Month: May 2018

Born to Run Ultra Marathon https://ultrasignup.com/register.aspx?did=48902. Below is a quote from the website:

Course
Fast 20 mile loops of single and double track trail 100% dirt. Gentle rolling hills with approximately 2300 feet of vertical gain per loop. Minimal but adequate aid approximately every five miles. Extremely easy crew access every ten miles. This relatively non-technical PR course is perfect for the advanced or novice distance runner. No qualifying standards, everyone is welcome.

60 Mile
The 2019 Born To Run 60 Mile Endurance Run with start at 6:00am on Saturday, May 18. The course will be closed at 12:00pm noon on Sunday, May 19. Cut off time is 30 hours.

The course is comprised of 20 mile loops all within a fenced cattle ranch. the course will be well marked, you will not get lost. The course is 100% dirt road and trail. There is approximately 2,300 feet of gain per each 20 mile loop.

There will be basic aid approximately every 5 miles. You will pass the Main Camp and your personal vehicle every 10 miles. You are welcome to self crew from your personal vehicle. No pacers.”

Fueling, Clothing, Resting – QUESTING!
I am a 115 pound, 5’3” 67 year-old female. I have been questing after the 60 mile ultra marathon for 3 years. Over the last 6 years, on several long runs, I experienced devastating leans to the right, left, front and back after reaching 13 miles, usually after going out too fast. These horrors haunt me on every distance run. No one seems to know what happens or how to handle it. The consensus is it may be related to muscle fatigue.

To mitigate the problem on this attempt, I demanded to stay as light as possible. I did not wear a fuel belt or CamelBack. I used my zipped pockets to carry 2 full Hammer dispensers of strawberry-vanilla Perpetuem solids, a small bottle of water, received at the aid stations, and 1 to 2 almond cacao vegan protein or peanut butter chocolate whey protein bars.

I wore Black Diamond headlamps, Altra Zero-Drop The Ones, Injinji socks, changed at 30 miles, a light North Face Hyvent jacket, 1970s Adidas windbreaker bell bottom pants, a Nike warm long-sleeved Pro Dry-Fit shirt, Nike and Adidas lightweight tights and, of course, my 2018 261 Fearless Team Boston shirt. Three layers of clothes at night, one in the day.

At the end of each 10 miles, I arrived at the base camp. This consisted of our car and Mary and Tello Perez’s tent, which we parked next to. Mary and Tello Perez are ultra coaches and supporters extraordinaire! Mary completed her first 60 miler about 2 hours and 46 minutes before I did on 5/19/18. Tello completed his first 100-miler at Born to Run 2017.

Mary and I were together for the first 40 miles. At base camp, mile 40, I told Mary I was staying behind to rest a bit longer. I run by heart rate. Mine was a little too fast and thready for my liking. Tello agreed, but never let my dream of finishing the 60 miles die. While I was recovering, Tello coached another 100-miler through a low point. Tello was absolutely essential in bringing it home for two 100-miler ultra marathoners and one 60-miler, me. I can never thank him enough! This is no easy job coaching ultra marathoners when they are having a low!! For me, it takes someone who has been there and conquered it to even gain my attention, respect and belief.

I kept a Perpetuem solid dissolving in my mouth for most of the 60 miles. I drank water and had a Hammer bar whenever I felt like it, on the trail or at the base station. At each 10-mile base camp stop, I fueled with 2 scoops of chocolate Recoverite and 2 scoops of Fully Charged. Over the course of the six 10-mile stops at base camp, I took 4 Endurolytes Extremes and 4 Anti-Fatigue Caps. I drank about 20 ounces each of Trader Joe’s To the Power of 7 and Whole Foods’ organic apple juice. I also drank 3 bottles of Starbucks mocha frappuccino. Tello cooked me a cheese quesadilla at mile 40 and I ate all of that. At mile 45, I stopped at the aid station, feeling a little weak. The attendants were magnificently kind and helpful, assessing me, putting my feet up, cutting up an orange for me, and serving me cups of melons and strawberries, gatorade and coke. They suggested Pickle Juice, but we agreed to pass on this until I have had some experience with it.

The last 15 miles in the late afternoon sunshine were comparatively uneventful and actually happy times. I was completely alone, saw a large snake sunning itself across the road and a deer crossing the road. A killer descent comes up at about mile 55. I was a little distrustful of how my 55-mile legs would handle this load. When I reached the bottom of the descent, I knew, “I HAVE THIS!” After chasing the dream for three years, I was only a few miles and a couple of hours from VICTORY. My speed and strength increased the closer I got to base camp. Still, I was prepared to spend the night out there in an aid station, if that’s what it took. Quitting was not an option. Ii would have felt so much worse than anything I had experienced so far, if I quit.

