. Even though he was two years older and had just run 4,500 miles, he was faster. In total, he’d done 5,800 miles in 103 days – that’s 221 marathons in a little over three months, a feat that doesn’t fit neatly into databases. But Howie never fit neatly into anything.

Many saw the toll on the runner. Trishul Cherns remembers seeing him vomit several times on the side of the course during the 1,300. Others saw him

get sick at the beginning. “Nerves,” they said. It would prove to be more than that: a rare form of adult-onset diabetes and an even more unusual mental condition that would later end his career and ravage his life. But, before his health declined completely, he rallied to four ultra wins in 1998 and 1999: a Sri-Chinmoy 24-hour, the Harrier Elks 50-miler, and two 72-hour races at “Across the Years.”

A few of many Howie head-scratchers: In 1987, on his honeymoon with Claudia Cole, he started on a mission to break the Guinness record for longest continual run. Four and a half days later, after circling the 400-meter track 1,422 times, he stopped. He had covered 360 miles. The run was documented by the University of Victoria (it was their track) as well as the local media. One reporter for CHEK

If he did it, if he finished the “impossible” again and under these circumstances, it would be a one-two punch so absurd it would border on inhuman.

Howie ran for four and a half days straight around University of Victoria track in Canada to break the Guinness record of longest run. He finished after 360 miles. COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

TV interviewed him mid-run, “Al Howie has now been running for three and a half days. How can you do this without sleep?” Howie responded in a matter-of-fact way, “I don’t know. I sure would like to sleep.” He broke the record to the sound of two ambulances running their sirens, cheers and claps, and an old friend screaming, “Al! Al! Al!” After running through the tape and grabbing the record, he continued on for another three hours then drank champagne. His record of 360 miles, precisely measured and recorded, has never been broken.

In 1988, he ran the length of Britain, the Land’s End to John o’ Groats run. He also did it in record time: 870 miles in 11 days. He then ran, with no record on the line, back across Britain and through France along the Hippie Trail. He then took a ferry to Sardinia where

he entered the Super Marathon Nuraghi, and came in seventh.

In 2007, Howie was awarded the Perpetual Trophy for Excellence and Sportsmanship in Duncan, British Columbia, where he had lived, and in 2014 he was inducted into the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame. A brass plaque on the Mile “0” Monument in Victoria commemorates Howie’s FKT across Canada and the $750,000 it raised for children with special needs. But largely, he is a forgotten figure of a bygone age of ultras run on pavement with no GPS, no gels, no compression socks. Just sweat, cotton and grit.

Al Howie passed away on June 21, 2016, a day full of irony; it was the 25th anniversary of the start of his epic run across Canada. Never worth more than the shoes on his feet, Howie lived a crazy, authentic, imperfect life. “I’ve always been a bit of an extremist,” he told The New York Times in 1991, “but I guess I do these things to prove to me and to the world that a human being can do these things.”

Howie poses in 1991 after running Sri Chinmoy.

COURTESY JARED BEASLEY

voice of the sport

Grand Slam of a Year

BY JOHN TRENT

Watching the finishers of that year’s Grand Slam of Ultrarunning honored during Wasatch’s awards ceremony, most looked every bit the part of people who had just successfully completed the final leg of running the country’s four oldest 100-milers in the space of a single summer.

The 2019 Grand Slammers moved slowly and with a patient inexorability as they received their Wasatch finisher’s plaques and bronzed eagles, signifying their completion of the Grand Slam. They were a group of women and men whose 400 miles of the summer had seemed to age them all prematurely – in a good way. Because of what they’d done, they seemed brimming with a rare sort of steadfast wisdom. They were, as Socrates once put it, “Wayfarers who have preceded us along a road which we too, perhaps, must someday travel.”

Katie herself wasn’t moving all that well after finishing Wasatch that day in a little less than 34 hours.

Yet, like me, Katie was transfixed by the Grand Slammers.

“I can’t believe what they’ve done,” she said.

“And I can’t believe what I’m thinking,” I added, almost reflexively.

“Me too,” my youngest daughter said, smiling.

How could normal ultrarunners be capable of such a thing? Why would they even wish to try it? And perhaps most importantly, why were both Katie and I so determined after that awards ceremony

two years ago to give it a try ourselves?

I CAN STILL REMEMBER THE TIMBRE of Burgess Harmer’s voice, which was so deep it felt God-given, like the expansive roots of an old oak tree. He was a big man, towering above six-feet tall. He wasn’t built for speed so much as he was built for persistence. When I interviewed him for a Reno Gazette-Journal story in September 1990, Burgess had just finished the Grand Slam for the first time. He would complete the Grand

dislocated his shoulder. At mile 62 at the Foresthill aid station, friends and medical volunteers taped his arm to his body so he could continue. He finished in 27:07.

Burgess’s shoulder was still throbbing a few weeks later when he finished Vermont. At Leadville, he finished despite rain in the morning and hail and snow showers in the afternoon. At Wasatch, he overcame incredibly sore feet, brought on by Wasatch’s infamous rocks, to notch his fourth finish of the summer.

Burgess, in that well-modulated voice of his, said something during the interview I have always remembered, “In life, you work to meet goals and

you have to be able to adjust when things change. And believe me, no matter how well prepared you are, things do change.”

THE SPREAD OF COVID-19 THROUGHOUT the world proved a formidable foe in planning for the Grand Slam. The year 2020 was completely lost as the world struggled with the tragedies associated with the pandemic.

OPPOSITE:

BELOW:

Slam five more times.

During the summer of 1990, Burgess demonstrated the depths you must dig in order to finish the Grand Slam. The Grand Slam was still a relatively new endeavor back then. Fred Pilon, then editor of UltraRunning Magazine, is credited in 1985 with coming up with the idea. In 1986, Tom Green became the first to finish it.

Burgess overcame nightmarish obstacles in 1990. At Western States, near mile 16, he slipped, had a violent collision with a jutting rock and

They were, as Socrates once put it, “Wayfarers who have preceded us along a road which we too, perhaps, must someday travel.”

We had made a pact, my youngest daughter and I, not long after Katie finished the Wasatch Front 100-Mile Endurance Run in September 2019.

Katie Trent smiles at the Wasatch 100 Big Mountain aid station.

JOHN TRENT

John Trent gets a hug from daughters Katie and Annie at the finish of Old Dominion 100.

COURTESY JOHN TRENT

With the advent of vaccines in the spring of 2021, the world reopened. In early June, we traveled to Old Dominion for leg one.

From the very beginning, the Old Dominion 100 Mile Cross Country Run, which was first held in 1979, felt like I was part of a reunion with relatives I never knew I had. Race founder, Pat Botts, spoke at the pre-run briefing of being a young horsewoman and meeting the legendary Wendell Robie, whose founding of the Tevis Cup horse race on the Western States Trail led to the creation of the Western States Endurance Run. Robie’s influence, she said, led to the creation of Old Dominion.

Old Dominion was unapologetically old school. Race director Ray Waldron explained that Gatorade was the electrolyte drink of choice and if folks needed maps of the course, there was a nice hardware store down the street from the start at the County Fairgrounds in Woodstock, Virginia.

Katie and I were joined by my older daughter Annie, who was also running the 100-miler. The Fort Valley, Virginia, countryside was intensely green and incredibly beautiful. Earlier in the spring I had injured my calf, forcing me to miss about three months of training. But the high spirits of my daughters proved to be the perfect balm. We ran the first 20 miles together. Then, as Katie and Annie left me, they reminded me, “Don’t worry about anything and just run!”

I felt I was in their positive presence all day. As I came through each aid station, the helpful volunteers would ask me, “Now, are you the dad?” At first, the question caught me off guard. Eventually I came to understand. Katie and Annie were having a great day, smiling and visiting with the volunteers, letting them know their dad wasn’t far behind. So, my refrain became simple, “Of course I’m the dad!” I’d happily exclaim at each aid station.

My wife, Jill, and our good family friend Lauren Watson provided us with excellent support, with Lauren pacing me through the middle of the night on the critical 12-mile section (miles 74 to 86) to Sherman Gap, where we heard the strange, buzzing siren song of Cicadas who seemed to be loving what had been a 90-degree day with 90 percent humidity.

Katie and Annie tied for third overall woman, finishing in 23:22. I finished in 27:35.

THREE WEEKS LATER WE RAN WESTERN STATES.

Although I’ve run faster at Western States, my 11 th finish was, without question, my most satisfying. It was a reminder that from my very first start at Western States in 1997 until 2021, my life has unfolded in the most surprising of ways. I have received more love from family and friends than I could have ever imagined, and I have been fortunate to meet and know many people who inspire me.

As I ran under the stars to the river crossing at mile 78, paced by our family friend Jimmy Watson, a young man

who has battled cancer and won that battle, I felt nothing but intense gratitude. Even with 101-degree temperatures, Katie ran strongly, finishing in 26:38.

Superb pacing by both Jimmy and then Lauren set me up beautifully for a final mile. The cheers of the Robie neighborhood at mile 99 and then on the track that day greeted all of us like we were heroines and heroes, mythic in our accomplishment. If there is one mile that is so excruciatingly beautiful that a runner wishes for it to never end, it was the pure

Annie and Katie run side by side at Old Dominion.

COURTESY JOHN TRENT

joy of my final mile at Western States. I finished in 29:42.

I THINK BOTH KATIE

AND I knew that Leadville and its constant 10,000 feet or more of elevation would be one of our biggest challenges on our Grand Slam journey. And it was. Katie, paced by Lauren over the final 23 miles, worked through the high-altitude fatigue of Leadville to finish in 29:15.

The compelling severity of the double crossing of 12,500foot Hope Pass from miles 38 to 62, leaves you with pangs of athletic mortality that are hard to ignore. After descending Hope Pass to the old mining town of Winfield at the mile 50 turnaround, I’d somehow

escaped the cutoff there by less than 30 seconds. It was a momentous, adrenaline-filled moment that had the Winfield

aid station volunteers wildly cheering for me.

