What It's Like To...

What it's like to Run Ultramarathons

• Elizabeth Pearson Garr • Season 2 • Episode 14

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Most of us can't even stay awake for an entire day and night, but Sarah Lavender Smith runs races that go for 24 hours straight!  Not only that... she also runs 50ks, 100 milers, self-supported stage races (up to 170 miles over several days, carrying everything she needs on her back), trail races, and more.  And ... she has won several of them. 

In this episode, Sarah shares the "how and why" behind her passion for running:

  • the physiological--and mental--benefits of running
  • why her training regimen waxes and wanes
  • what she eats before, and during, races (sometimes--can you believe it--she'll have chicken noodle soup mid-course!)
  • why she doesn't wear earbuds while trail running (what's more dangerous: bears, snakes, or mountain bikers?)
  • what it feels like to run through lightning, blistering heat, and downpours
  • why she cares so deeply about taking care of one's body and hopes to keep running for at least another 25 years

Sarah's enthusiasm for running is infectious.  She just may get you excited to start circling your local track a few times--which is how she started 25 years ago.

Sarah is also a prolific writer.  Find links to her works below.


Want to know more about Sarah?

 
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Sarah  0:00  

Most of the time, if it's 2am in a forest somewhere and I'm racing, my mind is alert because you know, you having a watch where you're going, you're wondering how many miles to the next aid station, you might be trying to stay ahead of someone else. So the drama and adrenaline keeps you awake.


Elizabeth  0:31  

Yes, you heard that right. She said racing in a forest at two o'clock in the morning. I'm Elizabeth Pearson, gar. And on this episode of The Experience podcast, we get up to speed with ultra marathoner, trail runner, author and coach Sarah lavender Smith. Sarah has competed in an even one races from 50 kilometers to 100 miles long. And sometimes she runs for 24 hours straight. Hello, Sarah, and thank you for joining me on my podcast. I'm thrilled to have you here to talk about running and ultra running.


Sarah  1:13  

Well, thank you. It's great to be here. It's something I like talking about. So I appreciate the opportunity.


Elizabeth  1:19  

I'm fascinated to hear about it. Because I am someone who likes to exercise. I feel like it gives me mental clarity and sort of emotionally clears my mind and feels good physically. But I've never once thought it'd be a really fun project to run 100 miles, but that's just as never occurred to me. So I'm wondering it, what is it that's in you, and people like you that has that extra motivation to do so much more than the rest of us?


Sarah  1:48  

Well, everybody's different. I will say I was a late bloomer, that I was not an athletic teenager, or college student, I never really played sports. And I got into running kind of by chance, as a graduate student in my mid 20s, I was 24 years old. And I think it clicked with me because of, physically, physiologically, the feeling it gave me was so good. And it was unlike anything I'd ever experienced earlier in life, since I had not had that athletic or competitive satisfaction earlier in life. But then, psychologically, I think the structure of it, you know, I came to running at a time in life. I was a graduate student at UC Berkeley School of Journalism. And I was super stressed out. And during that time, I took up running and the stress release it gave me and the very simple sense of satisfaction and accomplishment that each run gave me. It really, that's what really got me hooked. And I love the efficiency of it. I mean, I love going to the gym too. And I do yoga videos here at home, and I do some other sports and I enjoy working out. But the structure of running and working up to longer events is what really appeals to me. And the build up to get ready for a longer competition. I just really relished that. And that goal at the end of it,


Elizabeth  3:23  

did you start running small amounts? I mean, did you start with just a few miles and then eventually you became a marathoner. And then, after how many years or months did that turn into the desire to be ultra marathons.


