Fifty miles to go: Westover athletes push their limits

  • Published
  • By MSgt. Timm Huffman
  • 439th Public Affairs
WESTOVER AIR RESERVE BASE, Mass. --  "In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks." - John Muir

The trail snakes out into the woods. I run along the marked path but my brain wanders, looking for something, anything, to grab onto. I'm exhausted, muscles aching, twisted ankle throbbing. I keep moving. I've run 30 miles.

I still have 24 to go.

Long-distance running has grown in popularity since the 1970s. Participation in 26.2 mile races has exploded, to include races like the New York City Marathon, which hosts over 40,000 runners.

However, for a growing number of runners like me and two other Westover athletes, a marathon isn't long enough.

While there's no specific definition of what ultra running is, it's typically associated with high-volume weekly training mileage, trail running and racing in distances longer than the traditional marathon. Some ultras take place on trails and roads for set distances (most commonly 50 kilometers, 50 miles, 100 kilometers and 100 miles), while others are time-based, such as 12, 24 and even 48-hour events held on running tracks.

Professional ultra runners, like Ultra Marathon Man author Dean Karnazes, have long since proven that running great distances is humanly possible. In fact, according to Trail Runner Magazine, some 58,000 Americans completed an ultra-race in 2011; nearly three times the number in 2000.

But what is drawing this ever-increasing number of runners to this seemingly masochistic sport?

For Maj. Diane Burch, 439th Force Support Squadron, the decision to run an ultra-distance race was long in the making. A Massachusetts native, she started running cross country at Plymouth South High School 25 years ago. She went on to participate in triathlons, half Ironmans and adventure races as part of the triathlon club at the Air Force Academy. She later competed in a number of marathons, including, most recently, the 2011 Walt Disney World Marathon.

"I always wanted to run further than a marathon, but I always had an excuse not to," she said. "Then I read about a local 50-mile race and decided I'd start a training plan, take it week by week and see what happened."

By June 14, the major was toeing the starting line of the 2013 TARC 50 in Weston, Mass.

MSgt. Steven Pelletier, 439 th Security Forces Squadron Installation Security Manager, has run since 1992, when he joined the Army, but it wasn't until 2007 when his perspective on running started to shift towards longer distances.

"I quit smoking and I was given a spot at the Boston Marathon in April, then I ran the Marine Corps Marathon in October," he said.

He was hooked and started looking for something more challenging. In 2009 MSgt. Pelletier signed up for the North Face Endurance Challenge 50K in Washington, D.C.
I haven't always run. In fact, in high school when I played soccer, I couldn't even make it one lap around the track without stopping (of course that affected my playing time, too). I didn't start running until I was getting in shape for basic training. From there, it has snow balled. After BMT, I picked up marathon running and in 2010 I started to wonder if I could go further.

That's how I found my way to the suffering I was experiencing at mile 30 of the 54-mile, double-loop, 2012 Bear Brook Trail Ultra Marathon. After months of training, I lined up with about 150 other runners in a dusty snow mobile parking lot in late July. After a few remarks from the race director, we charged off into the woods. Since all but 17 of us were only participating in the single-loop, marathon-distance event, the pace was fast at first. Too fast. I quickly burned through a lot of energy and at mile eight I carelessly stepped on a loose rock. My left ankle responded with an audible pop.

Many assume that ultra runners are simply trying to stay fit, but in addition to the inherent risks associated with hurtling through the woods at break-neck speed, recent research shows diminishing health returns for longer-distance runners. In a 2012 Mayo Clinic study, Dr. James H. O'Keefe states that "long-term, excessive, sustained exercise may be associated with coronary artery calcification, diastolic dysfunction, and large-artery wall stiffening."

Despite the possible health risks, there are many positive benefits to the sport. Maj. Burch finds that her running helps combat another heart-issue: stress. She says it also allows her time to escape and think; things that running for hours on end provides plenty of time for.

"If I couldn't run, I'd be crazy," said Maj. Burch, who says running is the one thing she does for herself. "My husband knows when I need to run," she added.

MSgt. Pelletier, who gets up at 4 a.m. to train before the duty day, enjoys the quiet and solitude he finds, and thrives on the physical and mental challenge of setting such a high goal and working hard to achieve it. He sets his training plan and then checks off each workout when he comes into his office in the morning.

Runners hoping to go the distance must spend many hours training each week. Training plans for ultra marathons can last up to six months and typically include weekly, back-to-back long runs, lasting up to five hours each, and shorter, slower runs and cross-training on the other days.

An important aspect of training for an ultra runner is getting enough time on your feet during training to prepare the body for the hours spent on the trail during a race. To that end, the back-to-back long runs, which can range from 13 to 30 miles, are more about duration and distance than speed.

MSgt. Pelletier's 50-mile training plan involves five days a week of running, for six months, and culminates with a 26-mile run. And since many races don't allow headphone use, he trains without music.

"You kind of just zone out. You have to. Other things come up, but you really just focus on running," he said.

It takes a large amount of time, effort, energy and emotion to train at this level. In addition to the discipline it takes to lace up your shoes each day, it becomes a balancing act between time spent with family, civilian jobs and Air Force responsibilities. Training for an ultra means rising before the sun to log miles and get in strength training before the work day and heading out the door by 5 a.m., or earlier, on Saturdays and Sundays for long runs.