During the race, I experienced 4 of the 12 common problems ultra marathoners face, thankfully only in minor forms https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/health/ultramarathon/?noredirect=on. Blisters, bleary eyes, heart “problems” and GI issues.They did not appear until after mile 40. I am always leery of the lean. I was also concerned about the cold and being out in the dark. The cold was not a problem after finishing the 2018 Boston Marathon. And I loved being out all night on the ranch. It was a different and magical world. The people out there that night were a hoot! The lean, to the left this time, began to appear at about mile 53. I slowed down, shortened my stride, prayed and monitored it.

My husband, Ken, met me carrying my jacket about 1/2 mile from base camp. When I came in to base camp, I yelled, “Done! 60 miles for a 67 year-old!” I had a little parade of kids and young people pacing me to the finish chute. I grabbed and hugged Luis Escobar just outside of the chute. The little kids ran through it with me. They seemed amazed at my age and the distance. They said, “You are awesome!” It was. And they were.

My husband and I now have our sights on the Born to Run Ultra 100 belt buckle! Let the Quest Live On!

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1991. I was 40 years old. I had been married 23 years. My husband, Ken, and were raising our 22 year-old daughter and 16 year-old son and looking forward to our Silver Anniversary. I had a Bachelor’s Degree and was working at LA County Library, where I still work 27 years later.

I found the lump near the center of my chest myself. It felt like a very hard BB and was visible by the time the diagnosis was changed from cyst to aggressive breast cancer in a rapid S-pase 6 months later. The tumor was missed on a mammogram. I did not fit any of the profiles. No family history, thin, healthy, always the dedicated exerciser.

To say my family and I were shocked at the terrifying, unexpected diagnosis is a complete and total understatement. In one sentence, I heard, “Modified Radical Mastectomy, Chemo, Radiation, Drugs, Possibly in the Lungs.” I asked how much time I had. The doctor couldn’t even extend my life for TWO WEEKS!

After fainting and coming to, I came back swinging. My husband was crying so hard, I actually got us to a pharmacy, bought a box of tissues,  drove us home and called my family.

As a global thinker who operates 20 years in the future, one of the hardest tasks I had was to learn to live minute-by-minute. My head felt like it was cut off and replaced facing backward. I refused to subscribe to even a magazine, thinking I might not be here. I loved hearing my family laughing when I was in another room, knowing they were happy and would be fine when I was gone.

I was warned I would have an issue with swelling of my arm, lymphedema, for the rest of my life. After surgery, I was given an extensive list of things to avoid. I was blessed to have never experienced this issue, but every woman I knew at the time came down with it.

As an avid believer in exercise, I asked my doctor about physical restrictions. He told me to do whatever I felt like. And I did. I pushed myself from the first day from surgery and continue to do so to this day. Kathrine Switzer says, “Running gave me myself.” Yes, Kathrine, it does. After breast cancer had robbed me of so much, It was not going to take another thing from me without a fight. Also, after hearing those dreaded words at diagnosis, there is very little, especially the word, “No,” that can rile me.

I drove myself to chemo, administered by IV, twice a month, for six months. I was treated with CMF, cyclophosphamide, methotrexate and 5 flourouracil. I drove home as quickly as I could, knowing the severe nausea would grip me at any time, without warning. Injectable Zofran helped, but required another trip to the doctor.

I had hair below my waist, which began falling out, clogging the drain and looking completely fried about two weeks after the start of chemo. I went to the hair dresser, who scolded me for using the wrong product. I never told her what was going on. I just told her to cut it all off. Made exercising all that easier.

I have an inkling of what these littlest of our cancer VICTORS and their families will go through in their first minutes, hours, days and weeks. So does One Mission.

Please see their heroic, life-giving plan of attack below and contribute to this cause. We will all feel better and benefit. THANK YOU!

Pat Winiecki

One Mission is a pediatric cancer foundation that does whatever it takes to help kids get through cancer. We just do it in a different way. Rather than fund long-term solutions like research, One Mission funds programs and services that provide immediate relief from the relentless wrath cancer unleashes every single day. Programs and services that lift the spirits of patients and their families, help the healing and recovery process and make life a little easier during treatment and hospitalization. All of the programs we fund directly benefit children and adolescents diagnosed with cancer, the families who support them, and the medical community who compassionately cares for them.

The inspiration behind One Mission came from the founders’ own personal journey with pediatric cancer. They spent six months living at Boston Children’s Hospital while their infant son underwent treatment. During their journey, they identified many ways life could be improved for both patients and their families. Their experience inspired them to start a foundation that would help to ease the devastating toll this disease takes on both patients and their families.

Please help! Visit https://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/PatWiniecki/Falmouth-Road-Race-20181 and donate. Thank you!

 

Getting ready to head out to the ranch in Los Olivos for Luis Escobar’s world-famous Born to Run Ultra.

Today is the birth of this blog site. It is also my birthday.