Sarah  3:35  

So I did start small. Of course, I had never in my life run more than six laps around a truck, which is a mile and a half. So I started by doubling that with little three mile runs. And I got into it by chance, because I had a couple of friends who were training for a marathon. It was just a mind blowing thing. Like I didn't know anyone could do that. And as I was very inspired by all the the average looking people crossing the finish line, so I thought, okay, and I just had this secret goal after observing that to come back and do that marathon myself. So it was a one year process. So the next day I did my first ever three mile run, and I learned all I could and so that March of 1995, I ran my first marathon and I had a goal to run the whole thing without walking breaks and try to break for hours, which is averaging roughly nine minute miles, and I did. And I was not feeling really confident in other areas of life. And I think the running gave me a space in my life to do my own thing to think and to incrementally make progress running is very quantifiable. And keeping a running log was really satisfying. And so that's how I got hooked on on it. And when I kind of mommy tracked my career, it was, again an area of life that brought me both physical satisfaction. And then on a psychological level, more ego gratification when I was like, you know, coping with being a new mother, and wondering if I was ever going to be the journalist I trained to be. And so running was like my friend and therapist every day.


Elizabeth  5:25  

And did you tend to create your own training regimens? Or did you have a coach who helped you figure out like, here's your goal, and here's how you can attain it, or did you create all that for yourself?


Sarah  5:37  

A little bit of both. I was training for 10, k's and marathons. And this was the late 90s. I had just gotten out of graduate school, I was working as a reporter. And in my neighborhood of Kensington, this little town north of North Berkeley, there was this woman I would observe running, she'd always run by her house on her way to the trails and tell them park and I asked him who is that, and her name is Ann tracing. And so and tracing to this day still is one of the greatest female ultra runners in the world. And some of her records still stand. She won the western states 100 miler 14 times. She's She was legendary. And then in the mid to late 90s, she was at the peak of her running career. So I got to know her. And she offered help. And I wrote a profile of her for a local newspaper. And it just completely opened my mind. It's as if you know, a young woman starts getting into soccer and then they realize me a hand with their neighbor and Meaghan decides to help them out. It was really similar to that. So that's how I, I learned about the sport even before I started running trails and going longer distances myself Exactly. And then it was in the mid 2000s. After doing a bunch of road marathons, I became more interested in trail running, and I tackled the 50k distance and started running 50 K's


Elizabeth  7:05  

so I don't know really anything about running. So apologies for the dumb questions, but is trail running literally just running on trails


Sarah  7:13  

trail running, literally just running on trails. So trail running and ultra running are not synonymous. I mean, they're trail races at shorter distances. The difference between trail and road running is trail running has a lot more variety and challenges of terrain. So you tend to have a much Hillier elevation profile. And you have the natural obstacles of rocks and roots and things like that. So running running trails tends to be slower, but I find it appealing because because of the variety and because of the being in the natural environment. So Ultra running is anything longer than a marathon. And the standard distances are 50k, which is 31 Miles 50 Miles 100k, which is 62. And then 100 miles. And then there are also fixed time events such as 24 hour events where you run for 24 hours, and the person who who racks up the most mileage within that set time period is the winner. I mean,


Elizabeth  8:18  

that just blows my mind when I read that you did some of those. And I thought, you know, I can't even stay awake for 24 hours. And here you are running for 24 hours or sometimes more. Seriously, how do you do that? It's you've clearly trained a lot for that. But can you just walk me through that, that process of running for so long?


Sarah  8:41  

Well, we do take breaks. There are things called aid stations along the way, where you stop and eat and drink. But there's this thing called beware the chair, which is you don't want to sit down because it's too hard to get up and start going again. So it's funny, you know, I do not struggle with sleep all that much during the middle of these events unless it gets monotonous. So most of the time, if it's you know, 2am in a forest somewhere and I'm racing, my mind is alert because you're having to watch where you're going. You're wondering how many miles to the next aid station, you might be trying to stay ahead of someone else. So the drama and adrenaline keeps you awake. But I tell you the times where I struggle with falling asleep the most were the two times I did a 24 hour event both took place at Crissy Field in San Francisco, which is just a flat waterfront area, and the course was a one mile rectangle. So we had to do repeat loops on a one mile rectangle. And the monotony of that made me sleepy and so I need to play mental games. So for example, I made a game out of trying to note There's something different every single time on that loop. And so it made me highly mindful of that one tiny strip of geography. And it was, it was surprisingly interesting. I mean, you get to see the day in the life of one place. And so it's very meditative, but nonetheless that that got sleepy. And I will say, my last 100 miler in the mountains last summer, it was a really tough 100 miler through the Sawatch range in central Colorado. And, you know, we went up over 13,000 feet a couple of times, it was extremely extreme weather in terms of downpours and lightning. So there were a lot of obstacles and things to overcome throughout the way. So and that was the first time at about 4am, I was going along this forest road. And I just could not keep my eyes open. And I knew from past experience, I get sleepy drive. And whenever I drive somewhere by myself, I get so sleepy. And I know if I pull over and close my eyes for 10 minutes, I feel like a new person. So it was the first time at this race, I got out my emergency bivvy, which is like an emergency blanket the wrap around yourself, I put it on and I passed out and I set an alarm on my phone for 10 minutes. And I woke up completely refreshed and started running again. So I did take a nap. But it really helped. And it was worth