Maj. Burch's 50-mile training plan culminated with a 30-mile run, followed by a 12-mile run the next day. In order to take the edge off the miles, the major enjoys listening to just about anything on her Mp3 player - music, podcasts, audio books (she downloads from www.MilitaryOneSource.com). To help stay focused on this long and intense training cycle, Maj. Burch set her goal, planned out each week, and posted it on her refrigerator so she could check off each workout she completed.

After months of training, she was at the starting line of the TARC 50 Mile questioning her own sanity, asking whether she had trained enough and wondering if she'd actually be able to finish her first ultra.

At 6:45 p.m., the co-race director delivered the pre-race briefing, a common ritual at most ultra-distance races.

"I marked the course this morning, and it's wet," said Josh Katzman, the co-race director.
"It only came up to about here," added the 6'2" runner, indicating his mid-chest.

This news shocked Maj. Burch.

"I knew the course would be wet after one of the rainiest Junes on record, but not that wet."

No matter. At 7 p.m., she headed into the darkening trails with about 390 other runners. By 8:30 p.m., she switched on her headlamp and had already sloshed through miles of mud and water.

"There was no way to go around the mud. I tried hopping the rocks through the first wet spot, but slipped in almost immediately," she said.

Maj. Burch packed 10 pairs of socks into her hydration pack in anticipation of the wet course, but said that every time the course seemed dry enough to warrant a change, she would hear someone just ahead mutter a few choice words and knew it would be a pointless swap. She changed them just once, at 30 miles.

By the middle of the night, Maj. Burch was alone on the trail. A double-loop course, it was marked by pink ribbons tied in the trees. In the dark, she got off track once and had to run until she found one of the aid stations before getting back on course. She recounted numerous falls (because of the mud), bruises and hitting her headlamp off of a rock, which left a mark on her forehead.

"At one point, I'm not sure if I was thinking to myself or talking out loud," she said. "And I kept hoping an animal would just come out of the woods and put me out of my misery."

Mental training is as important in ultra running as the physical. Because of the pain and fatigue, the mind wants to shut the body down, but you have to keep going. The strain is so intense that ultra runners often report seeing hallucinations and talking to themselves during races. The mind has to be resilient in order to overcome these internal obstacles and you have to train yourself to keep a positive attitude and remain goal oriented. There's a lot of time to think during an ultra and if you start letting the doubt and defeat in, they can end a race in a hurry. Sometimes it's just a matter of knowing if you push through a bad patch, things will turn around.

When the sun came up on Maj. Burch, she was ecstatic.

"I took my headlamp off and turned my music on, which I couldn't do before because it required too much coordination to hassle with in the dark."

After duking it out with the mud through the night, Maj. Burch raised her hands above her head in triumph as she crossed the finish line, 11 hours, 57 minutes, 16 seconds after starting. She later learned that the original cut off time of 12 hours had been extended to 16 hours, making her finish time much more significant. She also learned that almost 70 percent of her fellow participants would DNF, which stands for did not finish (or did nothing fatal).

Following the race, Maj. Burch said she couldn't eat anything because her stomach was upset. This led to six hours of vomiting and an inability to sleep until the evening following the race. She was sore in all the wrong places, mostly from the bruising she experienced from bogging through the mud. She also swore off running. That lasted about a week before she laced up her shoes again.

After twisting my ankle at Bear Brook, the pain gradually got worse. I came through the mid-way checkpoint with searing pain and almost dropped out. Instead, I decided to try some ibuprofen and attempt to get to the next aid station. Somewhere between the two, I started talking to myself. By the time I reached the aid station, the medicine had kicked in and my ankle felt better. My family met me there and cheered me on. Finally, after running for 10 hours and 14 minutes, I finished the race in first place.

Despite a good performance, it was a tough race and I learned an important lesson about pacing - the hard way. Because I went out so fast with the marathon runners, I wasted a lot of energy. If I had slowed my pace, I could have avoided twisting my ankle and my overall pace for the race would have been faster, meaning a better finishing time.
MSgt. Pelletier says most of his races are a blur now. He does recall that after his 2011 Vermont 50 Mile Endurance Run finish, his thighs were completely trashed and the first text message he sent out read "I'll never do this again!"

Of course, he returned to Vermont again in 2012 for another go at the course. He says he learned a lot from the first time, like the importance of products like body glide that protect against chaffing, proper hydration and nutrition. He felt much more prepared going into it the next year.

Now he is setting his sights on the 2014 Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run next July.
"I'm planning to volunteer at the Vermont 50 this year to cover the volunteerism requirement for entry into the Vermont 100, and I want to run the TARC 50 next year as a warm-up race," he said.

So why are more people running these crazy distances? Ultimately, it's deeply personal and goes beyond the surface stories of pushing boundaries and finding the next adventure. To be honest, most of us are still chasing the answer to that question down a long trail in the middle of nowhere.

Editor's note: MSgt. Huffman is a Boston Marathon-qualified runner and has also completed numerous ultra-distance running events. Connect with him on Twitter, @outdoors_nh, or on his blog outdoorsnh.wordpress.com.