Ultra-distance runners take on personal quests
When Tijeras’ Bobby Keogh was 22 and in the Navy, an auto accident in Virginia left him paralyzed on one side of his body. He said half his spinal cord was damaged and that doctors told him he would never walk again.
The determined Keogh countered: “Ptui on that!”
Fast-forwarding 43 years, Keogh is among a close-knit fraternity of ultra-distance runners who travel the land seeking the toughest endurance tests on two feet.
Last weekend Keogh, a retired educator, was running in an ultra in Phoenix. This weekend it’s Texas. During the past New Year’s holiday week, he went to extremes when he ran in the Across the Years footrace at the spring training complex shared by the Dodgers and White Sox in Glendale, Ariz. His goal was to do as many laps as he could on the 1.05-mile loop in 72 hours.
“These are social events for me,” he said over the phone a week ago while shoveling 16-plus inches of snow on his property. “I’m retired; I live in this small village. I run and I chat with people. About 40 percent of the time there’s somebody to talk to.”
In Across the Years, 336 participants (ages 3-84) ran, skipped, walked and staggered at various stages from Dec. 28 through Jan. 3, going all six days, or else 72, 48 or 24 hours straight. I signed up for the last 24 hours out of curiosity and spent lots of time schmoozing with runners and scarfing down cookies and coffee in the food tent. Although I did only 17 miles, I still out-kicked 11 of the other 187 entered in the 24-hour time bracket. To those I say “shame on you.”
Keogh participated from Dec. 28-31, his first time doing such a long lap race. He went 184.8 miles, which is a few miles longer than the distance from his house to the Arizona state line.
“It was easy at the beginning,” he said. “The first day I did 86 miles, but from then on it seemed to deteriorate 2 miles an hour. I was getting 50 miles a day after that. I tried to get in a two-hour nap around 2 a.m. (in a tent), depending on feel. If your body is wired, though, you need to be moving.”
After Day 1, Keogh was alerted by race officials he was in reach of the national record in his age group for 48 hours. He needed 150 miles.
“I thought, ‘Let’s go do that; it would be easy.’ So I pushed for the record,” he said. “But I wasn’t maintaining my diet. On the second night, at about midnight, I collapsed.”
In normal conditions, he said, 230 miles is realistic.
“I’ve been doing this for 35 years,” he said. “The longer ones are easier on your body than marathons because you’re not running as hard.”
At a recent 100-miler in Colorado, it wasn’t so much fun for Keogh. He fought on despite a torn abductor.
“I thought I pulled my groin, and there was quite a bit of rock climbing,” he said. “I wound up hopping 64 miles.”
Four days later he was in another 100-miler. Gasp!
Keogh said he doesn’t train for races, either.
“These runs themselves are my training,” said Keogh, who said he has earned about 70 milestone belt buckles. “I have so much wrong with my feet. I want every mile to be race miles, because I may not be able to run much longer.”
For Keogh, perhaps the toughest part of his total experience over New Year’s week was getting home. He had intended to go through Flagstaff, but turned back about 30 miles north of Phoenix because of snow. He then took the southern route through Tucson and Deming.
“I finally got home after 12 hours total of driving — that after 72 hours of running,” he groaned. “My legs were so stiff. My (driving) speed would accelerate and decelerate because I didn’t want to move my leg.”
To put a cherry atop his misery, he said he wound up with a speeding ticket about 30 miles from Albuquerque.
Student gets into act
Chris Peverada, 28, grew up in Maine and is pursuing his Ph.D. in linguistics at UNM. He likes shorter events.
In Glendale, he was in the 24-hour bracket beginning at 9 a.m. Dec. 31. He totaled 93.4 miles, roughly 23 off the winner’s pace .
“I had a pretty big goal of 150-plus miles,” he said. “But it just so happened exams were during my key training period. I was limited to about 30 to 40 miles a week. I intended to do 150 to 200.”
Peverada had done the math and knew if he maintained a 10-minute-mile pace he’d reach 144 miles.
“Through the first 50 miles I was where I needed to be, in something like 7 ½ hours. But then I think the lack of training caught up to me, and at about 2 or 3 a.m. I lost all motivation and stopped.”
Five years ago, he had a more draining experience.
“It was my first 24-hour race and I ended up with 113 or 114 miles,” he said. “I did 100 in less than 16 hours and promptly crashed. I had good training for that one. I really went all out with 10 straight weeks of 200 miles or more. I was doing my master’s thesis at the time and doing my best not to work on it.
“But I didn’t know nutrition, and I didn’t have a crew or a race plan. I had a really bad electrolyte imbalance and hit a point where my ankles wouldn’t flex and I simply couldn’t move on.”
Speaking of plans, he said a goal is to qualify for the U.S. squad for the world team 24-hour championships. He also is taking aim at the Chicago Marathon in October, where he hopes to finish in 2 hours, 18 minutes. He said that would surpass his PR of 2:26 and qualify him for the U.S. Olympic trials.
North to Alaska
The overall Across the Years winner was David Johnston, a 44-year-old health care professional from Willow, Alaska. Johnston did 551.1 miles in six days.
Johnston said that even by Alaska standards, the bitter weather was a challenge.
“One night, oh, my word, it wasn’t funny,” he said. “I’m used to saying ‘Hi’ to everybody every lap, but I didn’t recognize anyone because they were all bundled up.”
His said his father flew in with him and served as his crew. They shared a tent.
“He froze, the poor fellow,” Johnston said. “He even went out and bought a second sleeping bag and put one inside the other. I don’t know if he’s coming next year.”
Even though temps dipped into the 20s and the wind sometimes howled, Johnston typically experiences such conditions on his training runs 300 miles from the Arctic Circle.
Johnston’s six days in Glendale were chocked with highs and lows, as one would imagine for someone who slept about 90 minutes a day and was going in circles as the sun set and rose six times. And he wasn’t even plugged in to music or audiobooks to keep his mind company.
“Nope, never use them,” said Johnston, who said he spent only 5 percent of his time on the course merely walking, “I like to hear things around me.”
Things went swimmingly for four days, including New Year’s Eve when champagne and beer were flowing for runners and volunteers. But then came Day 5. “Sleep deprivation then hit me like a rock,” he said. “I started hallucinating. I was trying to shoo (imaginary) bugs out of my way. And I started weaving on the course because I couldn’t see it.
“Physically, I was capable, but I was worried I was going to fall in the lake.” A jolt of java worked magic. Even hygiene was part of the master plan. A hot shower brought great joy.
“It was a 20-minute process at minimum,” he said. “And I bought one of those travelsize deodorants and used that a few times. I also tried to change my shirt and shorts every couple days. At the end, nothing was dry or clean.”
And Johnston wasn’t the only one with hardships.
One burly participant crept bowlegged while attempting to do 200-plus laps. Another used a ski pole to help him trudge along while at a decided lean.
Yet another, Johnston said, repeatedly headed out in the wrong direction after taking breaks. It took other runners to twist him around.
“I wish I had a video of all the walking zombies out there — and I became one of them,” Johnston said. “The last three hours there was one runner who would fall asleep running, suddenly wake up and go, ‘Whoa!’ ” That’s multitasking. “When I started the race, I had 600 miles as my goal,” he said. “The American record is 585. But everything’s got to come together. Next time I’ll be more prepared.”
After Across the Years, Johnston recuperated.
“I sat back on the couch for three days with beers and margaritas,” he said. “My legs throbbed and were swollen. They were toast. By the fourth day, I tried walking again.”
He now has a special 500mile belt buckle and a “cool” winner’s trophy to remind him of his experience.