Elizabeth  11:30  

it just didn't get you drowsy, or


Sarah  11:33  

now the real risk was getting cold. I mean, when you're in the mountains in the middle of the night, you have to pay a lot of attention to regulating your body temperature and avoid catching it chill.


Elizabeth  11:45  

And then how about regulating your body and cramping up? How can your body sustain that much continuous exercise for that many hours? Clearly, you're incredibly well trained and fit.


Sarah  11:58  

Yeah, so that's one thing I love about extra long, ultra marathons is there's so much strategy involved around what I call systems management. And what that means is the person who is the fastest or physically fit is not necessarily the one who's going to to win the race is the person who's the smartest and most strategic about taking care of their body along the way. So the key things for systems management are fueling. So mean being able to eat and get in calories, hydration and electrolyte balance, and then thermo regulation, so not getting too hot or too cold. And preventing injuries. I mean, you don't want to trip and fall and really hurt yourself. So being really conscious of taking care of yourself along the way. And managing all those factors is part of the interest and kind of the drama of doing the long distance and part of the challenge that I really liked. So


Elizabeth  12:56  

what sorts of foods do you fuel yourself with beforehand and during the race, so


Sarah  13:02  

beforehand, I mean, whether I'm on a regular training run or race day morning, I eat pretty much something similar, which is just piece of toast with nut butter and coffee and maybe an orange. I mean, it's pretty boring, just you know, 300 or so calories. The key thing is fueling properly during the race. And that really depends on the events, duration and the pace you're trying to go. So if I'm doing a 50k, which maybe takes around five hours, you know, 31 miles, which is, again, this is slower pace than a road marathon like when I was in my prime racing road marathons, I could run marathons and close to three hours. And then 5k Takes about five hours. So for a five hour event, you don't need a ton of calories. But you do need quick burning sugar to fuel your body with carbohydrates, which are the source of fuel, your body can break down and convert to energy most efficiently. So if I'm doing a 50k and I want to run fast and really race it, I'm just going to be taking sugar during it, you know the kind of energy gels and maybe some sports drink. When you get into Ultras that take 12 to 24 hours. You need to eat a lot more and have more variety in what you're eating. So that's where aid stations come in to help or 100 milers. I have some friends lined up to crew me who bring me things like chicken noodle soup or avocado rolls relative or whatever so you really i on a on a long day. On the trail you want to eat more like a hiker or a trucker you know, solid foods like trail mix. Peanut butter and jellies calories that are not too difficult to digest but that have Have a mix of carbohydrates, little bit of protein, a little bit of fat to satiate you. Because you're burning, I mean, it's very easy to get into a calorie deficit. I mean, theoretically, we have enough fat on our bodies, that if if we had to, we could keep going just by burning fat. But if your body is forced to get all of its energy source from burning fat, that is harder to do and doesn't feel as good and your performance is really going to suffer. So that's why you need to keep during the time taking in enough carbohydrates for quicker burning energy to keep going. So


Elizabeth  15:39  

you'll be running and then you'll have a friend over there on the side of the road with the chicken noodle soup. And you'll just eat it pretty quickly and then go run again. I mean, you can


Sarah  15:50  

Yeah, I mean, it depends on the the, you know, at some aid stations, I just cruise through and refill my water bottle. But if it's around lunchtime, or dinner time, and I want to eat something more substantial, I will pause for five minutes or so. And yeah, I've had a slice of pizza case ideas. You know, whatever you can get down without upsetting your stomach. And then


Elizabeth  16:13  

you can just keep going not Yeah, that old mythology about don't jump in the pool right after you've eaten? No, you can just keep going?


