Running Ultras (eBook)

To the Edge of Exhaustion

Scott Ludwig (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2014 | 1. Auflage
352 Seiten
Meyer & Meyer (Verlag)
978-1-78255-395-3 (ISBN)

Infos

The book chronicles the author's journey (the training, the races and the people he met along the way) to complete his personal quest of running four major ultramarathons: The JFK 50-Mile Run, Badwater Ultramarathon, Western States Endurance Run, and the Comrades Marathon.

Scott Ludwig has been running every day since November 30, 1978, and he currently has the 28th longest streak in the United States. He has run 200 marathons, over 800 races, and accumulated over 135,000 miles in his lifetime. He began running ultramarathons early in his running career, his first being a 50-miler in 1982. In time, he ran ultras ranging from 31 miles to 135 miles (the Badwater Ultramarathon in 2003, in which he finished in 6th place). In 2002, Scott ran 129 miles in the U.S. National 24-Hour Championships and won the master's national championship (age 40 and over). In 1992, he ran 280 miles in six days, from the west side to the east side of the state of Georgia, to raise money for charity. He lives, runs, and writes in Senoia, Georgia.

Textauszug

Something I Always Wanted to Do

Run Across Georgia #1, Fall 1982

I became fascinated with ultramarathons early in my running career. I ran my first marathon after only six months of running and moved on to my first ultra three years later. In the winter of 1982, I, along with 17 other adventurous souls, started a 50-mile race around the base of Stone Mountain (10 5-mile loops). After some sound advice from a veteran ultrarunner early in the race (“walk the uphills or pay the price later”) I had no trouble completing the race, finishing in 7:28:20…good enough for 6th place. To this day I am eternally grateful for perhaps the most important piece of advice I ever received in my running career (you met Vaughn Crawley earlier, and to this day I can still see the look on his face as he saw me running hard up the first of two dramatic uphill climbs which were included in each 5-mile loop). I decided right then and there that the longer the race, the better off I was. I was, indeed, an ultrarunner (or at least I had the potential to be).

Then I made another decision: to run an ultramarathon that no one had ever run before. Inspired by the efforts of two southeastern runners who had run across not only states but entire countries as well, I decided I would run width-wise across the state of Georgia, from Columbus to Savannah (crossing the state from west to east). I knew that one of the aforementioned runners had run Georgia from north to south, but no one had ever run west to east (or east to west, for that matter). I hoped to be the first. Here was my chance to complete an ultra that had never been attempted, let alone completed.

The preparatory stage of my forthcoming journey was enjoyable. Initially, I looked on a map of Georgia to find an out-of-the-way two-lane road that ran from one side of the state to the other. Georgia Highway 280 fit the bill. I could start at the Georgia–Alabama border in Columbus, Georgia and finish along the coast in Savannah.
I drove the route two months prior to the actual run, which I had scheduled to begin on Saturday, October 30 and end on Saturday, November 6. I plotted every conceivable landmark, water stop, motel/hotel, convenience store, gas station, and town on my route. If it existed on Highway 280, it was on my map. Every mile was indicated so that I would be able to monitor my progress along the way. My goal was to run between 33 and 38 miles a day, allowing me to complete the 280 miles in approximately eight days.

The week prior to my run was enjoyable as well. Getting all my supplies ready—three pairs of running shoes, numerous changes of running attire, toiletries, canteen, cash/credit cards, medical supplies, and lots of Vaseline—added fuel to my already burning fire. I couldn’t wait to get started. I had it all planned: My wife Cindy would drive me to Columbus on Friday, October 29, and after a good night’s sleep in a hotel near the start, I would begin my cross-state trek early Saturday morning. All systems were, as they say, go.

One small detail before I moved on to the run itself. Early in the afternoon on Friday October 29, the day before the run, Cindy asked me how many people were aware of my imminent adventure. When I told her just a few close friends and co-workers (I had to take a week’s vacation for my run), she said I should let the Atlanta Track Club know what I was up to. (Very) reluctantly, I phoned their office and told someone there of my plans. When the voice on the other end of the telephone concluded our conversation by asking the inevitable ‘why,’ I merely said that it was something I always wanted to do. Little did I know how these words would come back to haunt me.

The evening of October 29, Cindy and I drove to a small hotel in Columbus where I would get what would prove to be my last good night’s sleep for a month. (Did I say “good night’s sleep?” I meant as much sleep as one would expect staying in a room adjacent to a room that apparently the local military personnel were renting by the hour…if you know what I mean). The plan was falling into place nicely. Cindy would lead and follow me in our van the first two days of the run, allowing me to move along without having to carry a 20-pound pack on my back.