Then reality slowly crept in as I made my way up Hope Pass a second time. In nearly a quarter century of running 100-mile races, I’ve come to understand there are moments when we are keenly aware of how long we’ve lived and how long we have left; how long and challenging the road can be when it is still ahead of us. And as I trudged up the steep trail, the Colorado night descending around me, lonely, yet crisp and lovely, I looked around me and felt not the struggle and disappointment of impending missed cutoffs, but a deep admiration for the passions

we all have during our time on this earth.

There were headlamps up ahead of me on the trail and there were headlamps behind me. As the trail stiffened steeply before us, our deeper task was to tell ourselves to keep moving; that to keep going was somehow worth it, even knowing that we are all destined to miss the cutoff at Twin Lakes. I saw my fellow runners stop, clutch their knees by the side of the trail, sway with weakness as they fought to find more oxygen, spying the jagged end of the tree line, then pushing themselves to go on. There was no real reason to keep moving. Yet we all did.

When I stumbled across the Arkansas River a few hours later, a good hour behind the Twin Lakes cutoff, I was greeted by my pacer, Jeffrey Conner, and we briefly embraced. Jeffrey’s words of how proud he was to be there with me at that moment, under the glow of a full moon, the waters of the Arkansas murmuring with patient understanding behind us, reached into my heart, like a gracious gift.

I wasn’t going to experience the finish line at Leadville. The Grand Slam, which had loftily inhabited my dreams all summer, was over.

AT WASATCH, KATIE WAS DRAGGING when we met her at the Big Mountain aid station. “I’m just a little tired right now,” she said of Wasatch’s first 30 miles, which included more than 10,000 feet of climbing. At Lambs Canyon at mile 44, she left rejuvenated with her pacer Lauren. Rain threatened most of the day and poured down for a few minutes. In their rain jackets, Katie and Lauren smiled like a couple of kindergartners who couldn’t wait to go splashing their feet in puddles on the playground.

My duty, in addition to helping Jill with crewing, was to run the final 31 miles with

I think both Katie and I knew that Leadville and its constant 10,000 feet or more of elevation would be one of our biggest challenges on our Grand Slam journey.

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Katie. A summer of running hundred milers had caught up with her when she and Lauren arrived at Brighton Ski Resort a little after 3 a.m. Her stomach had soured. She felt she needed a nap.

Gradually, Katie overcame the sleep monster and her stomach no longer broke bad. She rallied, making her way down the chute-like and impossibly steep Torture Chamber, the equally challenging rocky plunge into Pot Hollow at mile 87. There were moments she moved so quickly I was afraid I couldn’t keep up. She ran those late miles with a determined, learned focus of someone who had found her way to finish line after finish line throughout an endless summer.

Soon, after going through a gate protected by barbed wire, we were in a pasture. The pasture’s surprising greenness reminded me of the vivid countryside of Fort Valley at Old

Dominion. Grazing cows on the hillside showed utterly no concern about our presence. In about five miles, Katie would finish in 34:49, becoming the 57 th woman and the 344th person overall to ever finish the 35-year-old Grand Slam of Ultrarunning.

But it was in a green pasture in Utah, reminiscent of where we had started some 99 days earlier in Virginia, that we both realized why the Grand Slam has been so important.

“I’m really proud of everything you’ve done this summer, honey,” I said to Katie.

“I’m really proud of everything you’ve done … how you handled Leadville and how you found so much good in it,” Katie said.

There had been so much good in it, this Grand Slam summer of ours. About an hour later, as we crossed the finish line together and Katie received congratulations from Wasatch race director John Grobben, Katie became one of those Grand Slam wayfarers we had seen from two years before at the same finish line. She had come along a long road which we all, in some form or another throughout the course our lives, know we too must someday travel.

LEFT: Katie Trent and pacer, Lauren, are all smiles at the Leadville 100.

COURTESY JOHN TRENT

ABOVE: Katie and John pose with their buckles after the 2021 Western States 100 awards ceremony.

COURTESY JOHN TRENT

BY JOHN MEDINGER

LAKE SONOMA 50 / 100K

HEALDSBURG, CA // SEPT 5

4,2 * // 100K, 50 MILES

Elevation gain: 10,500 feet 50-mile, 14,000 feet 100K

The course is 86% single-track trail, 9% dirt fire roads, with the first 2.4 miles on pavement. The trail is consistently rolling with three significant climbs. Trail quality is generally good; there are very few rocks and almost no roots. However, much of the trail is seldom used so you can expect a lot of leaves and sticks on the trail as well as 12 creek crossings.

Fall weather didn’t offer a break for runners who experienced temperatures in the high 90s on race day.

LUIS ESCOBAR

after he finished second in the inaugural Lake Sonoma 100K. The race series postponement to Labor Day weekend brought out mid-summer heat, with temperatures peaking at 94 degrees for the 50-miler on Saturday and 99 degrees for the Sunday 100K.

After a COVID cancellation in 2020, the races were postponed from April 2021 to Labor Day weekend. “Rescheduling was really tricky,” race director Skip Brand said. “We had conflicts with our neighbors at the finish line who host weddings most weekends. The grape harvest brings in tons of tourists in September and October, and the local lodging was completely booked up. We knew Labor Day wasn’t ideal, but it was the best we could do.”

About half of those who were registered for the April dates decided not to run.

As if to add insult to injury, the 2020 Walbridge Fire burned a small portion of the course. A team of local runners headed by Todd Bertolone cleared 101 downed trees before the race. A 102nd tree was cleared during the race when reports came back that there was a tree down at mile 6, volunteers cut it away from the trail before the runners returned to that spot at mile 44. “It was a small tree, easily stepped over,” Brand said, “but getting all the trees off the course has become a badge of honor for us.”

The late summer date also meant that springtime’s verdant hills were no longer

green, but instead, what Californian’s euphemistically call “golden” (read: brown). The fields of wildflowers were long gone. And the dozen stream crossings were all completely dry. (The good news was your shoes didn’t get wet. The bad news: you couldn’t use the streams to douse yourself against the searing heat.) To add insult to injury, the continuing drought had the lake at its lowest level since the dam that forms it was built in 1982. But marine air earlier in the week had at least cleared out the smoke from California’s many wildfires. Saturday’s air quality was excellent, and while some haze had returned by Sunday, it was never a factor.

The new 100K course adds a dozen miles at the turnaround of the out-and-back 50-mile route. As relentlessly hilly as the 50-mile course is, the added 12 miles are even steeper and hillier (any trail named “Huff and Puff” is bound to be tough), adding another 3,500

feet of elevation, bringing the 100K total to 14,000 feet.

Saturday: Lake Sonoma 50

Two weeks before the race, Mario Mendoza was in the Seattle airport, changing planes on his way to Chamonix, France to run UTMB when his wife, Jade, called him. She was sick and so was his two-year-old son, Jair. “I was fearful it was COVID (fortunately it wasn’t), and Jade is five months pregnant. I immediately made arrangements to fly back to Bend. I was pretty bummed, but it was an easy decision for me. Family always comes first.” After he knew they would be okay, he decided to run Lake Sonoma instead. Having run 6:30 and

Runners tackled the 50-miler on Saturday, while a new 100k allowed for some to run a little longer on Sunday. UIS ESCOBAR

“Well. That was sadistic.”

Those were the first words out of Kristian Howell’s mouth

6:25 in two previous races, finishing third both times, he knew the race well. “My UTMB training went well. I felt super strong, but maybe not quite as sharp as I could have been. I was thinking I could maybe do sub-6:20 until I saw the weather forecast.”

Mendoza may have been the pre-race favorite, but some runners had other ideas. Lake Sonoma is justifiably well-known as a race where young stars emerge on the national stage. Runners like Jim Walmsley, Stephanie Howe, Kaci Lickteig and Jared Hazen raced well here at the very beginning of their careers. This year would be no exception. Preston Cates of Boulder, Colorado, running only his fourth ultra, took a two-minute lead into the first major checkpoint at mile 12. The former University of Arkansas track and cross-country runner expanded his lead to 10 minutes at the turn-around aid station. “I knew it was going to get hot, but the first half was pretty mild. I felt good and was running reserved and confident. It started getting hot and I started having some troubles around mile 34. But I knew I was about 10 minutes ahead at the half-way point, so I just kept plugging away.”

Running in second, Mendoza got to the Wulfow aid station at 33 miles, 12 minutes back. “I ran that section pretty well and lost two minutes to Preston,” he said. “At that point, honestly, I was thinking I would be second. It was definitely getting hot, but I still felt strong. At Warm Springs (mile 38), I had cut the lead to nine

ABOVE: Heat proved to be the nemesis of the weekend for both 50-mile and 100k runners.

LUIS ESCOBAR

BELOW: Mario Mendoza and Logan Williams lead the men’s pack early on in the 50-mile.

LUIS ESCOBAR

minutes. Finally, I am getting some time back. That encouraged me and I kept pressing.”

Coming into Island View, the last aid station at mile 45, Cates said he felt lightheaded and his vision was a little blurry. “I took a tumble on a downhill, and both my hamstrings were on the verge of cramping. I needed to sit for a couple of minutes and get myself together. I was focusing on getting enough nutrition in me to get to the finish.”

“I had been sitting for maybe a minute when Mario came in,” Cates said. “He was really quick, filled a bottle and was gone. He ran off with such ease, I don’t think he even wanted to give me a thought that he was hurting. It was a very strong veteran move.”

Mendoza said, “Coming into Island View, I saw Preston sitting on a bench. My first thought was ‘No way.’ My second thought was to get out of there in a flash. My competitiveness took over but it was a mistake. I should have grabbed

some more calories. It was my one bad decision of the day. A couple of miles after that, I was on the verge of bonking and trying to steel myself for one last challenge,” he continued.