Sarah  16:21  

Well, part of training online is for Ultras is you do have to train your gut. I mean, you have to learn what works for your digestive system to avoid nausea or GI distress. And that takes trial and error and a lot of experience.


Elizabeth  16:36  

And so training is most of your life, right? I mean, the races are only what, you know, three, four or five year I guess, absolutely.


Sarah  16:46  

I coach people and I get clients. Clients come to me saying, oh, I want to run my first 50k. And they're so focused on the day of the event, I say, Well, you really have to put the training and I mean, you have it's like a cake you have to bake the cake first. And the the race is just the icing on the cake. Like it's all about the training the day by day, week by week training,


Elizabeth  17:09  

like process versus result, you have to really enjoy the process not just be focused on the end results, you're not enjoying the process. What's the point of the results in the play? So the training itself? What what is that, like? I'm sure that differs for each person and for each race that you're doing. But that's a lot of time. I'm sure you have to spend a lot of time every day every week in training to get these miles in? Well, yes


Sarah  17:36  

and no, I mean training, waxes and wanes. It's a process called periodization. And it means breaking your training up into cycles of building up and then peaking and then recovering. So it all depends on where I'm at in the training cycle. I mean, right now, for example, I'm training for actually a road marathon and it's five weeks away. So now I'm running 50 to 55 miles a week, which isn't super high mileage, but I'm doing more of the training at a higher intensity because road marathons demand faster leg speed. Other times of the year, I go into what I call maintenance mode, which is just maintaining my base. So that's more like 30 miles a week, which is very manageable. And I don't really have super long runs on the weekend. I still always run five to six times a week, but it doesn't have to be super long. So it all depends. And then when I'm peak training for a longer event, like the summer 100 miler, then it's not just the volume of duration or mileage that matters. But it's really the specificity that matters. So I'll be aiming for a high volume of like 70 or so miles a week. But the more important thing is most of those miles are on terrain that matches the race I'm going to do so it's a lot of high altitude mountain running and hiking and longer all day efforts.


Elizabeth  19:08  

When you're running, say training for this marathon or anything. Do you tend to listen to music? Or do you just like to listen to the birds around you? Or what do you think about when you're on these long runs?


Sarah  19:20  

I do everything, everything you just mentioned. So I do love podcasts and audiobooks. There's a safety risk to having air buds in your ears when you're running. So I want to be careful with that. The solution I've come up with is when I listen to a podcast or an audio book, I stick my phone in my hydration pack pocket and I play it off my phone speaker so I can still hear the ambient noise around me on the trail. But then I can hear the the noise coming out of my pocket instead of having it right in my ears and blocking out the ambient noise because yeah I'm when I'm on the trail solo, it's I might occasionally have a large animal encounter because we do have bears and deer and cougars. But the bigger risk really is mountain bikers, you know, I want to hear from mountain bike is barreling down the trail and move out of move out of their way. So keeping my ears open is important. But to answer your question, I do love the occasional podcast and some audio books. But I also love just the quiet and tuning into nature around me.


Elizabeth  20:30  

Have you ever run into a an animal bear?


Sarah  20:33  

Oh, yeah, yeah. I think the worst was when I was going along. And I thought there was something wrong with my air pods because they were all staticky. I'm like, why is it so static? And it's really annoyed, and I took them out. And I realized there was a rattlesnake rattling. Static was


Elizabeth  20:52  

that would have made me run really fast.


Sarah  20:55  

Yeah, no, I mean, I've seen a lot of bears. And thankfully, they've always run away from me, you know, it's just, it's a, whether it's a wild animal like a bear or livestock like cattle, you have to be careful not to get in between the mother animal and its offspring. So thankfully, I've never had a bad experience.


