One million four
hundred forty thousand minutes;
One point four million
moments ablaze.
One million four
hundred forty thousand minutes;
How do you
measure, one thousand days?
In miles? In
shoes? In races? In laps ‘round the track?
In DNF’s? Aid
stations? Belt Buckles? Muscle malaise?
In one million
four hundred forty thousand minutes-
How do you
measure, one thousand days?
The Goal: Run at least 1 mile every day forever
The Result (so far): 1000 days, 9863 miles, and four pairs of shoes
It’s hard to say if I could ever imagine the reality of the
ultra runner I have become. I started this thousand-day adventure on 31 March 2012.
But it really started long before that. I’ve
always enjoyed running and have been fairly good at it. Some of you may use
different adjectives to describe how good I was (or am), but I never thought I
was some super human like the Flash. I remember back in fifth grade when our
teacher, Mr. Richwood, would take us outside and tell us to run to the end of
the field, around the backstop, and back to the classroom. He’d give us a
decent enough head start and then come charging after us. One time, he must
have miscalculated or something because I nearly beat him. Whatever the reason,
it made me feel pretty good about my ability. In junior high for P.E., we ran a
mile every single Friday. Needless to say, I loved Fridays. By the end of
seventh grade I was able to get my time to just under seven minutes. And by the
end of eighth grade, just under six. I was a decent runner for high school
cross country, running frosh/soph my freshman year and varsity the next three. But
neither I nor our team ever made it to state. Even though I could run a 17:30
5k, I wasn’t even close to making it to state. Maybe it’s because this was
California and there was a little more competition than in other states. In any
case, I quickly found out that there were tons of people faster than I was and
way more willing to push themselves to the limits to be better. I never liked
pushing my limits. I wasn’t good at blocking out the pain and going faster. I
couldn’t ignore what my body was telling me. I just wasn’t cut out for this
kind of beating. I just liked running for enjoyment and pleasure. When I got to
college, I didn’t even bother trying out for the cross country or track teams.
I ran a 5k turkey trot my freshman year, but other than that, every run I did
was just at whatever pace I felt like and for however long felt right. The
internet was still new at the time (and I don’t think Garmin’s or their
ancestors existed yet) and so I didn’t have much of a clue as to how far I was
running. I didn’t even have a car to measure the distances and I never logged
any of my times either. I just ran when I felt like it and tried to get others
to go with me, to which they’d say, “I can’t run that fast/far. You’ll kill me.”
And I still today reply with, “I’m asking to run with you. I’m not gonna leave you behind. I’ll run, jog, walk, or whatever
with you for as long as you want.” And I think I’m pretty good at doing this
without making them feel like they’re holding me back. If I want more, I’ll go
run an hour warm up before we meet up or run a really long cool down.
I teach high school science. I somehow got involved with
the school’s cross country team after a few years of teaching. Twice a week I would
run with the team and do whatever they did. It was fun and brought back a lot
of memories. For two years I did this, and then I was asked if I wanted to be
the coach for the team. After much consideration, because it’s something I had
thought about doing for a long time and would totally enjoy, I turned down the
offer. The next year I went to a new school and they had no sports program. Someday,
though, I would love to be the cross country coach that runs with the team and
ends up exposing countless kids to the exquisite bliss that is ultra running.
Last year for one of my best friend’s (Brian Neesham)
birthday, I wrote him a note thanking him for introducing me to the runner that
I had become.
It started with you telling me
about birthday runs when I was 28. I thought that'd be really cool, even though
I'd never run anything longer than 9 miles or so. I mapped out a 28-mile course
and that next weekend I went out to do my birthday run. The first 16 miles went
by with no problems at all. Then I hit a wall and walked most of the next 10
miles and jogged a tiny bit. After stopping at a friend's house, I was able to
finish at survival pace. Those 10 miles sucked so much. But instead of crossing
something off a bucket list, I vowed to not let that happen again. So, when the
fun Houston summer was over, I started running a lot more and added in much
longer distances on the weekends so I could learn how to handle those
situations. By the time my 29th birthday came around, I knew I was ready. I
completed those 29 miles at just under 9 minute pace. And then for the next
year, you convinced me that since I already knew I could do 30, "Why don't
you try 50?" So of course I think this is a great idea. I missed it by 4
miles (I had to call it quits as I realized I was walking and staggering around
like a drunkard) but still kept a 10:16 pace. RAGNAR informed us (we did the
Texas RAGNAR and the next year it was cancelled for good) that we could have a
free team if we got at least 3 members together from our original team. I chose
the Wasatch Back (Utah) and got an ultra team (6 runners instead of 12)
together to relay-run 197 miles (of which I ran 76 miles). I had ran an actual
half marathon the year before and was going to do it this year as well, but I
saw the price had risen a lot and didn't feel like paying that much. I looked
at other races like the Houston Marathon. But it was already sold out (6 months
before the race). So I looked around for something interesting when I stumbled
upon this race called Rocky Raccoon. It was a 50/100 miler. Wow! I never knew races
of such distances even existed. Since I knew I could basically finish 50
(birthday run) and since I finished 76 (RAGNAR) within 24 hours, I decided that
I just had to try the 100-miler. I had no idea how to train for it other than I
needed to run a lot. My weekly mileage ranged from 30 to 70 miles a week with
long runs ranging from 24-35 miles. I felt confident that I would succeed with
this race. And with freezing temps (it was 23 when the gun went off) and frost
covering the course, I finished in 19 and a half hours. My new passion was
found. And I owe it all to you for getting me started in the right direction.