“I had no idea where third and fourth were, and I’ve had some very close finishes at this race. It wasn’t until the last 100 yards that I knew I had won it.”

Behind him, Cates pulled it together and ran pretty well to the finish, finishing only five minutes back. Finishing strong in third place was another emerging star, 23-year-old Joey DeFeo of Flagstaff, Arizona. Until recently, he was a member of Northern Arizona University’s national champion cross country team. It was only his second ultra and his first 50-miler. He will definitely be a force to be reckoned with going forward.

The women’s race was equally compelling, if a little less dramatic. Keely Henninger, a biomechanics researcher at Nike and the 2018 Lake Sonoma champion, led from wire to wire, working

her way through the men’s field to finish fourth overall. “Honestly, I came into the race thinking I had a shot at sub-7,” she said. “But not today, not in this heat. It was my second crack at Stephanie’s (Howe) record. That 7:08 is really stout.”

“Leading is always a little nerve-wracking,” the Portland, Oregon, resident said. “You don’t know where anyone else is. I knew the pace I was running was extremely sustainable for me, so I had to trust that. I never heard how far back the ladies were, which was good motivation later in the race when the heat became pretty tough. The thought of being chased kept me pushing.”

“This race was definitely a test mentally and physically,” Henninger continued, “harder than or similar to a lot of longer and ‘harder’ races I have run due to the drastic increase in temperature. But I think that I mentally endured it a lot better than I have in previous races. Seeing that progress is fun!”

Behind Henninger, a good battle was shaping up for second place. Sarah Cummings of Park City, Utah, and Kristina Randrup of Seattle had been back and forth for much of the race, when Cummings pulled ahead near the halfway point.

“I was moving pretty well through about mile 34 when the heat started to get to me,” Cummings said. “I missed the turn to Island View aid station, that was the nail in my coffin. I don’t know how I did that. I was out of water and desperate for aid.”

“The last 10 miles were a blur,” the former Princeton track All-American and 2:34 marathoner continued. “My focus narrowed to staying upright and putting one foot in front of the other. I am not sure how I made it to the finish. I was more dehydrated than I have ever been in all my years of racing.”

Behind Cummings, Randrup was running third amongst the women. “Sarah passed me right before the turnaround, she was moving much faster than I was at that point,” Randrup said. “I was about 15 minutes behind her at Warm Springs (mile 38), and I never saw her. So, it was a bit confusing when I got to Island View (mile 45) and they said I was in second.”

Randrup, who grew up in the Bay Area and is the daughter of veteran ultrarunner Ramona Vogt, now lives in Seattle, where she is a manager at Whole Foods and a remote graduate student. “As an early teen, I tried to distance myself from running to be different from my parents. Eventually I gave in and ran track and cross country in high school. Growing up with my parents immersed in the ultra world provides a relatively unique perspective of ultras being normal. Having my mom regularly run 50k or 50 miles makes ultras seem commonplace and not as daunting of an endeavor to take on. Once I got myself

hooked on running, ultras just seemed normal.”

Randrup would arrive at the finish about 6 minutes after Cummings. But, by missing the turn to Island View, Cummings had cut about a half mile off the course and was given a 15-minute time penalty, placing her third. “I’m grateful it was just a time penalty and not a DQ,” Cummings said afterward.

It was a pity for the spectators on hand as well. Six minutes is just about the time it takes to run down to the aid station and back up, so the battle for second might well have ended in dramatic fashion.

Like Cates and DeFeo, Randrup and Cummings are on the verge of something special on the national stage. Randrup is only 22 and has already won two Northern California staples, the American River 50 and the Skyline 50K. Cummings is a veteran road racer, but just started running trails a year ago.

Like any race, there are a lot of stories besides who made it

onto the podium. Kim Kortz of Folsom, California, made it through the heat to the finish and remains the only runner to have finished every Lake Sonoma 50. Clare Abram of San Carlos, the winner of the very first Lake Sonoma, finished for the 10th time. And Zach Friedly of Mendocino, California, an above-the-knee amputee (see sidebar), didn’t make it to the finish – he was hardly alone, only 62 percent of the starters finished the race, by far the lowest percentage in the race’s history – but inspired all in attendance with his effort.

Sunday: Lake Sonoma 100K

The inaugural 100K took place a day after the 50-miler and, somehow, it was even hotter.

The women’s race was a carbon copy of the day before. Susan Oh, who ran her first ultra here two years ago, led the race from wire to wire. Oh, who recently moved to Bend,

Oregon, from Sonoma County, maintained a lead of 8-10 minutes through the first 50 miles – always ahead, but never comfortably so – before pulling away in the later miles. Like Henninger the day before, she moved up through the men in the second half and eventually finished fourth overall.

Maddie Hart was in the mix all day. Only 24, the Boulder, Colorado, native already has two 100-milers under her belt, including a win at Tahoe Rim Trail in 2019. A former competitive skier, she joins a litany of fast ultrarunners with a Nordic skiing background (Scott Jurek, Dusty Olson, Courtney Dauwalter, Stephanie Howe and Corrine Malcolm to name but a few).

Susan Oh said, “I was sitting at Warm Springs aid station (mile 52), mentally preparing for the last 12 miles and just getting ready to leave the comfort of a chair, when a volunteer hollered, ‘Runner coming!’” Oh continued, “I actually said out loud, ‘Please,

please, please let it be a guy.’ But of course, it was Madison, she was dogging me all day. So, I just got out of there as soon as I could.” Maddie Hart finished in second, just 30 minutes behind Oh.

“I have run this trail so many times,” Oh continued, “I think that was an advantage at the end. It was just so hot! I kept repeating to myself ‘If it sucks for me, it sucks for them.’”

Roxana Pana of Woodland, California, and Diona Fulton of Santa Barbara, California, ran solidly for third and fourth.

Kristian Howell of Santa Barbara, California, led the men’s race all morning, but was never very far in front. Early on he lost a minute or two when a skunk was sauntering on the trail ahead of him. “As far as I am concerned, when a skunk is on the trail, she owns the trail.

Zagdaa Baatar finished the 50-mile in 13:03 and 27th female.

LUIS ESCOBAR

You go at her pace and maintain a safe distance. After a couple hundred yards she went off in the bushes.” A chase pack of Ruairi Moynihan, Levi Webb and Jason Troxler bided their time not far from the lead.

At about mile 43, Moynihan caught Howell. Howell relates, “Ruairi came up on me and joked, ‘How is this heat treating you?’ I said, ‘The downhills are killing my legs,’ and he replied, ‘Yeah, I am liking the flat sections.’ Which was actually pretty funny because there are no flat sections on this course except crossing the parking lot at Lone Rock, which was like 10 steps.”

Moynihian, from Flagstaff, Arizona, slowly pulled away in the last 20 miles and won by 12 minutes. Although he has been racing for several years, he’s new to ultrarunning, running his first 50-miler just nine months ago. “Flagstaff is just a kick,” he said at the finish. “Everybody’s helpful and there’s just fast people everywhere. I mean, I’m not even the fastest guy in my household!”

(Referring to his roommate Craig Hunt, a 2:15 marathoner who owns a 6:55 100K PR).

Third place went to another newcomer, Nick Allen of Orcutt, California, whose even pacing belied his lack of experience. Allen was in eighth place as late as mile 44, and finished about as strongly as anyone. It was only his second ultra.

Afterwards, all anyone wanted to do was talk about the heat. “It was so hard!” Susan Oh neatly summarized everyone’s thoughts. “Just so, so, so very hard.”

When Jerry Flanagan crossed the finish line as the last finisher, it was a minute before midnight. A tough course on a very hot day yielded a finishing rate of only 44%.

Assuming we don’t get yet another COVID variant, next year’s race will be once again in April when it will surely be cooler, the hills greener, nothing will be on fire, and –with a bit of luck – there may even be some water in the lake!

ELEVATION & SURFACE

4, 4 So, what does that little symbol mean? The first number is the elevation profile, the second is the quality of the surface. Both are on a 1 – 5 scale, with 5 being the most difficult.

ELEVATION PROFILE

1 Flat or nearly flat

2 Rolling; total climb up to 50' per mile (2,500’ in 50 miles)

3 Hilly; total climb between 50'-150' per mile (2,500'–7,500' in 50 miles)

4 Very hilly; total climb between 150'-250' per mile (7,500'–12,500' in 50 miles)

5 Mountainous; total climb more than 250' per mile

SURFACE

1 Paved or very smooth

2 Mostly groomed trail or dirt roads

3 Trail or dirt road with some rocks, roots and/or ruts

4 Trail or dirt road with substantial rocks, roots and/or ruts

5 Ver y rough trail

Overall 50-mile winner Mario Mendoza gets assistance after crossing the finish line.

LUIS ESCOBAR

Lake Sonoma

Healdsburg, CA // September 5

4,2 * // 100K, 50 MILES

100K

1 Ruairi Moynihan, 31, AZ

2 Kristian Howell, 41, CA

3 Nick Allen, 30, CA

4 Susan Oh, 37, OR

5 Levi Webb, 39, CA

6 Jason Troxler, 46, AZ

7 Sam Hughes, 26, CA

8 Madison Hart, 24, CO

9 Roxana Pana, 44, CA

10 Diona Fulton, 41, CA

11 Jose Gonzalez, 39, CA

12 Chris Andrews, 21, CA

13 William Mosher, 55, CA

Baeza,

21 Kyle Mccall, 29, CA

22 Phillip Tran, 30, CA

23 Melissa Surman, 42, OH

24 Megan Chamoun, 41, CA

25 Jerry Dischler, 48, CA

26 David Lam, 37, CA

27 Kieran Nay, 22, CO

28 Andy Kumeda, 53, CA

29 Roman Trach, 35, CA

30 Estelle Richardson, 29, CO

31 Melissa Danehey, 37, CA

32 Felix Hopper, 55, CA

33 Ben Moore, 31, CA

34 Loes Olde Loohuis, 36, CA

35 Nicole Buurma, 39, WA

36 Jason Harm, 48, CA

37 Alexandra Harvey, 29, WA

38 Noel Velasco, 34, CA

39 Alex Dove, 37, CA

40 Gary Lindberg, 53, CA

41 Hailey Chiasson, 31, CA

Zach Friedly, an above-the-knee amputee from Mendocino, California, ran the 50-miler.