Elizabeth  21:16  

You mentioned that you run most days of a week, even if it's only 30 miles a week or something. Does your body ever just say, not today, like your lower back is hurting? Or your quads or something? Like I just I just can't do it? And do you just power through that and say, Nope, gotta get out and do it? Or is your body just so tuned to this that your body craves wanting to run? Most days of the week?


Sarah  21:41  

No, no, it really I do listen to my body. And it's absolutely varies from day to day or week to week, especially, I mean, I'm menopausal now. But before I went through menopause, like two weeks out of every four weeks of the month, I felt really altered in a bad way because of PMS. And so I do think it's important to respect your body's energy levels. And so instead of skipping the run altogether, I just integrate a lot more hiking to make it low impact, I kind of tried to practice self compassion, and make it feel rounded and intensity, that feels comfortable. I mean, the vast majority of my runs, I would call easy runs, which means I'm running at a low enough heart rate and breathing rate that I can still talk in full sentences and My shoulders feel relaxed, and it's it's just a little bit faster than hiking. And that's all you need to do. It's very simple. It's only once or twice a week when I really pushed the intensity with speed work or trying to really work some hills more aggressively. And it's important to have some high intensity running in your week to increase the your cardiovascular fitness. But when I don't feel like going out, or I don't feel good, because of fatigue, then I just go slower, and maybe not as far. If I'm truly sick or injured, though, of course, I'll take a rest day and recover.


Elizabeth  23:11  

And I know you live in Colorado, so you run all through cold wintry days, right?


Sarah  23:16  

I do. Yeah, there's I mean, I can't run on trails, because the high country trails are buried in snow. But there are plenty of plowed, forest roads and back roads that are nice to run that have hardpack snow or that melt out to dirt. So I just strap on some little traction devices on my shoes. And I just run around here in the winter. I mean, it's cool to


Elizabeth  23:39  

be prepared. So in addition to the ultra marathons and the trail running something that I was completely fascinated that you do and have done so successfully, is something called stage races, which I hadn't known about before. Can you describe those for our audience?


Sarah  23:54  

Sure. There's a special type of race format called the self supported stage races. It's an event that combines running with camping overnight, and it lasts for a week. And the distance which is generally 155 to 170 miles, that distance is broken up into different stages. And so you run every day, a certain amount, and then you get to camp and then you rest until the next day's race starts. And so it's really exciting because it's different than other extra long, ultra marathons like there's been a growth of 200 mile ultra marathons, which take people several days. And what I like about self supported stage racing is there's a set route to do every day and so you can actually race it and run it well. And then you have to rest and recover for the next day. But what makes it even more strategically interesting is you are responsible for carrying all of your food and gear for the weeks. Though all that the race providers or race organizers provide our communal tents and water, everything else. So a week's worth of calories is on your rising your sleeping bag, your sleeping bag sleeping pad. So basically you wear the same small a week because you don't want to have to carry, you know, carry extra clothes. And so it strips you down to the bare essentials, like what are the fewest calories you can get away with eating during that week, and still cover this endurance event as best as you can. So it's pretty wild. And then it's out in the middle of nowhere. It's very remote over extremely challenging terrain. So the four times I've done it three have been on a course called the Grand two grand Ultra. And it's called that because it starts at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, and then it traverses BLM and forest land to the grand staircase formation in southern Utah. So as the temperatures swing from the low hundreds during the day, so you're just baking on these desert plateaus and full fun. But then by the end of the race, you're up in higher altitude for us, and it's freezing cold at night, huddled in this lightweight sleeping bag and feeling pretty cold. So it's definitely a challenge but it's such a beautiful journey. And then the one other one I did was on the Big Island of Hawaii and it was called the monitor mana and it traversed the whole big island from the Hilo side near Mauna Loa around Mauna Loa up over Mount Mauna Ken and did on the Kona side. That was a crazy variety of climate and temperature with you know, torrential rains the first three days and then baking hot the next three days. So it's really I felt like I was on an episode of Survivor. It was pretty hilarious. So


Elizabeth  27:01  

you're running a lot. I mean, you're doing like back to back to back marathons.


