| PRE | Swimming to Antartica | Ultramarathon Man | Becoming an Ironman | The Extra Mile | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Science of Hitting | Tin Cup Dreams | Changing Lives | Surviving The Toughest Race On Earth | To The Edge |
(The Story of America’s Greatest Running Legend)
(Steve Prefontaine)
by Tom Jordan (1997)
Steve Roland Prefontaine grew up in the Oregon coastal town of Coos Bay, where he acquired his energetic toughness. During a 3 week physical education conditioning program in 8th grade, he got interested in running. From there, he ran for the Marshfield Pirates, enjoying undefeated cross country seasons leading to a state title, shattering a national high school 2 mile record and becoming a phenomenon known as ‘Pre’.
At the University of Oregon, Pre was coached by the legendary Bill Bowerman, who invented a racing flat called the ‘The Waffle’. In Eugene, Steve won 3 NCAA cross country titles as well as a 4 time winner and NCAA record holder at the 3 mile distance in becoming a fan favorite at Hayward Field. In the 1972 Olympic Trials, he won the 5000 meters and at a tune-up race for the games in Norway, he demolished the American 3000 meter record. But, at the Olympics, he was cut off twice by cagey veterans, finishing a disappointing 4th as Lasse Viren of Finland took the gold.
After college, Steve kept running as an ‘open’ athlete to retain his amateur status for the 76’ Montreal Games. He ran several European meets, touring Finland and Sweden, once setting up a meet against the whole town. Constantly battling the AAU, who governed the sport, Steve fought over restrictions, sanctions and adequate funding.
Pre had enormous energy and ran every race like it was his last. Always in constant motion, often doing 2 things at once and holding 3 part time jobs, Steve never missed a workout. With a strict regimen of pull-ups and push-ups, he accepted the mental and physical punishment of training 90 miles per week. In college, he rose at 6am to run, then serve as the fraternity breakfast cook.
Steve went out and shared his gift. He would run and socialize with older joggers. He made public appearances, started a jogging club, held clinics for kids, wrote workouts for women track athletes and started a running program at the state penitentiary. He organized a tour for European runners to race him on his home turf. To help raise money to rebuild the grandstands at Hayward Field, invitational races where held with ‘Pre’ being the main attraction. He even worked the floor at Nike’s first retail store, becoming its’ first sports marketing agent, sending out sneaker samples to runners.
In January 1975, he took the VO2 max test at the Aerobics Research Institute in Dallas and scored an 84 plus, bettered by only 1 or 2 athletes. On May 29, 1975 he beat his good friend Frank Shorter in the 5000 in front of 7,000 spectators, keeping his winning streak of races over a mile alive at 25 at Hayward Field.
Later that night after attending a party, Steve flipped over his 1973 MGB hitting a natural rock wall, now known as ‘Pre’s Rock’ and died.
Steve is remembered in many ways. There’s the annual Prefontaine Classic in Eugene and a 10K held in September in Coos Bay. Being a catalyst for Nike, a building and statue are named after him in their Beaverton offices. He got his wood-chip jogging trail, he first saw in Europe, built in a park. And in 1978, with the help of Mr. Shorter, the Amateur Sports Act was passed to reorganize the sport of track and field.
Whenever Steve spoke to young athletes, he’d end with this sentence.
“To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift.”
Swimming To Antarctica
(Tales of a Long – Distance Swimmer)
by Lynne Cox
In her book, Swimming To Antarctica, Lynne Cox takes you to the far-off reaches of the world, breaking records, making successful first attempts and bridging nations together in this cold water swimming experiment.
The Cox family moved from New Hampshire to Long Beach, California to focus mainly on 12 year old Lynne’s swimming. Here, she swam next to Olympic swimmers and was under the watchful eye of coaches. Noticing that Lynne got stronger as the workouts went on, the coach recommended some long distance races. So, Lynne entered all 3 of the Seal Beach Rough Water Swims, winning one and placing 2nd and 3rd in the others.
From there, she was invited to workout with a team of 14 year olds preparing for the 21 mile Catalina Channel Swim. After all-night stay awake parties, the team gathered for 5am workouts off Seal Beach. The team did descending swim drills practicing in a V formation while drinking hot tea from plastic ketchup bottles. Waiting for neap tide, which yields less current, the team of 5 kicked off at midnight from Catalina Island. Over 12 hours and 27 miles later, 4 of the 5 completed the swim with Lynne waiting for a teammate to finish as a team.