Born without a fully formed right leg, he took up running two years ago. “I was using crutches because I didn’t have the resources to get a running blade (which can cost more than $20,000 for an abovethe-knee model),” he said. “Not having a prosthesis made me crave movement.”

“I had a chance meeting with Luis Escobar at the Born to Run race,” Friedly said. “I made it through the 10-miler and was hooked on trail running.”

“I don’t have a knee to fire my quad or my hamstring. So, without that mechanism to launch myself into a stride, I rely on my hip on that side (and

gravity) to move myself forward. All of that takes a lot of energy.” Indeed, above-the-knee blade runners are estimated to use 60% more energy to move forward than an able-bodied runner.

“The heat was definitely an issue,” he said. “In addition to working hard in the heat, I was also dealing with the sun beaming down on the black carbon socket of my prosthetic. It was basically baking my residual limb. I’ve never experienced that before.”

“Running keeps me in tune with deep gratitude. I am so grateful every day that I am able to use my body to explore beautiful places and see incredible things. That’s the biggest adventure to me.”

Like many others, Friedly didn’t make it to the finish line on this hot day. But his presence and determined effort was an inspiration to everyone.

LUIS ESCOBAR

Barkley Fall Classic: The Race Time Forgot

BY LAURA PRESLEY

BARKLEY FALL CLASSIC WARTBURG, TN // SEPT 18 5,4* // 50K

Elevation gain: 13,000 feet

This course is designed for the runner seeking a challenge to their will to finish. There are plenty of hills, including some signature hills from the Barkley 100 and a significant amount of challenging trails.

celebrates reaching the top of Rat Jaw on her first climb. Despite the difficulty of the course and the conditions, runners often state that this portion of the course is their favorite part of the race.

JENNY THORSEN

Sarah McCalmant

Hurt is an understatement. I don’t know how far I’ve run, or how long I’ve been out here. I don’t know where “here” is. My hands are crammed under my hydration pack to keep the weight off my collarbones. My thighs shriek with every uphill step.

The plastic unicorn watch on my wrist hasn’t worked since the thunderstorm started. The first and only glimpse I caught marked three hours of progress. Chimney Top’s Trail is marked as 7.5 miles to the top, and the top, barring injury, is exactly where I’m headed.

This is the opening act of the Barkley Fall Classic, and I waited six years to get here.

Baby Barkley’s rules are straightforward:

- Beat the cutoff times or take the loss

- No GPS

- No sharing of the map

- Survive

There’s enough lore surrounding Baby Barkley and its race family to fill volumes, but it doesn’t matter. Until you’re in the thick of it, no description will do it justice. Its full distance is 50k; a marathon finish is awarded grudgingly. Trails are traced through places not open to the public. The map is released a day (or hours) before the event itself. It is never the same map, and I have only been issued a compass and an emergency whistle.

As it turns out, that’s fine. On the trail, the map does not

exist. In hindsight, I’m certain that sometimes hours pass between my glimpses of other humans. The forest is silent and heavy around me. I catch myself chasing footprints. Every aid station after isolation is a relief. I’m not lost.

When I see the fabled Rat Jaw, a near-vertical .8-mile climb through a thicket of saw briars, I gasp aloud.

“What is that?” the runner next to me says. We’re already fumbling gloves out of our packs.

“Welcome to Jurassic Park,” I blurt out and laugh. We are dragging ourselves up a muddy, liquid mountain of thorns. At times, the runners above us heave the cable to one side and send us lurching wildly off our feet.

I am alone, and everything hurts.

Derrick Baker (front) and Steve Malliard (background) ford Flat Fork Creek approximately 10 miles into the race. The addition of the water crossing was due to a course change after the official map had already been printed, at the request of park rangers, to provide additional safety measures for participants. JENNY THORSEN

I slather my face and arms in mud to keep the no-see-ums from biting me. Every new obstacle is as impossible as the last. My shoes are soaked. My everything is soaked. I wring filth from my gloves.

Someone says, “I don’t know why we’re still out here.”

I pass a girl weeping as she lowers herself down a boulder-packed ravine.

I watch a man complete a slide down another hill and pull glass from his palm.

We shake it off. We carry on.

The rain has wiped away any certainty beneath us. Descending, you slide on your hands and heels, desperate not to over accelerate or impact another runner. Ascending, you claw for ruts and roots and rubble in the mud, praying whatever you find holds your weight.

Sometimes, the sheer magnitude of what we’re doing makes me dizzy. The only thing that matters is moving forward.

I count my steps. One. Two. Three.

Nothing beyond the third step matters. I start again. One. Two. Three.

Somewhere in the haze, a runner says, “I’m out of my league. I’m okay with it. I’m done,” and I feel quiet, chewing relief in response – I am not yet done. I hurt, but I have not surrendered.

A second runner repeats their need to quit. A third.

I lift my feet. One. Two. Three.

On flat stretches, one runner, then another, mutters a mantra given to us in lieu of instructions: when it’s flat, you have to run.

Our staggering steps become desperate shuffles that cease when the uphill climb resumes.

The clock is ticking. The clock does not exist.

I drag myself along. I crawl. I mumble, “You too,” at each runner who gasps, “Great job,” as we pass each other.

Olivia Affuso was all smiles and said, “I laughed all day at the absurdity of it...the rain, the climbs, the mud sliding, and creek-swimming.”

JENNY

THORSEN

Ibuprofen. Salt tab. Handfuls of wet Sour Patch Kids.

Repeat.

A guy drops his cheeseburger in a puddle. He eats it.

I peel open a smashed oatmeal cream pie and scrape the plastic clean.

Across a barren, vicious climb, there’s a cheeky marker sign: Just One Mile To Go!

It’s a lie, if you had any doubts.

On a path with no room to spare, I step ever so carefully over a downed runner waiting for aid. He doesn’t blink. He doesn’t move.

I reach the prison, climb the ladder over the wall, and feel my way through the darkness of the tunnel. It will be my final bib punch for the day, ending my Baby Barkley journey somewhere after 20 miles, but before the full marathon distance. I’ve made this cutoff, but run out the clock on completing the next mile of climb.

For me, the 2021 Fall Classic is over.

I ride the Bus of Disgrace – banner and all – back to camp with maybe a dozen other runners. Spirits are high despite defeat. We deserve it, I think.

A day ago, I was driving the littles to school with my hands on the wheel at 10 and two. I was anxious about bills. I fussed about laundry. I cared about my hair.

Twenty hours ago, we were stranded at a Kentucky gas station while Mr. Presley did everything in his power to hold our car together. “You,” he said, “are not missing this race.”

Eighteen hours ago, we found our way to the starting line with the help of an absolute stranger who drove from the race site and back to get us to the starting line.

I have finished exactly one ultramarathon ever, on well-supervised, smooth, paved ground.

And this morning, I climbed a mountain. This afternoon, I defied every

rational expectation.

I sweat. I bled. I blistered. I faced every fear I’ve ever had. I threw my ego and my pride to the wind.

And while I didn’t finish, I also didn’t fail. The Baby Barkley has not broken me.

At the finish line, Mr. Presley has waited through 11 hours of suspense, watching emergency crews being dispatched, eavesdropping on walkie-talkie communications in the hopes I’m not one of the fallen. He volunteers to direct runners at a point of confusion. He sends me messages I have no way of receiving until I return.

He reminds me he’s proud of me.

When I stagger up to him, he asks if I found what I was looking for.

Two days later, I’ve still barely slept, the stairs are my nemesis, and I’ve developed a thriving case of what may or may not be poison oak.

Ask me how I feel and I’d say incredible. Humbled. Temporarily unshakeable. I miss the mountains before we cross the state line.

I feel unbelievably fragile, human and real.

In a few weeks, I’ll throw my name back into the lottery, and – Laz willing – will follow the white whale of the croix back to sea in 2022.

Baby Barkley: One Me: Zero

Like so many others before me, I’ll be awaiting my rematch with baited breath.

Paul Noble, at the top of Rat Jaw after his second climb, ran with a gallon of water strapped to his chest for 5 hours after his hydration pack broke. “If you don’t love suffering and thorns, I would not recommend,” he later said of the race.

JENNY THORSEN

Modularly organized, everything in its place.

The best gear bag to use as an Ultra Drop Bag.

The Barkley Fall Classic

Karen McNeany, wearing a garbage bag to stay warm while waiting for Matt Cabbage (middle) at the top of Rat Jaw, walks down with Matt and Chris Mitchell on their way to the Tub Springs aid station after getting their bibs punched at the top of the fire tower. Matt crewed for Karen at the Barkley Marathons this past spring when he waited at the top of Rat Jaw for eight hours to cheer her on after she got lost. Karen returned the favor by waiting to cheer him on here.

JENNY THORSEN

Joe Bodner, 42, OH 13:13:16

168 Dennis Wunderlich, 59, KY 13:14:47

169 Nick Nicholson, 58, TN 13:15:56

170 Conan Cruze, 45, TN 13:15:57

171 Heather Kralj, 43, TN 13:15:59

172 Christopher Eveland, 47, TN 13:16:21

173 Michael Owsinski, 40, MI 13:16:24

174 Jay Crosby, 47, AL 13:16:50

175 David Zylstra, 35, MI 13:17:03

176 Lourdes Gutierrez-Kellam, 53, AB 13:19:09

*See page 48 for key

Georgi a Jewel a Family Affair

BY JENNY BAKER, RD

GEORGIA JEWEL DALTON, GA // S E PT 17 3,4 // 100 MILES, 50 MILES, 35 MILES

Elevation Gain: 18,000 feet

Georgia’s longest standing 100-mile endurance race is 99% single-track and includes easy crew access and beautiful ridge line running.