Sarah  27:07  

Yeah, so the the format is they have six stages during the week, basically, days one and two are a marathon to 50k in length. And then Day Three is the long stage, which is the hardest. So it's over 50 miles out through incredibly tough terrain. And then they do build an arrest day after that. So you just sit around camp for a day, feeling hungry, nothing to do. Because that's another thing. These events are completely unplugged. Like there's no electricity, there's no way to recharge your phone or your smartwatch. So people your phone's on airplane mode all week just to use for emergency or to take pictures. So you are really unplugged. You don't want to bring a book because heavy the book is extra weight to carry. So it's a special experience because you bond with the other people doing this and reignites the art of conversation, you sit around talking with these people at Camp waiting to do the race the next day. But then the final stages are also marathon to 50k in length. And then the final days races is so called Sprint and just like five to seven miles that they finish in the middle of the day. And yeah, it takes everything out of you. But I absolutely loved it. And I don't know why it clicked for me. But I really excelled. And the first couple of times I did it I finished second female and then third female. And then I really, really trained. The year I turned 50 years old, I said I'm gonna go back and do this. And I managed to win the event. And as the only woman in the top Oh, my goodness. It's very male dominated. And I wanted to have at least one one woman and the top 10. And I won that and finish that even though I had an hour time penalty, I got busted on day three, or day five, the penultimate stage, because they check your food and gear and I had carried too few calories. So they punished me like I was I eaten too much earlier in the week, I didn't have enough calories for the last 48 to 72 hours. So they gave me a time penalty. Because I hadn't figured out you allocate your this you'd like to know they check. They want to make sure everyone has a minimum for safety reasons, which I understand. And I just had cut it too close. You wrote a


Elizabeth  29:37  

really fascinating article about one of these races. And there's a funny anecdote in there about someone trying to trade 300 calories of oatmeal for 300 calories of something salty. I'm craving something salty. So people are trying to barter food by calories. Yeah,


Sarah  29:55  

you're absolutely but actually that's kind of on the download you are supposed to only have what you carry on your back for the


Elizabeth  30:03  

week. And so is that the same kind of food you talked about earlier, sort of what you would bring, but it has to be very light,


Sarah  30:09  

it has to be very light and very efficient. So no, it's really different because then in an ultra marathon, where there aid stations providing a buffet of goodies, and you can eat a lot of calories frequently, on these stage races, you have to really, really ration and so basically, I'd have a dehydrated backpacker meal, which has a good amount of like 900 to 1000 calories and a bunch of salts. So I'd have that at the end of the day, which was very satisfying. But then I did not have space in my pack for all the gels and other snacks and things that I would normally have. See, you have to choose very calorie dense, efficient food. So it's an interesting thing to get through and make sure you have enough calories.


Elizabeth  30:57  

What was the first thing you ate? When you go back to the real world? What did you crave?


Sarah  31:03  

I mean, for me, it's always pizza. You're like you can't go wrong there.


Elizabeth  31:09  

You also wrote about psychologically what a race like that does for you.


Sarah  31:13  

Yeah, I mean, it completely unplugs you from society, which is part of what I love, you are really stripped down to the basics and bendy you bond with the people you're sharing a tent with. So it feels kind of tribal. And you just realize how much your body can do and how much you can get through with so very little,


Elizabeth  31:35  

your whole journey. The last? I guess you said 25 years? Must give you so much confidence. I mean, look what you've done.


Sarah  31:45  

No, I didn't really confident confidence on the trail. Yes, but No, I mean, no, I mean, I'm being silly. Like, it definitely makes me realize I can train for and get through uncomfortable things. I mean, so much about Ultra running is adapting to become comfortable with what is uncomfortable, and developing the mental tenacity to get through with that. But I mean, when I think about other areas in life where I lack confidence, sometimes I can draw on my altar running experience. And that's a nice thing. But you know, it doesn't solve it everything. I mean, I still definitely get nervous about things. Do you


Elizabeth  32:29  

think anyone could take up something like this, if they just put their mind to it? Or does it take a certain body type, or you need to be a certain age to really get into running or a certain genetic component to be able to handle this,