Lynne’s next conquest would be the English Channel, a body of 50 to 60 degree water, strong tides and currents. First, she’d have to find an ex-perienced pilot to guide her across. Second, she decided on swimming from England to France. Thirdly, Lynne would have to wait for the right night to start. Pushing off Shakespeare Beach near Dover, Lynne had to swim an inverted S course because of tidal changes in and out of the Channel. During her crossing on July 20, 1972, she encountered a boatload of lettuce, sprinted ahead of an oil tanker to save time and fought to get ashore to finish at Cape Gris-Nez near Wissant, France to set a new world record of 9 hours 57 minutes. Shortly after, Davis Hart of Massachusetts broke Lynne’s record by 13 minutes. Maybe catching a little ‘Channel Fever’, Lynne returned the next year to take the record back. This time, she swam a total of 33 miles in tougher conditions crossing in a record 9 hours 36 minutes.
Later that year in the summer of 74’, Lynne was invited to Egypt to swim a 20 mile race held in the Nile River. Losing 20 pounds in 10 days, fighting a case of dysentery, Lynne decided to tackle the double figure eight course in the center of Cairo. Swimming in terribly dirty water amongst dead dogs, mine barrels and kids throwing rocks at her from the riverbank, Lynne held on for 15 miles before DNF-ing. Being taken from the water totally dehydrated and having a heart rate dangerously over 200, she watches her Egyptian friend Monir win the race.
At 17, Lynne kept up her training by swimming on the girls team and playing on the boys water polo team. Being in the record breaking mood, she went back to do the Catalina Crossing. It was no easy task this time around being lost in fog, getting pulled down by the slipstream of a tanker and having flying fish attack both her and her guide on paddleboard. But, Lynne Cox broke the record in 8 hours 48 minutes and now looked for swims that had never been done before.
First, Lynne headed to New Zealand to become the first woman to swim the Cook Strait between the North and South Islands. The proposed 12 miler turned into much more as she fought heavy seas and 9 foot high waves. Being broadcast all over the home country and entertained by dolphins, Lynne beared down and focused by counting her strokes 1 to 1,000 over and over until she reached shore.
The Strait of Magellan from the tip of Chile to the Argentine Island of Tierra Del Fuego would be next. Here, Lynne trained 2 weeks in 44 degree water before tackling the mile and a half, ship-wrecked filled First Narrows. Fighting cold water temperatures, watching for whirl- pools and sprinting to beat out a storm, she was the first to cross in 1 hour 3 minutes.
(Insert Book Cover here)
The Cape of Good Hope off South Africa, where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans collide, put up some fight against Lynne. But, being watched over by speargunners for sharks, she added this one to her resume.
In 1976, while attending UCSB, Lynne began a 9 year letter writing compaign to ask permission to swim the Bering Strait. Averaging a letter a day, contacting officials and assistants and actually going to the Soviet consulate in San Francisco, Lynne got nowhere on her proposed swim. So, to generate interest in her Bering project, she would attempt a series of swims in the coldest and most difficult waterways in the world.
Her around the world in eighty days tour started in the Potomac River. Then, to Iceland, to swim the freshwater 7 mile Lake Myvatn. Here, she met with the Coca-Cola president , who granted her sponsorship. She continued on to the Strait of Gibraltar, Strait of Messina, the Greek Isle of Delos, Bosporus in Turkey, Lake Kumming in China, 5 lakes in Mt. Fuji area of Japan, the 38 degree water of Glacier Bay and finally the Golden Gate Crossing. Adding to her endurance escapades, Lynne would later swim Siberia’s Lake Baikal, the 7 mile Beagle Channel from Argentina to Chile, the Spree River in Berlin, Lake Titicaca and the Gulf of Aqaba going from Egypt to Israel.
After maintaining several jobs as a librarian, physical therapist assistant, writing articles and giving swim lessons to pay bills and fund her project, Lynne emptied her bank account. With still no word from the Soviets, Lynne put together her A –team and traveled to the small island of Little Diomede, Alaska in the Bering Sea.