Runners climb up a section of powerlines before making their way toward the Pinhoti Trail.

JOBIE WILLIAMS

It was Saturday afternoon, somewhere around 25 - 27 hours after the start of the 100-miler. The finish line was full of energy and Levi, my 8-year-old, had gone missing. Again. This time, rather than scour the parking lot looking for the little hoodlum, I turned on my microphone and with zero thoughts given, yelled, “Levi Baker, get back to this finish line now, son.” One spectator looked at me and said, “Oh, sounds serious.”

Our kids can’t remember a time when the GA Jewel race wasn’t a part of their lives. Levi was three years old and Luci was four when we took over as race directors. It’s our family mission to live an invitational life serving the running community and extending grace and love to all. They shop, organize, execute and clean with us. Sometimes it’s helpful, other times having them involved is absolutely exhausting. But, the older they get, the more convinced we are that the finish line is the perfect place for them to grow up. In fact, I believe kids who grow up at the finish line will change the world and save humanity.

During the course of a jam-packed 48 hours, our kids see a world where hard work is embraced, and they learn to be tenacious. They see that pain and discomfort aren’t meant to be feared, and they learn perseverance. Our kids see character and effort being celebrated, and they learn that talent cannot outpace the development of character. They’re witness to humans caring for one another, and they learn to serve others rather than focus on themselves. They see tears of unfettered emotion so raw and real they can’t be hidden, and they learn two of the most important values: empathy and compassion.

They ask questions that create teaching moments. “Why is she crying?” Luci, our 10-year-old, asked after a 100-miler finished. I told her

that the runner’s husband had just left her and at packet pickup on Friday, she was in tears with fear and anxiety about running the race solo. But she did it and proved to herself just how strong and capable she is. In a beautifully serendipitous moment, just a few minutes later, Luci got to see a race finish and a marriage proposal full of hope and joy. The yin and yang of life exists at the finish line.

Another runner finished and one of the kids asked why he couldn’t walk very well. We giggled while sharing that he’s 72 and worked so hard that his body was ready to quit, but he didn’t stop before getting to the finish line. And, for the first time in our six years of directing, I left the finish line to wait for my friend Melissa on Mt. Baker. As she climbed the hill surrounded by a gang of young girls (and me) and as her tears flowed, our friend’s daughter Hensley looked at me and asked if she was okay.

“In a few minutes she will be,” I replied. These are the questions we want our kids to ask. Questions that invite us to share the wisdom of a beautiful and strong world.

The finish line this year was over-run with families and kids, and we wouldn’t have it any other way. Levi played with Parker from Atlanta, and Jack, a little league baseball player, before sticking himself permanently to our friend’s daughter, Celia. He asked our friend Jobie to take their picture and has video chatted with her almost every day since. Luci and other young girls ran the swag table at packet

pickup on Friday and handed out finisher buckles on Saturday. And all weekend they danced with reckless abandon together as runners completed their long journeys. No cares what the other was wearing. No thought to race, gender or socio-economic status. Just tiny humans loving each other well and reveling in the joy that comes from such a freedom-giving space.

If the tiny microcosm of the finish line is an example of what the world could be like, then I want our kids at all of them.

This year, the Jewel was a juxtaposition of new and old, endings and beginnings. Friend and two-time Jewel finisher Meredith Ussery, visited with her newborn daughter swaddled closely to her chest while just the day before, another finisher, Matt Shinell, posted a video remembering running his last Jewel race with his father who passed away. Grant and Katie

TOP: High-fives were a must at the finish line.

ABOVE: Encouraging runners

Carmichael volunteered all weekend as their two daughters danced in the rain with our Luci.

But, when they know for a weekend that life is about serving others and not about them, they don’t ask questions. They pick up a cup, a medal, a

JOBIE WILLIAMS

from start to finish was the name of the game at the Georgia Jewel. LUCI BAKER

LUCI BAKER

cookie or whatever offering they can find, and they turn to the person next to them, and serve.

The finish line can save the future of humanity. We want our kids at that finish line to see grit and grace, successes and not yet success, pain and discomfort, and love. Oh the love that happens in that space. My kids are never more loved than on the Jewel weekend. They have a group of

The Georgia Jewel

1 Michael Powell, 30, GA

2 Marco Jovanovich, 40, GA

3 Geoffrey Crisanti, 28, NC

4 Kaleb East, 30, GA

5 Aaron Bonham, 51, GA

6 Viktor Wr, 33, GA

7 Taylor Hidalgo, 26, TN

8 Ben Torres, 24, FL

9 Matt Holloway, 33, GA

10 Cassy Campanella, 30, GA 8:34:54

11 Nicholas Kovar, 41, TN

12 David Lafon, 35, AL

13 Jared Miller, 24, AL

14 Elizabeth James, 42, GA

15 Joseph Thigpen, 48, AL

16 Chris Fox, 41, GA

17 Tara Steed, 35, OH

18 Jordan Harris, 39, GA

19 Brandon Tyson, 34, GA

20 Alex Sobrevilla, 31, FL

people who know them, care for them and invest in them. In between taking pictures, Jobie teaches Luci how to shoot and edit. He lets Levi play games on his phone. Jessie and Lauren, who have volunteered every year, teach the kids how to make change when someone buys a t-shirt. Elma, Celia’s Mom, offers to take Levi with them to an aid station and cheer on runners.

Children belong at the finish line. They belong at the aid stations. They belong running down the finish shoots. Years from now, when they’re leading companies, teaching children and working, they’ll be the kinds of humans they saw cross the finish line and our world will be a much better place because of it.

60 Jason Belford, 39, GA

61 Brian Mount, 47, AL

62 Summer Edwards, 27, FL

63 John Greene, 50, OH

64 Savannah Moore, 36, GA

65 Brenda Fischer, 48, GA

66 David Day, 55, GA

67 Dawn Bloom, 44, FL

68 Paige Paschal, 49, AL

69 Michael Staton, 41, GA

70 Gloria Llanos, 40, GA 15:57:44

*See page 48 for key

Families were out to support their runners and help at aid stations throughout the race.

LEAKY HOURGLASS ULTRA HALF WAY, MO // AUG 28

2,1* // LAST PERSON STANDING

Elevation: 250 feet per 4.167-mile lap

This is a last man standing event on a course that is a chip and sealed rural highway with rolling hills. This is a not a closed course, meaning runners should be prepared for traffic.

Cory Stipp has issues with gravity.

BY GARY SHAW, RD

I love the last person standing format. There is little-to-no margin for error. In a standard 100-mile race, you can bank time for slowing down or go through rough spells and still go sub-24. A last person standing event does not offer such luxuries. One bad pit or lap and you’re out. It’s a grueling thing to participate in and can be a heartbreaking thing to watch. You see people at their absolute best, and in their most vulnerable state. That has caused the scene to skyrocket for these events. With that being said, when I decided to host my first event, I didn’t want it to be just another cookie-cutter version of the same old thing.

That is how the Leaky Hourglass Ultra was born. I took the standard 4.167-mile loop format and instead of giving runners one hour per lap, they only get it for the first lap. After that, the cutoff decreases by one minute per lap. So, there will come a point when stamina and will are no

longer enough. You must also have speed and, hopefully, no extended stays in the porta potty.

After creating the concept, I needed a venue. I wanted a place with sufficient room for people to camp and set up a pit area. I also wanted to avoid a bunch of legal red tape with permitting issues. So, I decided to hold it at my house in Half Way, Missouri. This made it literally a front yard ultra. The course was run on a rolling, rural highway where I have logged hundreds if not thousands of miles and offers little-to-no shade, making the format more difficult. It has a trail feel with cows and wooded

ABOVE: Tom Montileone, eventual runner-up to the last person standing, runs into the setting sun. RICK MAYO | MILE 90 PHOTOGRAPHY

RIGHT: Amanda Regier regroups between laps. RICK MAYO | MILE 90 PHOTOGRAPHY

views, but the surface is solemelting, black asphalt.

I capped the race at 50 runners to ensure room for runners, crew and volunteers. This was the race’s inaugural year, so I was happy to have 26 runners register and 19 starters.

Runners began showing up at 7 p.m. Friday to pick up packets and set up camp, and the race started at 8 a.m. Saturday. A few runners showed up with intentions of running one or two laps and then quickly tapped out to relax and spectate. Others had shown up to go the distance but had their efforts thwarted by the August heat and dwindling cutoffs. Even though the event officially timed out at 12:50 a.m., volunteers and crew hung out until late, cheering on the lingering runners. The neighbor across the street came and joined us after the sun went down and asked, "Is it normal to cheer for runners?"

After 15 laps and 54ish miles, it was down to two runners. It became what I can only compare to both a physical

and mental dog fight between Tom Montileone and Robert Bruns. Montilone sprinted in to complete his second-to-last lap with only 5 seconds to turn around and head back out. It was edge-of-your-lawn-chair action. Bruns would eventually secure the win by being the only one to beat the cutoff for lap 20. At 84 miles, he was still maintaining a sub-9:50 pace.

For my first attempt at hosting an ultra, there were thankfully no hiccups—unless you count a neighbor at the turnaround who had her husband and two young kids wait in the car while she asked who was responsible for putting the race sign near her mailbox. After 10 minutes of apologizing and explaining what the race was about, we actually had her entering the name and contact info of the local Fleet Feet running store into her phone, because she said she has been wanting to get in shape but didn't know where to start. It felt like a win-win for all.

ABOVE: RD Gary Shaw keeps watch over the laps and everdiminishing cutoff time.

