Running the Echo Valley 50k, still smiling

I began running in college and have run most of my adult life off and on.   It used to be all road running and, like most people, I started out with a few miles, worked my way up to a 10k event, a 20k event and finally a half marathon before contemplating a full marathon.   Yet, that full marathon was elusive, every time I tried for it I got hurt.

The first time I was in my late 20’s when I decided to run the Des Moines Marathon.  I had done several 10k runs and a 20k and began increasing my mileage.  Once I got above 25 miles per week though I ended up with hip tendonitis so bad that I had to stop and take some time to recover.

The second time I was in my mid-30’s. I’d gotten back into running with a group of co-workers and had done several runs up to 10-miles and finally did the Seattle Half Marathon in a respectable time.   I kept trying to up my mileage after the run and again, got hurt.  Same issue as before, hip problems.

Finally I hit 49 and decided that I needed to run a marathon before I hit 50, my third attempt.   This time I tried to do everything right.  I very slowly ramped up my miles this time around and by the time I did the Seattle Half in the fall it was a breeze as my long runs had already exceeded 13 miles. I was aiming for the Phoenix Marathon and after the Seattle I kept up the distance getting up to a 22 mile run a month before the event, my last super long run.   Turns out it was indeed my last long run, I ended up with a stress fracture in my left foot and was out of commission for the next four months and barely able to run for another four after that.

I very slowly got back into running but kept being dogged by foot and  back problems.   Catherine started reading Born to Run by Christopher McDougall and I quickly devoured the book.  My old New Balance shoes were driving me nuts and still hurting my foot so I switched to Nike Free Run+ shoes and began building up miles.   I got up to a half marathon in them and did several of them but was still hurting.  I finally made the decision in late 2010 to do the switch to real minimalist shoes and see how it went.  I donated all my old running shoes to charity and bought a pair of Terra Plana Evo IIs to run in on the road.  My legs hurt and I had to totally back off on my mileage.  I spent a few months switching between the Nikes and the Evos which was giving me a somewhat schizophrenic stride.   After running the Mercer Island Half in early 2011 I tossed the Nikes and went full time to ‘barefoot’ shoes adding a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves to my shoe collection.  I did a 10-mile trail run at the Redmond Watershed the week after the Mercer Half and never went back to the road, I became a trail junky.

About that time I decided to push myself for the year and try to do a 50k at 50.   At the time I wasn’t sure how serious I was about the 50k, but I figured if I set my goal that crazy I would actually get a marathon out of the deal.   I spent the first half of the year slowly building up my long runs and getting more comfortable in the shoes.  For runs over 13 miles I began wearing a pair of Inov-8 F-Lite 195s, a trail running flat that had a small heel drop and a bit more support than the Merrells.   Finally in July I ran my first marathon at the  Northwest Trail Run‘s Redmond Watershed event, the fourth attempt was a charm.  The amazing thing is that I felt great when I finished, I could have kept going so I decided that the 50k could actually become real.

I kept building up my miles doing a 20-mile event and several training runs in the 18-24 mile range while trying to decide which event to take on.   Evergreen Trail Run‘s Echo Valley run on October 1st looked like a great option – on the dry side of the state, temps would be cooler, the trails were relatively smooth and the elevation gain at 4000’ wasn’t going to kill me.   I ramped up and then tapered off the last three weeks before the event.

I won’t say the run was easy, it was pretty challenging and involved a lot of walking after the first two trips up the big hill in the first 10 miles, but it was do-able. I kept putting one foot down after another and 5:46 later the finish line was right in front of me.  I had finished my first ultra marathon!

Here is the short video I made on my iPhone while running the event:

I think several factors contributed to me finally being able to finish not only a marathon but an ultra this year without injury:

• Getting off the road and onto trails.  I find trail running to be so much easier on the body because you are not using an overly repetitive motions that you do on the road.
• Getting out of my running shoes.  This was huge, not so much because of the shoes themselves but the fact that my stride changed from a heel-stike in standard running shoes to a forefoot strike using minimalist shoes.  Now I’m sure I could put on shoes with a heel drop and keep my new stride but without the barefoot shoes I’m not sure I would have ever changed the stride.
• Carefully following my plan.  I stuck to a training schedule from the book Relentless Forward Progress:  A Guide to Running Ultramarathons and it worked.  The book sobered me up on how much training I really had to do and also gave some great advice on dealing with the day of the event.
• Weight training.  I spent a year in the gym working out heavily and building up a lot of strength, not only in my legs but also in my upper body and core.