Just one day before her proposed swim date, the Soviets answered with a ‘yes’ and the swim was on. Getting no support from either Coast Guards, Lynne set out in 42 degree water with her team following in walrus skin boats called umiaks. Being closely monitored by doctors, Lynne arrived on the Soviet island of Big Diomede, completing the 2.7 miles in 2 hours 6 minutes. Greeted with hugs and kisses and given her babushka, her core temperature was dangerously down to 94 degrees, borderline for hypothermia. After an hour of shivering to warm the body, Lynne knew she pushed her body. Her 11 year campaign was ever more sweet when a short while after the swim, Gorbachev and Reagan signed the INF Missile Treaty. Now, she wanted to take it a step, or should I say a few degrees colder.
Again, Lynne gathered her team and made the long journey to Antarctica. In preparation for this swim, Lynne took all the pre-cautions by growing her hair and toenails long, got fluoride treatments for her teeth and had formfitted ear plugs made. Besides the 32 degree water, her team would be on the watch for killer whales, leopard seals, icebergs, brash ice and catastrophic calving. Lynne gained confidence on her test swim, which extended her to 22 minutes in 33 degree water going .92 miles. She swam at her fastest ever at 90 strokes per minute mainly to stay warm and avoid freezing. Despite an altered course and frenzied penguins watching her, Lynne swam the first Antarctic mile (1.06 miles) in 32 degree water in 25 minutes on December 15, 2002.
Along this wonderful journey we are taken on, Lynne is a human research subject. Constantly being tested, doctors discover Lynne is of neutral buoyancy as her body density is exactly the same as seawater so she is at one with the water. Researchers also find that she can lower the set point on the body’s natural thermostat, so she doesn’t have to work as hard to stay warm. So, when she needs to work at such a high rate, her body creates more heat rather than losing heat. Her body has learned to reduce blood flow to the extremities efficiently and well distributed bodyfat acts as an internal wetsuit keeping her warm.
Throughout the swims, Lynne pulls you into the cold water, giving her thoughts and describing her body experiencing the pain. During these sections of the book, I found myself reading and breathing faster.
This book gives you a lesson in geography, swimming, teamwork, the human body and persistence. More importantly, she taught me to believe in your project by constantly going out and doing it.
Sorry guys for this long book review. But, this is a must read.
To learn more about Lynne Cox, go to www.lynnecox.org.
Ultramarathon Man
Confessions of an All - Night Runner
As I continue my research on ultrarunning, this month I read Dean Karnazes’ Ultramarathon Man. Although this book was published before his 50 in 50 in 50 in 2006, Dean gives us his previous life and racing experiences.
We catch Dean on an all – night run ordering pizza and cheesecake to be delivered while he continues his 199 mile solo trek. Yes, he could be part of a relay team. But, Dean takes it upon himself to raise money for Libby Wood, a little girl awaiting a liver transplant.
This all happened because Dean left a bar on the night of his 30th birthday and ran 30 miles. After a 15 year layoff caused by a high school coach's remarks about Dean running with his heart, Dean explains his mission of extreme endurance events.
It starts in junior high, winning a 1 mile race on his coaches instruction to go out hard so it hurts like hell. He continues as a bloodied high school freshmen winning a cross – country championship. Things all changed after his sister Pary dies in a car accident and Dean meanders through college, marriage and up the corporate ladder.
Dean picks up the pace when he hears about the Western States 100 from 2 military guys and qualifies with a 50 miler, afterward vomiting all over the Lexus. Onto the WS100, where Dean takes you on the trail. Here, he put the fear of ultrarunning in me as he keeps you on the edge by pushing his body to the limit and battles a bout of night blindness. With the possibility of DNF-ing, Dean prevails loving every minute of the pain and moves on to his next conquest, Badwater. But, not so fast as the RV breaks down, soles melt and Dean passes out at 72 miles.
Dean takes this defeat hard and redeems himself as he turns on a search and destroy mission over the next decade throwing himself into various extreme endurance tests. With his resting heart rate in the 30’s, Dean takes us to the South Pole to run the first marathon there in minus 40 degree temperatures. In the end, we go back to Team Dean, his family and friends crewing him for close to 48 hours as he gives the gift of life.