RICK MAYO | MILE 90 PHOTOGRAPHY

ABOVE: Robert Bruns claims the Leaky Hourglass. RICK MAYO | MILE 90 PHOTOGRAPHY

Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is

BY RYAN MONTGOMERY

“Diversity is not a marketing campaign,” says Alison Désir, black endurance athlete, activist and mental health advocate. There is an influx of participants in the sport of ultrarunning and, consequently, diversity in demographics. This sport is no longer a sport of cisgender, straight and white athletes. If the leaders and brands who influence ultrarunning want to be relevant and accurately represent today’s ultrarunners, then diversity needs to be a part of our everyday fabric, not merely a checkmark in a marketing campaign.

continued haphazard focus of diversity in today’s running and outdoor industries. She recently ran a trail race in Montana and mentioned that she did not see any other Black women that weekend. She saw only two other Black athletes in attendance at the event. Désir contrasted her experience at this event with a Colorado multi-day running event. She said there is a sharp contrast in race marketing and messaging for the Colorado-based trail running event, signaling to viewers that it is for everyone. The event’s website shows

are women, including Black and brown people. This contrasts with Désir’s recently attended event in Montana, with the website showing (based on my observation) white people primarily upon initial glance of the race’s multimedia content.

“If the place

athletes’ resumes objectively, and I observed that I had more competitive results than many of them, too.”

“I decided to write them an email saying, ‘Hey, I am a

and the Black Community,’ and I thought to myself, ‘Let me take a look at their athlete roster.’ I observed that 100% of the athletes were white at the time. I also looked at the

Black, multi-racial athlete who applied to your program and didn’t make the cut.’ After my email, they invited me to be a part of the team, but it felt like I was an afterthought. Around the same time, another brand approached me and offered me financial compensation as part

I thought about my own personal journey of working hard to find sponsorship support as a gay queer athlete; I effortlessly selfpitched to various brands and failed 99.9% of the time.

not understand what diversity, equity and inclusion means in our sport. Diversity is more than just featuring a Black or gay or female runner on your

of my athlete contract. When I went back to [clothing brand] to see if they want to do the same, they were, like, ‘No.’”

After speaking with Merry, I thought about my own personal journey of working hard to find sponsorship support as a gay queer athlete; I effortlessly selfpitched to various brands and failed 99.9% of the time.

Merry and I both agreed that leaders in our industry are good people. However, just like with the human resources department within a company, if you want to appeal to diverse candidates, you must go out of your way to show up in communities of diverse people to recruit them, making them feel included and valued.

“Sometimes, I think it is a lot easier for brands to hire a Black model, than to actually hire a Black athlete,” Merry suggested.

As I speak to more marginalized and diverse athletes in our sport, it becomes more apparent that brands, leaders and other figures often talk out one side of their mouth but then don’t follow up with meaningful action. Or, how Merry put in our interview, “Put their money where their mouth is.”

If you look at our industry broadly, leaders are disproportionately more white than Black. More straight than queer. More male than female. And more rich than poor. Look at the start line of today’s races, the athlete managers who manage athlete teams, the CEOs of the major brands of the trail and ultrarunning industry. They are nearly all white, cis-gender, straight and well-educated — even look at the writers of this magazine (wink, wink). Thank God you have me, your favorite queer gay contributor.

Most people agree that diversity is essential in the outdoor industry and in ultrarunning. However, I observe that leaders and brands do

social media channel — it is also more than just sponsoring diverse athletes.

From product development, to go-to-market strategy, to the music you play at your race start or finish line, diversity needs to be embedded into all that we do. Ask yourself the following questions:

leaders who are LGBTQ? Black? Women? Do we have hiring goals that are focused on diversity? Do we donate to organizations that diversify the outdoors? Do we help diversify the ultrarunning industry? Is our athlete team homogenous or diverse?

Most importantly, if diver sity is not at the table making decisions nor a part of your everyday processes, then you are making decisions in a vacuum. You assume to know your diverse customers and employees, but you do not.

“We are going to keep doing the same things that we are used to doing if we are not always looking at how to allocate resources to the vision of diversity, equity and inclusion,” says Désir. She emphasized that while money directed towards diversity helps, “Diversity is not just a sponsorship.” Diversity means allocating resources and every thing else.

The embracement of diversity (in all ways) is what will separate high-performing, customer-sticky brands from the failing, irrelevant brands. Diversity is not an item in your strategy checklist, it is an essential piece of your business’s DNA to authentically sell your products and services to today’s customer, who are people with feelings and challenges, and are diverse themselves.

The amount of work required to move the needle on the diversity of ultrarunning may seem daunting, but the first step is easy: do something. Set aside actual budgeted dollars, identify resources you can leverage, set up a meeting to develop a tactical strategy – do something today. Désir wants people to remember that “the work of diversity and inclusion is an iterative process, and it is about taking action. Make mistakes. Regroup. Then, take

more action. There is no marker to know that you ‘got it,’ but we have to do something now.”

If we think about the next generation of ultra-trail runners and who the next waves of ultrarunning legends are, I sincerely hope to see more LGBTQ, Black, brown, disabled and female running legends. But, if the inaction toward diversity of today continues, it will prevent us from seeing any diverse legends in the future.

RYAN MONTGOMERY was born and raised in the misty, forested Pacific Northwest and always loved exploring the outdoors. His running career started in middle school in Alaska when he participated in cross country. Now living in Park City, Utah, Ryan runs professionally for Altra and enjoys the 100-mile+ race distances. As a gay, queer athlete, he is passionate about creating a community for LGBTQ athletes and driving diversity awareness in the sport.

“We are going to keep doing the same things that we are used to doing if we are not always looking at how to allocate resources to the vision of diversity, equity and inclusion.”

Adam Merry runs in the 2020 Pioneer Spirit 50. FACCHINO PHOTOGRAPHY

The Original Ultramarathoner

BY DEAN KARNAZES

It might surprise you to learn that the first marathon was actually an ultramarathon. And the first marathoner was actually an ultramarathoner. Many are familiar with the legendary tale of a Greek runner setting off after the Battle of Marathon for Athens to give word of the Greek victory (and then dying after delivering the message). However, what is lesser known is that Pheidippides ran much farther before that final marathon-distance jaunt. To get to the truth of the matter, we need to dial back the clock some 2,500 years to 490 BCE.

The ancient Athenians were astute observers. One thing they noticed is that in the mountainous and hot terrain of Greece, a trained athlete could outrun a horse. So they developed a class of citizens known as “hemerodromi” (which means day-long or all-day runner). In fact, Pheidippides’ name can literally be taken to mean, “spare the horse.” In other words, why kill a horse by making it run all day when we can use this guy instead? More broadly, hemerodromoi were professional foot messengers that were used to transmit information between Greek city-states, which were geographically dispersed. Running great distances was their vocation. Odd to think there were sponsored ultramarathoners 2,500 years ago.

In 490 BCE, Persian forces came ashore to Greece in a low-lying coastal plain filled with the wild herb, fennel (the word marathon actually means “field of fennel”). The nearby Athenians spotted their arrival and knew they were no match for the invaders. Now, if you’ve seen the motion picture film 300, you know that the most badass fighting force in ancient Greece were the Spartans. So the Athenian

generals sent a foot messenger, one Pheidippides, to run to Sparta to recruit the Spartans to join them in battle against the Persians.

However, Sparta was no short distance. In fact, it was something like 140 miles away. But Pheidippides went for it anyway, and is said to have arrived the day after setting out. This is according to Herodotos (aka: the Father of History). Given the time of year—late summer—arriving the day after setting out can loosely be interpreted as sub-36 hours.

Even by today’s standards that’s a pretty impressive time. But this was more than

Ha! Pheidippides would have to self-navigate, even in the dead of night.

Remarkably, the man got there the next day. Even better, the Spartans were receptive to his pleas. They said they would

distance with little sleep knows how the mind can wander.

In any case, Pheidippides made it to Marathon where the Athenian forces had deployed in preparation for the skirmish. He delivered the news about the Spartans and about Pan. Based on this intel, the Athenian generals decided not to wait any longer. In a surprise attack the next morning, the Athenians somehow drove away the Persians. They then followed tradition and gathered all the discarded Persian armament and piled it high at the place the enemy had turned and fled (our modern word “trophy” comes from the Greek tropaion, to turn).

join their Athenian brethren in battle against the Persian interlopers. There was just one small hiccup: the moon wasn’t full. Spartan religion forbid them from leaving for battle until the moon was full. This wouldn’t occur for another six days.

2,500 years ago. Pheidippides wouldn’t be wearing performance-enhancing shoes (he likely ran in leather sandals or barefoot), and there was no such thing as hydration packs or energy gels. Aid stations? Forget about it. He’d have to rely on small streams or brooks for water. And what about navigation? There were no course markers and certainly no GPS to help stay on track. And rechargeable headlamps for running in the darkness?

Now Pheidippides was in a pickle. He needed to inform his Athenian mates that the Spartans were indeed coming, but just not for another six days. So he did the unthinkable. He awoke the next morning and started running back. Along the way, he is said to have had an encounter with the God, Pan (Pan is that crazy-looking dude with the upper torso of a man and the lower torso of a goat). Pan has the power to inflict “panic” and “pandemonium” on people and he would grant Pheidippides such powers if the Greeks would properly honor Pan and not mock him (okay goat-man, whatever). Personally, I think this whole encounter could have been a hallucination. Anyone that’s run such a

And what about Pheidippides? He’d just run some 300 miles. What would be his fate? This is the juncture where truth and urban legend get intertwined. It is reported that a runner ran from the battlefield at Marathon to the Acropolis to proclaim “NIKE! NIKE! Nenikekamen! ” (VICTORY! VICTORY! Rejoice, for we have conquered!) and then famously collapsed. Quick aside, this is where the company Nike got their name. But was that runner actually Pheidippides? The record is less clear on this point and several names are mentioned in the historical record.

Either way, Pheidippides ran an extraordinary distance in a noteworthy time. He was the pioneering ultrarunner. So any discussion of the legends of ultramarathoning must include this gallant runner, inspirer of the marathon and father of the ultramarathon. The first, and in many ways, the greatest of all time.

