The last mile of Swan Crest … it was miserably hot, I thought I was gonna pass out from a heatstroke, and I walked very slowly towards the finish line. No one was behind me, so I wasn’t in a hurry … my spirit was gone, and I simply lacked any mental energy to get myself to speed up. Usually I put in at least a few hundred yards of finish sprint in … I think I mustered ten. But as soon as I was at the finish, I was grinning, talking smack and generally happy – it’s the one thing I’m pretty good at: pretending it never happened. Good so, because it caught the attention of Jill (who I noticed immediately but I thought was too cute to be interested in me) who struck up a conversation after Danni introduced us. Very quickly it came up that Jill had done the Tour Divide – and suddenly a lot of clicks happened in my head – earlier at Bighorn I ran with Leslie (who is a good friend of Jill’s) who told me about the Tour Divide, this crazy mystical race that only insane ultra-athletes can even begin to understand, and only the hardest-core thereof can finish, and a friend of hers who had done it (Jill, of course). I was immediately\u00a0star-struck\u00a0… when Jill expressed interest in running 100 milers, I scoffed – “You could do one tomorrow!”. I scoffed because I know people – especially myself – with a fraction of her prowess who can do it. I even went so far to try to talk her into doing one the following week (and I still think she could have done that …). And I didn’t even realize she holds the woman’s course record on the Tour Divide until much later!<\/p>\n
Since then I’ve had the privilege to see her up close, and I have to say she’s even more impressive than I thought. But then I became somewhat suspicious – how could this be real? Let’s look at the facts I gathered during her short run training. I think of myself as a somewhat accomplished endurance runner at least in terms of finishing stuff, so I’ll contrast my own experiences:<\/p>\n
| <\/th>\n | Beat<\/th>\n | Jill<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n |
|---|---|---|
| Complaining<\/td>\n | Wine & Cheese award at HURT<\/td>\n | Never. Ever<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Rest day<\/td>\n | Maybe an hour on the trainer<\/td>\n | I got lost and ended up running 4 hours. Felt great though.<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Weekly average<\/td>\n | 10 hours<\/td>\n | 20 hours<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| First ultra run<\/td>\n | See below<\/td>\n | 50 miles on NO training. Minor foot problem that quickly disappears<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| First ultra race (50k)<\/td>\n | well trained, 7:15, unable to walk the next day<\/td>\n | 3 weeks of some run-training, 6:58, no soreness<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Time between first ultrarun and first 100m<\/td>\n | 10+ months<\/td>\n | 2 months<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| General endurance<\/td>\n | Gets tired after 4 hours<\/td>\n | Warms up after 4 hours<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Temerature sensitivity<\/td>\n | Gets slow in heat and cold<\/td>\n | Claims doesn’t like heat, but unable to prove it<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n |
| Final thoughts in a race<\/td>\n | Thank god its over. Where’s the bed?<\/td>\n | Sniff. It’s over already???<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n |
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