To learn more about Dean Karnazes, please visit his website at:
(ultramarathonman.com)
Becoming An Ironman
First Encounters with the Ultimate Endurance Event
By Kara Douglass Thom (2001)
Walking around Kona the day after becoming an Ironman, I spotted this book at a local gym. I gobbled up many of the stories on the plane ride home to Jersey as I now could relate to the athletes’ first ex periences with the distance. I was especially drawn to the ones who raced Hawaii.
You find 37 delightful, some quite funny personal accounts of those
who DNFed, ones who just made it, fast first-timers, old timers,
globe trotters, the physically challenged and some stories that take you back to the early ironmans. Along the way, you’ll read about trans
formations, injuries, accidents, hygiene issues, anxiety, victories,
breakdowns, disqualifications and the patience of winning the
Ironman lottery.
Some of the great stories are the father/son team known as the Hoyt’s, who tell their amazing story of first being turned down from Ironman and later proving that Yes, You Can. How about Carlos Moleda, a Navy Seal getting shot in Panama and becoming a physically challenged hero. Scott Tinley and Bob Babbitt take you back to the beginnings and give us a history lesson.
There are many more tales that will totally absorb you. But, if you like reading short stories of athletic experiences, you’ll want to read this book and after you’ll want to become an Ironman.
The Extra Mile
By Pam Reed
My interest in Badwater, a 135 mile ultra endurance footrace stirs up in July, when the race is run. It starts in Badwater, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere at 282 feet below sea level in the middle of Death Valley. A selected group of athletes will run in 120 degree heat across salt flats, over steep mountain passes ending partially up Mount Whitney, California.
This is one of the races I have on my lifelong to –do list. I must have a credible endurance resume and be at the mercy of the race committee to be selected to run. I can’t stop thinking of the movie Rudy in this instance. The scene where Rudy’s football friend says, “part of me is under the delusion that someday I’ll get to run out of that tunnel.” In my relation to being selected to run Badwater right now, that’s how I feel. Anyway, I can dream as I go ahead with my research on the event and no better place to start then reading Pam Reed’s book, The Extra Mile.
Growing up in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, where a hard work ethic is instilled on her, Pam was always on the move participating in a variety of sports from cheerleading, track , tennis and gymnastics. She most wanted to be a top-flight gymnast and idolized Olga Korbut. Wanting that type of build, not the body of other physically developed girls, the trigger for anorexia athletica starts. She talks in depth about this problem, but later discovers it conditions her body to function on minimal nutrition, which hardwires her for endurance events.
Her story continues in Arizona, where she fails at a travel agency, but takes over the Tucson Marathon and builds the participant base from 150 to over 4000 runners. She explains the business, people involved in helping her and odd things that happen on race day like retrieving rental car keys from the Johnny.
In 2002 and 2003, Pam was the overall winner of the Badwater 135. She explains the entire race, the duties and importance of a crew and being under the tutelage of an innovator like Chuck Giles. Pam also takes you around the world to races like her transatlantic double, various 24 and 48 hours competitions and 100 milers that she triumphs and DNF’s.
Being obsessive – compulsive about exercising, Pam ups the ante and furthers the argument that women are making gains by continuously running 300 miles.
She gives you insight on nutrition, the 3 type of athletes, the 3 type of goals for races, other great ultra runners, her favorite races and the rivalry with her male counterpart Dean Karnazes.
We are talking about the ultimate busy. A mother of three and step mom to two more, she often breaks up her training runs into 4 parts of the day behind her favorite device, the baby stroller.
Hopefully, one day I’ll get to run out of my tunnel onto the same roads Pam has run through Death Valley and curse out, “Thanks Pam”.
To learn more about Pam Reed, go to (pamreedrunner.com)
The Science of Hitting
By Ted Williams and John Underwood (1986)
In 1941, Ted Williams batted .406 and only 2 hitters (Rod Carew –1977 @ .388 and George Brett-1980 @ .390) since have threatened the magical mark. So, I’d say that gives Teddy the authority to write a book on hitting, in which he does. The Science of Hitting was republished in 1986 loaded with information and color pictures.