Sarah  32:46  

theoretically, anyone could do it. But the two things that requires us one is desire, like you have to actually have a desire, if it's not your thing. And it's not something you gain satisfaction from, then it's not going to stick. So that desire really needs to be there. But you do need to also have a certain level of health. I mean, if someone has some systemic or structural anatomical problems, pre existing hip problems, or some significant foot problems, or they're significantly overweight, then it would take a lot of fixing to get healthier before you could increase the volume of your running. Heavy people absolutely can run but they need to be careful of it because it has more impact on their lower body. So I really applaud, you know, people getting into running to reach a healthier body way and to exercise their heart. I think that's wonderful. You just have to be careful about it. And you have to kind of have a base level of fitness and health before you ramp up the mileage. The other end of the spectrum our which I sadly see among a lot of women are women who are unhealthy because they are too skinny. And I just know so many women who have fundamentally injured themselves. Because they over exercise, they they run too far, they lose too much weight. And they get into what's called the female athlete triad of where they don't have enough body fat or energy in their system to menstruate regularly so they lose their periods. And then that in turn leads do diminished bone health and that's why they get stress fractures or set themselves up for osteoporosis. So that is just bad on so many levels. And so yes, anyone can run ultra marathons with proper training, but they need to be healthy. And that's both psychologically healthy as well as physically healthy. I don't believe in running through injury or hurting yourself. I'm all about longevity. I mean, I'm so proud of been doing this for so many years. I want to keep doing it for 25 more years. And so what I want a role model, most of all is health and longevity.


Elizabeth  35:05  

Well, thank you so much, Sarah, this is really been fun to talk to you. And I've learned so much about running and ultra running and self supportive stage races. So thank you for sharing with me. Well, I


Sarah  35:17  

just want to encourage anyone who's listening who's interested in starting like I did with just a couple of miles. I mean, go for it. It's learning is so wonderfully simple. It's not like cycling, or rock climbing or scuba diving. I mean, it is so simple. Just get out the door and try it. And you can get more specialized and learn more about it as you go. And the secret to mountain running is to embracing hiking as the lower gear of running. So just find your speed that feels sustainable. And let yourself take walking breaks if you need to.


Elizabeth  35:53  

That's great tips, and thanks for the encouragement. Well, thanks again. It's really been a pleasure to talk with you. I appreciate it so much. Yeah,


Sarah  36:00  

it's so much fun to talk about this. And I hope it inspires some other people to try running.


Elizabeth  36:05  

I think it well.


I love Sarah's passion for running, it's almost infectious. I can't say I now have the urge to run ultras. But lots of what she shared did resonate with me, and I think can apply to all of us. Here are my takeaways. 

  1. Number one, start small. A few laps around a track can lead to a few miles and maybe will lead to a marathon one day, or maybe not. 
  2. Listen to your body and to your heart to physical activity is a great stress reliever. 
  3. Never underestimate the power of a 10 minute nap. Sometimes it's just the ticket for getting you refreshed and on your way for another few dozen miles. 
  4. Don't always try to block out all the noise metaphorically or literally. It's important to listen to the sounds of the world. What sounds like static, could be a rattlesnake. 
  5. Five. When you push yourself, you realize how much you can do. becoming comfortable with the uncomfortable builds resilience. 
  6. And finally, number six, when it comes to running, or really anything in our lives, it really is about the journey, not the finish line. 


Thanks to Sarah lavender Smith for sharing her stories and helping me experience the world of ultra running. Sarah is also an accomplished writer. Her book is called the trail runners companion and she writes regularly at Sarah running.substack.com will include these links as well as how to find her on social media on our website, the experience podcast.net You can find all of our past episodes there along with ways to connect with us on social media. Also, please sign up for our newsletter, you'll get information about new episodes behind the scenes tips and a lot more. It's easy, just scroll down to the bottom of the homepage. And if you're enjoying this podcast, please tell your friends about it. And also subscribe. If you need help with how to subscribe just go to our website and click on the how to listen button. Thanks for joining the experience