DEAN KARNAZES is a Greek-American ultrarunner and the author of The Road to Sparta.

Sparta was no short distance. In fact, it was something like 140 miles away. But Pheidippides went for it anyway and is said to have arrived the day after setting out.

When You Can’t Outrun Depression

BY CORY REESE

Not only am I a Springsteen fan, cinnamon roll addict and owner of a Great Dane named Little Debbie, I am also a licensed clinical social worker. After nearly 20 years in practice, I thought I had a solid understanding of depression. Ah, how little I knew. In 2019, a series of life events, including

to the horizon in every direction.

I had been awake for 40 hours, and my body was on the brink of collapse. Each step took a Herculean effort to combat sheer exhaustion and sleep deprivation. The sky felt like a hot blanket of tar crushing me, trying to smother out the last breath of life. Minutes felt like hours, and hours felt like days, lost in a chasm

in 48 hours or less. Each step you take moves you closer to the finish line. But for those suffering with depression, there is no finish line. It’s easy to get stuck worrying when, or if, the dark clouds will ever clear.

Going through challenges and pushing through hard times makes us stronger as runners. And, just like with running, going through challenges and pushing through hard times can make us stronger as people. There is a concept in psychology called post-traumatic growth. I firmly believe it is possible to find meaning in suffering. Unfortunately, when your soul is stuck in an endless night somewhere around Keeler, this sentiment provides little (okay, absolutely no) relief.

ever, I went to a therapist. I wish I could tell you that those steps were easy. For me, they weren’t. Those steps were awkward and uncomfortable.

This is a fact that I’m not proud of. I’ve been a therapist and I refer people to therapy. I know the value of getting an unbiased, outside perspective to help make connections. My career is based on fighting the stigma against mental health treatment. But I’m embarrassed to admit that, for quite a while, I had a hard time abandoning that stigma when it came to seeking help for myself.

Passing through that dark night of the soul and surviving until sunrise, I have only a single regret: that I didn’t embrace the vulnerability of asking for help sooner.

the diagnosis of a lifelong chronic illness, sent me into an emotional tailspin.

Despite my education and experience, I never fully understood the suffocating grip of depression until I experienced it myself.

If you’ve never experienced it before, allow me to use a running metaphor to describe the personal hell that is depression. Years ago, I ran Badwater, the 135-mile race across Death Valley held each July. On the second night of this two-day adventure, I found myself near Keeler, California. Keeler is a vast expanse of nothingness. I was on a barren strip of road slicing through a dusty desert, and the only thing I could see by the light of the moon was a sea of tumbleweeds stretching

of black despair. In Keeler, California, I was trapped in an endless night that felt like the sun would never rise again.

Imagine this experience day after day. This, my dear friend, will give you a sense of what depression can feel like. It is pervasive, relentless and cruel. And yet, there is a glaring contrast in my comparison that can’t be ignored. At Badwater, the amount of suffering is finite. One way or another, your journey will end

Running can be a salvation, a solace and a constant. It can help turn turmoil into peace. It’s a flame that can burn away the shadows, but it is naïve, dismissive and detrimental to imply that running is the ultimate panacea to cure all depression.

Eventually, some of us face a somber question: what do you do when you can’t outrun depression?

In my personal journey, healing didn’t begin until I finally talked with my wife about my struggles, and asked for help. Then, I talked with my doctor and temporarily started taking a little, white pill to get my chemistry back on track. And, for the first time

Running is an indispensable element in the path toward healing. But, if running alone isn’t enough to keep the demons away, allow me to issue you a challenge: take the uncomfortable step of asking for help. Combining running with an antidepressant and/or therapy could move you closer to the peace you’re seeking.

We must confront depression’s favorite lie: that you are alone. Opening up and removing the secrecy behind depression saved me. Vulnerability liberated me. It’s the act of giving voice to depression that begins to clear the fog. When you muster the courage to speak up and ask for help, you realize that you aren’t so alone after all.

CORY REESE is the author of the books Nowhere Near First and Into The Furnace. He uses running to help balance out a well-developed sweet tooth. When he’s not running, Cory stays busy as a husband, father and medical social worker. His adventures can be found at fastcory.com.

Time Passages

BY JEFF KOZAK

The text arrived, immediately conjuring up an ultra career’s worth of nostalgia: “Hey Jeff! I saw you at States! I was running in with a client in the Golden Hour. I’m going to be in Bishop Wed-Friday. You around?”

The out-of-the-blue message was from Krissy Moehl. It had been seven years since I last saw her, parting ways at the Piute Creek Trail junction after a tough-but-memorable night of pacing on her John Muir Trail FKT attempt with Jenn Shelton in 2014. The thought of reconnecting after so many years was all-the-more exciting in its unexpectedness. We made plans in classic runner fashion: food and drink at a local watering hole preceded, of course, by a run.

Long on catching up but short on time, I took her on a bread-and-butter training route from my doorstep in the Owens Valley. The years melted away within the first few footfalls, and the reminiscing began in earnest. Krissy is one of a handful of ultrarunners that I had the good fortune of getting to know when we were nascent in the sport in the late 90s and early 2000s, and before she took full flight toward a prominent place within the ultrarunning world.

An early trail running ambassador for Patagonia, Krissy and her contagiously positive, energetic personality had a preeminent role in taking the Montrail-Patagonia Ultrarunning Team of the 2000s to its peak as an entity that laid the foundation for growth within the sponsorship realm of the sport. I recalled visiting her in the winter of 2005 in a very industrial part of downtown Seattle where she was then working for Montrail under the title of “Trail Running Promotions Coordinator.” It sounded like

a dream job. A few miles into our run, I confessed, with a laugh, that I was among others who had also applied for the position.

On my way up to Seattle for that interview in 2001, I had called up another “ultra friend,” Ian Torrence, the guy vacating the position, for a bit of feedback. “Well, it’s a cool gig, but it ain’t no Eastern Sierra job and lifestyle,” is mostly what I remember from that conversation. I had met him at the finish line of my very first ultra, the Baldy Peaks 50K in the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California in 1997. He was already 18 ultras into the 222 or so he’s currently run, and was rocking porkchop-style sideburns that would make Neil Young proud. His enthusiasm for ultrarunning was also obvious and infectious.

“They (Montrail) made the right choice,” I told Krissy, letting out another laugh. Looking back, in fact, I couldn’t imagine anyone other than her in that role at that time, so it came as a bit of a surprise when she commented that someone had recently mentioned not everyone recognizes her name these days when it comes up within the context of ultrarunning. How could that be? Afterall, “Krissy Moehl” had certainly become a household name within the sport.

A run in Seattle’s Cougar Mountain Regional Park on a cold, gray, wet morning on that same 2005 trip to Washington was where I met another household name-to-be. As we pulled into the parking lot in the freezing dampness, it appeared the impatiently waiting runner was sockless. Before he could respond to my query, Krissy chimed in, “Hal likes to show off his ankles.”

It was Hal Koerner, already five Bear 100 victories deep

into his career, but somehow still flying very much under the radar of popularity and prowess that would eventually latch onto his mega-watt-smile personality and competitiveness with wins on some of North America’s grandest ultrarunning stages and an Outside magazine cover. Would

the shoulders of giants,” wrote Sir Isaac Newton to Robert Hooke in 1675. Certainly, this scientific humility applies to progress within the ultrarunning world, too. We would do well, from time to time, to reflect on the past and all that set the current stage we get to act upon.

there come a time when even Hal’s name wasn’t always and immediately recognized within the sport?

It would be difficult to overestimate the positive impact that Krissy, Ian and Hal have had during the past 20-plus years on the ultrarunning community. What they have “taken” from the sport in terms of results, as long and distinguished as that list reads, is far exceeded by what they have given back in hard-earned wisdom and inspiration passed on to others through multiple means such as coaching, race directing, specialty store ownership, Ted Talks, books and the like.

But, as with all race clocks, time stops for no one. One generation’s legends become a future generation’s history lessons, eventually remembered only by those inclined to become students of their chosen pursuit. “If I have seen further, it is by standing upon

As much as I am aware of Krissy, Ian and Hal’s legacy within the sport, and as many other ultrarunners as I have befriended that I could write similarly about, it’s those three that have come to most poignantly define my usage of the term “ultra friends.” Adding up the occasions I have spent time with these individuals over 24 years yields a shockingly small number; yet every opportunity we are afforded to hang out feels like a reunion of close companions. The strength of the bond and the depth of the connectedness is somehow much greater than the total time spent together would predict.

It is a phenomenon of human interaction I have yet to experience anywhere except within the ultrarunning community; and as my competitive drive wanes and my slow-twitch fibers get inexorably slower, it is a gift of the sport I increasingly cherish. As Hal once remarked, “Fast times make for fast friends.”

Now, if I could only get the passage of time to slow.

JEFF KOZAK discovered the magic of the mountain life as a kid at the family Eastern Sierra summer cabin, the transformative power of running in high school cross country, and combined the two passions with trail ultrarunning as a twenty-something. He can be reached at jeff.kozak.1974@gmail.com.

It would be difficult to overestimate the positive impact that Krissy, Ian and Hal have had during the past 20-plus years on the ultrarunning community.

Anna Frost: From Podiums to Parenting

BY SARAH LAVENDER SMITH

While running the 40-mile Telluride Mountain Run in late August—an extremely tough high-altitude ultra that circumnavigates the town and crosses four mountain passes—I felt a bit glum that I didn’t recognize any of the fresh-faced runners sharing the trail. Years ago, before the sport ballooned in popularity, I could count on knowing several people at any ultra.

Imagine my delight, therefore, when I spotted a blonde woman with legendary status as she approached me on a switchback above tree line.

“Anna, I’m glad to see you!” I called out. It was Anna Frost of New Zealand, 39, tentatively racing again after a challenging two-and-a-half years adjusting to motherhood.