First, let’s start with Teddy’s 3 Rules:
Get a Good Ball to Hit:
95% - Teddy took the first pitch. The advantages are:
1) Refreshes your memory of the pitchers’ speed & delivery
2) Gave you time to get settled into an at-bat (tempo)
3) Found out as much as possible by making him pitch
Proper Thinking:
Always be thinking – what’s his best pitch – what does he get you out on.
Quick with the Bat:
Teddy’s preference was a lighter bat. Here’s why.
Next, let’s talk about how Teddy got his 521 career home runs.
Cocking of the Hips:
This is the root of batting power.
Slight Upswing:
This swing path matches the trajectory of the incoming pitch thus increasing the area of solid contact.
Impact with the Ball:
At impact, the wrists are square and unbroken.
Next, Teddy Ballgame had a (10.9) At-Bat to Strikeout Ratio because of these factors.
2 Strike Hitting:
The ideal 2 strike swing is the “push” swing – it’s the shortest stroke giving you more time.
You’ll also find a chart of his batting average according to pitch location.
Teddy also gives you adjustments to various pitches you’ll see. If you’re grounding out –you are swinging too early. If you pop up – usually your swing is too late.
High Riding Fastball Pitchers: Bob Feller
Low Pitches:
Some recommend upper cutting the low pitch. But, Teddy suggests this:
Teddy finishes the book with some bunting tips with the help of Nellie Fox and how to break slumps. At the back of the book is a great gallery of 20th century hitters as Teddy declares Rogers Hornsby as the closest to being the complete hitter.
I’d like to finish with looking at the Splendid Splinter’s career statistics and what could have been as he missed (1943 –1945) season’s to military service and a good part of 1952 & 1953 also.
Ted Williams career statistics:
HRs RBI’s Hits Runs BB BA
Litetime Stats 521 1839 2654 1798 2021 .344
Scott’s Calculated Additions 160 525 800 570 500
for missed playing time.
Enhanced Totals 681 2364 3454 2368 2521
All – Time Leaders 762 2297 4256 2295 2190
His Career BA @ .344 stands 7th all – time.
Case closed guys. The greatest hitter of all – time.
Tin Cup Dreams
A Long Shot Makes It on the PGA Tour
Michael D’Antonio (2000)
In November 1997, Michael D’Antonio went to Q School, a six day – six round qualifying tournament for top flight amateurs and struggling pro golfers, that tests a players’ nerves to earn their PGA Tour cards. He went here not to play, but to find the ultimate grinder and follow him through the year. He found his man in 35-year-old Esteban Toledo.
Toledo is at Q School for the tenth time, being successful only once before in 1993. Having sacrificed 10 years of his life to pursue being a professional golfer, Esteban has learned from past failures and chips in from ten yards off the green on the last hole of the tournament to secure his 1998 PGA Tour card.
Esteban grew up in Mexicali, Mexico as the tenth of ten children. Slow in developing his speech, he was destined for a life of work. As a young boy, he found his older brother murdered in a river and witnessed death again as his father died of a sudden heart attack. With his mother in a chronic depression, he was left to raise himself and work on a farm. But, young Esteban sang for coins, organized putting tournaments for neighborhood kids, swam across a canal to the golf club to scavenge for balls and clubs, where he sold them on the fairway.
As a result of getting beat up at school, he learned to box. At 16, he fought professionally with a 12 – 1 record, before acute appendicitis ended his career. He worked on the driving range, picking up balls by hand and as a caddie at the Mexicali Country Club. Here, he taught himself the game of golf with a Calvinistic commitment to practice. It was also here, where Jon Minnis spotted Esteban and took him back to Milpitas, California to focus on his golf game. He turned pro in 1986, playing small tourneys in Asia, Mexico and the U. S. He joined the Nike Tour in 1990 and played that circuit for a number of years.
To get ready for the 98’ Tour, Esteban chooses a 47-year-old Nike Tour caddie named Robert Szczesny, who previously worked with racehorses, sometimes even sleeping with them. Next, Esteban has to set up sponsorship agreements with Toyota, Titleist, Taylor Made, Tear Drop and La Mode. While on tour, Esteban earns extra money and represents the PGA by playing in Monday pro – ams, giving golf clinics and showing up early to talk to amateurs.
The author, D’Antonio will follow Esteban, his wife Colleen and son Nicholas, throughout the entire 98’ Tour season. He will chronicle and give a blow-by-blow account, keeping an eye on Esteban’s progress towards keeping his card. Along the way, you’ll be kept updated on other Q Schoolers and learn facts about golf and how the PGA Tour operates.
