Ultra-Running Fool

My husband Chris is an ultra-runner. For those of you who don't know what that means (beyond it meaning that he is totally insane), it means that he runs races greater in distance than a marathon, or greater than 26.2 miles. Now for some, "beyond" 26.2 might only mean a 50K (30something miles). For my husband? It means not only 50 milers, but 100 milers as well. Yes, you heard me correctly. Chris has run 100 miles- 29 hours and 24 minutes of running with no sleep and little stopping to eat, pee, etc.

The fact of the matter is, I am beyond baffled at this entire sport. The whole ultra-running community, being that it is so small, is totally incestuous. I mean everyone knows everyone who's run with everyone somewhere sometime somehow before. We met people at the 100 miler in Wyoming that Chris had run with at races in NY. I think on some level, you sort of have to be born for this sort of thing. Chris was just made to run. And run and run and run. You can't just go from someone who doesn't do anything to being an ultra runner. You need to have a certain body. One with great joints, great oxygen capacity, great circulation, a natural ability for serious endurance. Chris happens to fit the bill perfectly. He completed several marathons when he realized they weren't a challenge anymore. With hardly training he could still manage to run a 3.5 hour marathon. I believe his best time was somewhere around 3 hours and 12 minutes. (that's under 7.5 minute miles for 26 miles, for the record). So why not try ULTRA marathons?? Not to mention he wanted to move on to more trail running.

That's where they get ya. Trail running! How fun! Ultras are almost always trail runs through the middle of insane mountains in the middle of nowhere. SO doesn't that sound great? Let's meander through the woods alone and at night for hours and hours and HOURS on end! Next thing you know you're signing up for 50 milers, then you're buying head lamps to wear in the middle of the night to run 100 milers, then you're scheduling your entire life around the next 12 hour run you can fit in. It's a slippery slope, my friends!!

Being married to an ultra-runner is a funny thing. For several months of the year, our lives revolve around Chris's running schedule. Training for ultras means a full day of running. Saturdays are out for months at a time. In the end I don't mind really. Races are often held in beautiful scenic locations and in the end I know all the training will turn into a cool camping trip come race time. But I know more about runners that I'd ever hoped. I know about their gear, their lingo, the top names in the industry. It's a pretty addictive lifestyle. And the people you meet!! Most couples you meet consist of co-athletes. They met in the running scene, they run together, train together, crew each other's races.

And then there's me. Yes, I look like I should be a runner. I'm tall, I have long scrawny legs, I'm relatively thin. So people come up to meet asking what I'M training for. Naive fools. I should just start lying about it. "Right, I ran the Mountain Masochist 50 milers in 8 hours last year, it was CRAZY!" But instead I just say, "No, I don't run. But I can swim for a really really long time!!!!" I mean I used to run. I used to love running. But what am I going to say? "Yes, I used to be a pretty good runner. I was running 6-8 miles a day at one point. But then I got Lyme's disease and my entire body, especially the joints, went to shit, had open heart surgery progressing it into further shit, but hey, I'm starting to get better and my knees can almost tolerate a whole one mile run now!!" Right. I'd rather crawl into a hole and hide.

So instead I am just the outcast. The problem with the ultra community is that anyone who isn't a runner is seen as a primadonna of sorts. This greatly pisses me off. I don't not run because I'm lazy. I would love to run, I just can't yet. I don't know that my knees will ever really appreciate me taking on something like that again. I'd like to think so, but I can't really say.

In any event, Chris was supposed to be running the North Face Endurance Challenge today. It's a 50 miler run by Dean Karnazes (THE name in ultras- duuuuh) which is pretty damn cool. It's held at Bear Mountain, which is where Chris trains. Home turf. It was going to be awesome. The trails there are SICK to run on and out of towners have no idea what they are in for. It was rated 5/5 in technical terrain, 5/5 in overall challenge, and 4/5 in elevation difficulty. But my poor guy got injured. This was a little bit like someone ripping his heart out. So instead, he's volunteering. He got up at 1:00 this morning to get to Bear Mountain for 2:00am so he could run/walk (being that he is injured) the first 10.5 miles of the 50 miler to make sure it was marked correctly, cracking glowsticks along the way. As luck would have it, it was raining all night and morning, the fog is so thick you can't see 2 feet forward, and my guy was out there in the middle of the damn woods all night in these conditions. Head lamp or not, I would have an all out panic attack in about 30 seconds in conditions like that. Hell just in the DARK I'd probably die. I won't even take the dog out to my backyard in the dark!!!! I'm terrified. But anyway, I heard from him and while it was a very slow pace, he finished the job. Now he'll stay there all day manning an aid station.

Perhaps he'll snap a picture with Dean when he runs by. :)