The first thing I did on DAY ONE (Saturday, October 30) was decide to run 50-plus miles each of the first two days, taking full advantage of not having to carry the backpack. I awoke around 5:00 a.m. and decided to get started right away. As the hotel was merely a half-mile from the Alabama–Georgia border, I walked to my starting line. My trek officially began at 7:10 a.m. Cindy met me around the 22-mile mark later in the morning with a dozen of the finest doughnuts I have ever had the pleasure of devouring. I ended up running 58 miles that first day, finishing slightly past the small town of Plains. Fortunately, the weather was fairly cool, and I made it through the day with few, if any, problems (detectable problems, anyway). I stopped running that first day at 6:30 p.m. At that point I wondered if I underestimated my ultrarunning prowess and questioned whether I could complete my run in six days, maybe less.

Awakening the morning of DAY TWO (Sunday, October 31), I was glad to discover I only had a few aches and pains and, lo and behold, no blisters! Immediately, I decided my goal was another 50-plus miles for the day. Beginning the second day’s run at 7:30 a.m., I was pleased to find another day of cool weather awaiting me. With Cindy at my beck and call to tote my supplies and provide me with liquids at a moment’s notice, I felt on top of the world. I managed 46 miles for the day, ending up in Cordele and bringing my two-day total to 104 miles. Heck, I’d be in Savannah by Thursday for sure. Maybe I should have run the perimeter of Georgia instead…

Sunday evening brought me closer to reality than I had been in two days. After dinner, Cindy took off with the van, heading back to Atlanta as she had to be at work the next day (apparently she didn’t tell her co-workers about the adventure). I was now facing my 20-pound handicap (the backpack) for the remaining 176 miles, and food and drink were no longer available upon command. I decided to relax in the hotel that evening and enjoy the Atlanta Journal and Constitution before nodding off to sleep. As is my custom, I immediately flipped to the sports section and, to my dismay, found the following headline deep in the bowels of Section E:

LUDWIG TO RUN ACROSS STATE

The article went on to describe what I was doing and even quote me as to why I was doing it: because it was “something I always wanted to do.” The first thought that crossed my mind was that the person responsible for my unwanted infamy had just deserted me less than an hour ago. My second thought was I had better complete my run or face the imminent consequences of a highly-publicized failure. My third thought was that my legs didn’t feel nearly as peppy as they had a mere 24 hours earlier.

For the sake of argument, let’s call the first two days of my adventure “the ecstasy.” Logically, what would follow then would be “the agony.” Well, I’m here to tell you that truer words were never spoken. I got out of the bed the morning of DAY THREE (Monday, November 1) with a pair of knees that felt as if the bones, tendons, and muscles inside had been fused together during the night. Being an optimist, I figured once I got out on the roads all my soreness would work its way out of my creaking joints. Stepping out of my hotel room at 6:30 a.m., I was aghast to find the temperature approaching 80 degrees on the first day of November! Again, the optimist in me remembered all those long training runs in July and August in temperatures approaching 100 degrees. There was no need to let little problems like stiff knees or warm weather cause me to alter my game plan at this point.

I ended up the day completing 38 more miles down Highway 280, finishing up in Abbeville around 5:00 p.m. Not only were my knees screaming at me for relief, I experienced what must have been second-degree sunburn and several blisters approximately the size of quarters on the bottoms of both feet. I checked into a hotel, took a bath, got dressed, and walked (or rather, hobbled) to the local convenience store in search of medical aid. I knew I was in trouble when I asked the clerk at the counter where I could find the town doctor. Her reply: “We had a town doctor once, but he died.”

I needed help but didn’t know where to turn. I didn’t want to call Cindy for fear of hearing an “I told you so.” So I turned to people who were always there for me: my parents. I called them (collect) on the store’s pay phone, and, when I told them of my dilemma, (like I said earlier, not many people knew about my run before the article in the newspaper. My parents, who were living in Virginia, knew nothing about it…until I called; my mother’s reply was drowned out by my father’s laughter on the other line. I managed to gather “Epsom salts” from the oft-interrupted conversation and proceeded to purchase some at the convenience store. I went back to the hotel room, took an Epsom salt bath, and went to bed around 7:30 p.m., confident (praying!) that a good night’s rest was all I needed.

My mom and dad always worried about my running, particularly when it came to running long distances. To them, anything over three miles constituted a long run. As you can...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.12.2014
• Verlagsort: Aachen
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport
• Schlagworte: 100 miles • 50 miles • Badwater • Badwater Ultramarathon • Chronicle • Comrades Marathon • endurance • erzählend • Extreme • jfk 50 mile run • JFK 50-Mile Run • Long Distance Running • Marathon • memoires • narrative • Running • Ultramarathon • Western States Endurance Run • western states endurance rund
• ISBN-10: 1-78255-395-9 / 1782553959
• ISBN-13: 978-1-78255-395-3 / 9781782553953