It’s not until May, at the Bell South Classic, played outside Atlanta, where Esteban breaks through with a 3rd place finish that vaults him to 65th on the money list. Then, at the final round of a tournament in Massachusetts in early August, he playfully asks his caddie, “an 80 or 64 today?” He shoots the 64, places 7th, pushing him past the estimated $230,000 mark, required to stay in the Top 125.
Esteban finishes the Tour with $327,000, placing him 93rd on the money list. Although, he averages 260 yards off the tee, he finished 15th in accuracy and 13th in Saturday scoring average. In the end, Esteban says he will retire once he wins a tournament to validate his career as a professional golfer.
Changing Lives: Achieving Your Untapped Potential
Michael Giudicissi (2006)
I knew I’d enjoy this book in the preface when Mike comes at you rough and sets the tone when he sees himself in the mirror. Mike reacts to himself like - what the flock, enough is enough. I have to do something about this. Many of us, myself included, get to this point in life. But, don’t know what to do. What’s my next step? What have I been doing? Where do I begin? Do I have any goals?
Mike tells me to taste the book and clip out a recipe. So, I went ahead and did just that. He gives you many things to chew on in short, concise chapters. Throughout the book, he mentions leaders like Ghandi, movies, songs, TV personalities and sports stars to illustrate his point.He helps the book along by giving an account of his triathlon training, his family and loss of a child. Mike’s love of the sport of triathlon comes out when he takes you on a journey through his first Ironman experience in Florida.
In the book, he says to be an owner of the human spirit. Be self – directed and do more. Surround yourself with a positive environment.Go to a new level of yourself. Attack frontiers and pain thresholds in every fiber of your body. Keep establishing a new best. Re – invent yourself and move on to a better you. Use the past as a library to help you on where you’re headed and change that ‘default programming’.Learn to balance the three ‘me’s’ and love the ‘me’.
OK, here is where Mike got me going. In chapter 5, he tells me to do more things than other people would consider doing and show how much one person can accomplish in their time on this planet. No slowing down. No way, man. Practice life. Hell, take on more.
In chapter 9, he changes my life. For years, I’d be telling my friends I’m starting a website to write about my athletic endeavors. After a while, my friends would react to me like the china man Bruce Lee meets on the ship to America in the movie Dragon when he says – yeah – yeah, sure – sure. But, Mike told me to put myself “in the picture” of who and what I dream to be. Mike excels in his story of how he became a national triathlon magazine writer. He put himself – in the picture.
Another recipe I took was in chapter 14, where a 4-step approach is given on slowing down time to make you more effective. A home run is hit in the second part of the book with his hammer called the Power of Goals. He gives you 5 questions to ask yourself about your goals and spends some time on a very important aspect of goals and that’s “The Want”.
I must thank Michael for getting me started. With the help of friends,I’ve started a website that has become a big part of my life.
To learn more about Michael Guidicissi, please visit his website at:
(Powerofgoals.com).
Surviving The Toughest Race On Earth
Martin Dugard (1998)
Tormented by wanting to see the world, Martin Dugard steps out of the corporate world into freelance sportswriting to cover a new extreme sport of the 90’s, adventure racing.
The first adventure race was called the Raid Gauloises raced in 1989 on the South Island of New Zealand, under the direction of Gerard Fusil. The new sport had teams of competitors guiding themselves over hundred’s of miles in the harshest environments doing a multitude of disciplines from horseback riding, mountain biking, whitewater rafting, trail running and hiking, sea kayaking, canoeing, spelunking, orienteering, ice climbing, swimming river crossings, cross-country skiing, tyrolean traverse and other mystery events, in a non-stop six to twelve day race.
Having been called by Mark Burnett, who spotted an article written by Martin in Runners World, to cover firsthand the 93’ Madagascar Raid and then the 94’ Raid in Borneo. Martin takes you on his adventure and not-so glamorous job of covering the event, as he often will be stranded and waiting for days for a ride to the next checkpoint. He, also, must sleep just yards away from a lake of crocodiles and wash in a river that has zebu turd floating downriver past him.