She was in the event’s 24-mile division, which started a half hour after the 40-mile runners, and she had caught up to me. I fell into step behind her as we ascended toward a 13,500-foot peak. We chatted about New Zealand and parenting, and at one point she said of the switchbacks with a hint of fatigue, “They just keep going, don’t they?”

I’ve admired and followed Anna, aka “Frosty,” ever since she won the North Face Endurance Challenge 50 in 2010 and 2011. “She is as naturally beautiful, photogenic and friendly as her country,” I wrote in my blog in 2013. I cheered for her at the Hardrock 100 aid stations in 2015 and 2016, when she ran by on her way to winning, and again at the 2017 Hardrock when she placed fourth.

She also won The Bear 100 in 2014 and has excelled at numerous international events, from vertical Ks to ultras, including setting a course

record at the highly competitive Transvulcania 77K in 2014 on La Palma Island.

I suspected that many younger runners around us were clueless about Anna’s achievements, and I wondered if she struggles (as do I) with getting older and being less competitive than in years past. She looked so content on the mountainside, as if just out for a lovely training run. In the final two miles, however, she reignited her kick to prevent being passed and finish in second.

Curious about how she’s doing, and what her relationship to ultrarunning is like in this phase of her life, I called her a few days later.

She took the call in her car, which doubles as an office. She and her husband Ron “Braz” Braselton are living in a trailer, currently parked around the Durango and Silverton areas, as they figure out whether and when to move to New Zealand. Their toddler Skyler makes it difficult to work inside their small living space.

The couple started a business in 2016, trailrunadventures.com, that offers guided trips for runners to some of the global destinations that are Anna’s favorite places to explore and run.

“Things are up in the air,” she says. “COVID has definitely put a pause on any long-term plans. For now, we’re sticking to short-term plans, enjoying where we are in the moment.”

As for training and racing, “Running for me has definitely been about finding the passion again and taking Skyler in the outdoors as much as I can,” she says. “Racing is not my focus. Running in the outdoors, being a good mother and a good role model is my

priority and motivation.”

Entering the Telluride Mountain Run—her first race since a 24K in New Zealand’s wintertime conditions in June 2020—"motivated me to actually train and get some consistency back. On race day, I didn’t have a competitive mind. If they had said the race was canceled, I would’ve been, like, ‘That’s OK, I’ve had some great training.’ I’m definitely a different animal in that respect.”

For the past two-plus years as a new mother who nursed and never slept through the night, “I really struggled, not just with running but with life in general.” A C-section left her feeling “completely weak, mentally and physically.”

“I went into this major hole of depression,” she recalls. “The devil of social media shows these pictures of mothers having a baby and getting back to racing after three months, and it puts you in a bigger hole. I was like, ‘Why is this so hard for me? What am I doing wrong?’”

Even two years later, “I feel heavy, I feel tired. Sometimes I just want to go to the trailhead and walk up a mile and then sleep, rather than run.”

But she is moving forward— an important distinction from “coming back.” She says a bodywork specialist told her, “’You have to move forward with your new body, new life, new career, new relationships.’ Once she said that, I could grasp that I’m never getting that body back, and I need to say goodbye to that career” as a professional

elite-level competitor. “I have to move forward.”

She adds, “I think we as a society need to say: Enjoy having your baby. You’ll be awesome when you go forward, but you don’t need to rush your body.”

Because she is satisfied and proud of what she accomplished over the past two decades as a runner, she doesn’t feel pressure to do more after she turns 40 this November. “I’m super content with my racing career. I had some amazing wins and good DNFs, big blowups and big injuries, and I’ve learned so much.” She’d rather focus on her work as a coach, and on rebuilding their Trail Run Adventures business once international travel becomes more predictable.

She sounds at peace—but also leaves the door open to racing like she used to—when she concludes, “I’ll sign up for some races as motivation to get out the door and train, and maybe I’ll get some of the lion back rather than being like a kitty cat.”

SARAH LAVENDER SMITH is an ultrarunning coach, writer and mom of two who lives near Telluride, Colorado. She is the author of the book, The Trail Runner’s Companion: A Stepby-Step Guide to Trail Running and Racing, from 5Ks to Ultras. Follow her blog TheRunnersTrip.com

SARAH LAVENDER SMITH

What Makes a Legend?

BY LUCY BARTHOLOMEW

The Oxford dictionary defines “legend” as “an extremely famous or notorious person, especially in a particular field.” In Australia, we throw the world legend around, particularly if we can’t quite remember a person’s name, and it is usually replaced with “mate” or “legend.”

I was talking to my dad about what makes a legend to him. After he’d made his obvious joke that I didn’t need to write another article on him, we talked about the difference between a champion and a legend. It made us both think.

Someone who wins a race is a champion. They have worked hard and shown great strength and courage to push themselves to be first to the finish tape on race day. I admire that a lot, as anathlete myself, I can acknowledge and resonate with that dedication.

A legend, however, is consistent in showing up. Win or lose, first or last, they make an effort. They acknowledge the past pioneers of the sport who have paved a path that allows them to have greater access to these feats. They recognize that they didn’t do this on their own and they show empathy and gratitude to others that created these routes, and set these times and records that date back to a time when there wasn’t the same apparel and gear that there is now, that fame and glory was not the expectation; FKTs (fastest known time) weren’t a thing, they weren’t doing it to become anything more, just to experience more. Not to mention the rapidly developing technology and live coverage I can watch from my couch in Australia while witnessing history being made before hopping on Instagram and giving them a like. Then heading to Strava to give them a Kudos. Safe to say, it is a different world now.

I look at someone like Kilian Jornet who is undoubtedly a champion time and time again, across many sports over many decades. He continues to be a

student to the sport and has never seemed to be complacent or disrespectful to the nature he uses as his playground. His

constant throwbacks to his mentor, Bruno Brunod, who ran up and down mountains for sheer joy at break-neck speed, inspired Kilian to chase these summits in his film, Summits of my Life. Not only has Kilian taken inspiration from the past to create his present and imagine his future projects, but he also has taken the next step to put time and energy to create resources for future generations. He is a sportsman, yes, but he is an advocate of dreaming, creating, executing, learning and sharing. He doesn’t want the spotlight. He wants the sport and nature to take center stage and protect both of these things rather than attract more attention. To me, that seals the deal of a legend.

However, the status of a legend is not reserved for elites only. You can be consistent in showing up. You can win or lose. You can come in first or last. And you can make an effort. Everyone can inspire someone and when you take the time to share your experience, then you are a legend.

LUCY BARTHOLOMEW is a 24-year-old Australian who travels to follow the sun and fuels her life with plants. After running her first 100k at 15 years old, she has been hooked on the sport, the community and smiling through the challenges.

Someone who wins a race is a champion ... A legend, however, is consistent in showing up. Win or lose, first or last, they make an effort.

Jakob Hermann

BY ERIKA HOAGLAND

Age: 50

Where do you live currently?

Yorba Linda, California

Where did you grow up?

Brig, Switzerland

Occupation: Web developer (self-employed) and race director

Family (kids, spouse, pets)?

Wife, Linda, of 22 years, four daughters (Emma 20, Alexis 18, Sophie 13, and Olivia, 4) Dog, Luna (also female)

# of ultras run: 103

Name and date of your first ultra: JFK 50-miler, November 19, 2005

What inspired you to begin ultrarunning? Reading “To the Edge: A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance,” by Kirk Johnson. I found it fascinating and wanted to see if I could run long distances. I instantly loved it the first time I put on running shoes and went for a run.

Crest 100 and what other races are you involved in on the organizational side? I started to work as a web developer for the AC100 website in March 2014. Since then, I became a co-RD and eventually a 49% owner. Once the RD retires, I have it on paper to receive the other 51%. I also am the founder and race director of the Swiss Alps 100 in Switzerland.

What compelled you to begin race directing? In ultrarunning I found a great community. I was also able to discover many beautiful places while running races, collecting incredible memories along the way. I want to allow runners from all over the world to experience this too, especially in beautiful places like the Angeles Crest National Forest and within the incredibly beautiful Swiss Alps. What usually

runner is in distress, as it happened at the 2019 Swiss Alps 100, pre- organized actions are taken. But I can’t help feeling anxiety until I know the runner is safe. How do you balance race directing with your own training? To put on a 100-miler point-to-point race (AC100) and one big loop 50k, 100k and 100-mile race (Swiss Alps 100) every year is a lot of work. Plus, there is my “real” work which pays the bills. So training often takes a backseat. Nevertheless, I try to go out there as much as I can. With races slowly coming back there’s more motivation to push and train more again. What race is on your bucket list? Not really a race but in August 2022 I will attempt to run and finish the Badwater 146. When and why did you come to live in the United States?

Diego 100 race weekend and I learned so much in those two days (like having a spare car key tied to your shoe lace in case you accidentally lock yourself out of your car in the middle of the race). He is also an incredible runner. What is one of your biggest fears? That any of my daughters will get hurt. I lost my oldest brother in a car accident when I was a teenager and it’s something really difficult to deal with.

What keeps you busy outside of running and race directing? My family, especially my four-year-old daughter who is always around since I am self-employed and work from home. And my social media website which I’ve built from ground up and now has almost three million members. What do you say to someone who says, “100 MILES? I don’t even like to drive that far!”? Me either, so I run it! If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be?

Vietnamese Pho noodle soup. My wife cooks a killer Ph0! When are you the most content? Knowing that the ones I love are safe. Where do you see yourself in 10 years? It’s a funny thing to imagine how one’s future should be. Because whatever you think it will be, it most likely won’t. But as long as I’m together with my wife it really doesn’t matter where I am or what I do.

ERIKA HOAGLAND, an Oregon native now living in Marin County, CA, is a former assistant editor of UltraRunning Magazine and physical therapist. She currently spends most of her time chasing around a future ultrarunner, her two-year-old daughter. Erika has run over 50 ultras and favors the 100-mile distance.