Thank you so much. And have a great birthday.
And thus my life as an ultra
runner was underway. I was in love and totally addicted. And like all
addictions, they start off small and continue to snowball. In 2009 I started
keeping a running journal, but I only wrote down runs that were at least 7
miles. By 2010 I started making some goals. Between January and December, I
wanted to run 1500 miles. I still didn’t have much regularity in my running
schedule. I went out whenever I felt like it. My goal was completed in September,
but that didn’t stop me. By the end of the year, having completed over 2100
miles, I needed a slightly tougher goal. So I doubled the goal of the previous
year’s mileage. 3000 miles in 2011. This was the year when I started ultra
racing, running both Rocky Raccoon 100 and Cactus Rose 100. By the end of the
year, with one week to go, I noticed that I needed almost 100 miles to obtain
my goal. Thankfully I’m a teacher, and time was not an issue. I ran between
12-20 miles every day, a total of 101 miles for the week, and completed the
year with 3002 miles. At this time, I noticed that I was taking a lot of days
off. My records are kept on Excel, and I figured out how to quickly count how
many days off I’d taken over the last two years. In 2010 I ran 180 days (185
off). In 2011, 255 days ran versus 110 off. Sure, my average daily miles looked
great (just under 12 if you didn’t count the days off), but 110 days is over
three months. I couldn’t believe that I took three months off (though not
consecutive) from running. My goal for 2012 was to minimize the number of days
off. I didn’t know what I’d be able to handle, but surely I could do better
than I had been. January passed without a day missed. The first week of February
brought Rocky Raccoon 100 again. I took a couple days off after that race, but
got back to running right after that. I missed a few more days that month and
some more in March. I don’t know what came over me at the end of March 2012.
Maybe it was Drew Myers posting that he had been running at least a mile every
day for a year. Maybe I realized that I really wanted to accomplish my goal;
that I wasn’t really needing all this rest and I just needed to stop being
lazy. But on 31 March 2012, I vowed that I was never going to take another day
off for the rest of my life.
Running every day wasn’t usually
too difficult. I just had to go out and do it. And then the next day I could
worry about what I was going to do then; I just had to take it one day at a time.
Finding time wasn’t hard when I made it my priority. I remember learning
lessons about time management growing up. You get a jar (that represents your
day) and you gotta fill it with as many rocks as you can. The bigger the rock,
the more important that task is. Well, my running rock is one of the first
rocks into my jar every day. Getting out in the morning on weekends was hard as
my brain always tried to convince me to stay in bed. Sometimes things came up
and I wouldn’t be able to get out until after the kids went to bed. I’m a
volunteer firefighter for my city, and I typically work one or two 12-hour
shifts on weekends. Those days I had to wake up early or face a consequence
that I never wanted to experience. A few times I just really didn’t want to go
out. But no matter how much or little I wanted to go run on a particular day,
as soon as I got out there, I was happy and couldn’t remember why I even
considered not running. Back in the saddle again. After finishing some of my
kinda long races, I’d be in old grandpa mode the next day. And even though
these races would start on Saturday morning and I wouldn’t finish sometimes
until early Sunday morning, I never counted those after-midnight hours as a
Sunday run. We’d get home and I would take Amy (and sometimes the kids too) and
we’d go “run” as fast as I could, which was really just a shuffle or a walk. I
felt that it helped the healing process along if I got out and moved despite
the muscle soreness. After a day or two more, I’d be back to normal pace for
short distances and after another few days, normal distances were no problem
either. By Friday or Saturday I could go out and run a half marathon no
problem.
Earlier this year, Amy and I separately
met Rob Goyen and his posse at some of my races. He informed us of his series
of races (Brazos Bend Trail Races)
and I quickly added to my race schedule. What used to be just two yearly races was
upped to three and then in 2014 up to eight ultra races. Amy teases me about
how I promised I’d only run those two races each year. But I’m pretty sure she’s
okay with it (since she’s in charge of the kids while I have a day-long
time-of-my-life). And I’m fairly certain that my race schedule is only going to
be added to. But all of this came about because of Rob and his idea of forming
a team that would support some local runners in realizing their running dreams.
There are currently seven of us on Team TROT. We’re
getting to know each other and helping support each other at races. Rob and his
sales background found us sponsors with Altra,
Hammer Nutrition, Epic Bars, and Trail Toes. I had little to no knowledge
of these brands a few months ago, but have really come to love them as I was
exposed to their products. I could only imagine that one day I would turn out
to be an athlete that had sponsors for running. I still think it’s crazy and
dream-like that I would be chosen to be part of this team. Who knows what lies
ahead in my running future? I don’t really know, but it’s going to be quite the
adventure as it comes to pass. Now on to 2,000 days.
Thanks so much to all that
have supported, inspired, and run with me along the way: Amy Zmolek, Brian
Neesham, Drew Myers, Rob Goyen, Lorenzo Sanchez, Thomas Orf, Team TROT and the
HATR’s, Juan Medrano, Josh Udy, and many others (especially the countless
volunteers at all the aid stations along the race courses).