Although, after getting a taste for the sport, Martin juggles life to compete in the next Raid. As team captain, he must schedule team-training sessions and handle a tough decision to drop a friend from the team. Other responsibilities will be to gather equipment, raise money for travel expenses and call companies for sponsorship. But, after just 4 days racing in the 95’ Raid in Patagonia as part of Team Dockers, Martin steps the wrong way on a steep descent straining an MCL.
Martin goes on being a freelancer, with writing assignments that include the opening of a Disneyland ride, being a passenger on a Concorde record-breaking flight and staying on a tall ship racing the
Mediterranean.
In 1997, Martin goes back to satisfy his urge to complete a Raid in Lesotho, a small country located within South Africa. This time, he is offered to start the race alone at the back of the pack and join on to a team that loses a member. On day one at the third checkpoint, he joins Lestra Sport.
As he gets to know his new team, they encounter their first obstacle overturning several times while canoeing rapids. The race progresses on with horseback riding and mountaineering. During this phase, they lose a teammate, who carries the mandatory emergency beacon. Martin’s dream of completing the Raid is in the hands of a jury, which decides to stop Lestra Sport. But, after pleading, the race committee lets them continue on the stipulation that they always remain in last place.
After surviving getting tossed and tumbled in the Class IV rapids of the Umkomaas River, one hundred miles of mountain biking lay ahead. Here, Martin gets separated from his team, who has abandoned the race. Now, he is left with a decision to drop out with his newfound team or continue to finish solo as he started. Struggling to move forward from bonking and dehydration, Martin stops and decides to quit. A camera crew refuses a ride, leaving him no choice but to continue. Martin bypasses the final canoe stage, peddling on to finish his Raid quest in 12 days of non-stop movement.
To learn more about Martin Dugard, please visit his website.
(Martindugard.com)
To The Edge- (A Man, Death Valley, and the Mystery of Endurance)
Kirk Johnson (2001)
How about this. Take a year off from work to train and compete in what is considered the “world’s toughest footrace”. That’s what Kirk Johnson, a 41 year old New York Times reporter, got to do in his book,To The Edge. With minimal prior running experience, Kirk tries to understand endurance as he dissects and researches everything about the Badwater 135, an ultra run through Death Valley.
We pick up the book as Kirk is sitting on the side of the road in the middle of the night, repeating mantras to himself, 43 miles into a 50 mile race called the Boogie in North Carolina. This will be the furthest distance and last race he’ll run before he will be subjected to temperatures over 120 degrees and blacktop that radiates 200 degrees up into a runners’ feet, in a place gold seekers named Death Valley.
Immediately following the suicide of his older brother Gary, Kirk questions his stability and responds by running. He is sent to do a story about ultrarunner Lisa Smith, where he first hears the name Badwater. From there on, he dives into the subject and completes the New York City Marathon along with a couple 50 milers. He interviews a few of the participants and travels to Death Valley for a training weekend hosted by Dr. Ben Jones. After gathering up all the insight, information, materials, food and advice he could find, Kirk asks his brother Wayne and sister Pat to crew for him.
On to the 1999 race we go where 42 starters had a delayed start because of a rainstorm the night before. Kirk runs into problems just 20 miles into the race, as he is unable to eat, dehydrating with swollen feet and blisters. They take care of this problem with toeless shoes as sister Pat runs along with his brother for the next 20 miles to Stovepipe Wells.
The next 40 miles will be started at night as they head up and over the Panamint Mountains to Father Crowley Point. During the night, Kirk is handed an experimental telephone by two anonymous guys. He also takes out his collection of music and opera tapes he compiled to fire him up. The mental and physical fatigue starts to slow Kirk down to less than 17-minute miles as he starts the second night. Around the 100-mile mark, Wayne makes a wrong turn to put them off course into the town of Keeler. As they get back on Highway 190, they now focus on nothing more than going forward and the van’s taillights ahead. The next target will be the town of Lone Pine at mile 122, where they will start a 5,000 foot climb over the last 13 miles to finish at Mt. Whitney portal. About 5 miles from the finish, a documentary filmmaker puts a mike in front of Kirk. Kirk breaks down as he thinks of his brother and says, “I’m alive. I go on.” Yes Kirk, you do go on and break the tape in 54 hours –26 minutes.