Double Marathon Record at Ultraman
Top ultra runner Ann Heaslett caused a sensation in her debut Ultraman two years ago when she ran a second-best 7:58:55 double marathon to finish second overall to Shanna Armstrong. But that performance was just a prelude to her return engagement this year when she polished off a third place finish with a sensational 7:12:07 double marathon. That time - equal to back-to-back 3:36:03 marathons -- broke Tina Bischoff's 20-year-old race record run by an astonishing 37 minutes 30 seconds.
Heaslett's 26:31:45 finish time also would have won this race every year from 1998 through 2007 - topping the first four victories of six-time champion Shanna Armstrong.
Heaslett's 2009 race underscores the extraordinary performance of masters athletes in Ultraman. This quiet, slight 46-year-old psychiatrist is, like 45-year-old overall winner Alexandre Ribeiro and 47-year-old men's second place finisher Miro Kregar of Slovenia, not at all on the athletic decline. Backing up the notion that Ultraman rewards its elders, 54-year-old Kimmie Rouse turned an equally impressive-for-age 5th place woman's 28:53:19 finish -- which would have won the 1999 and 2004 Ultraman overall women's titles. And Ellis Andrews of Penticton, British Columbia, age 65, pitched in with the record smashing by displacing Bill Bell as the oldest man to finish the Ultraman.
Heaslett always loved sports. In high school, she ran a 5:28 mile and an 11:30 two-mile. At the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, she ran an 18-minute 5k and a 36 minute 10k. But she really came into her own when she started running ultras, shocking many with a 15 hours 57 minutes time for the Rocky Raccoon 100-miler in 2002 at age 39. After that peak, Heaslett had to fight a series of injuries that led her to seek relief in the cross training of triathlon.
"Since 2002," she said, "I had a lot of running injuries like high hamstring tendinitis and gluteal insertion syndrome. I tried a lot of therapies but nothing much worked."
In the next few years, she had some success at the Ironman distance, posting an 11:30 at Ironman Hawaii. Her 11:10 at Ironman Wisconsin would not win her age group, but it the time would have won the famous February 1982 Ironman Hawaii. But it wasn't until she tried the Ultraman in 2007 and posted a her 27:18:32 time for her second place finish - third best ever up to that point. That time was celebrated enough that she didn’t dream what she was truly capable of. But there were clues in the difficulties she had encountered.
"I had a lot of problems with blisters that year," she recalls. "Especially in the first 20 miles of the run, which is nearly all downhill. The other problem I found was in running as far as I could from the white line to give passing cars the most room. The natural crown of the road was steeper near the edge, so it just tortured my feet."
This year, she said, "I did some things that made a difference. I had a cortisone shot before the race and it really helped with my upper leg injuries and kept the pain under control. Also, to ward off blisters, I taped my feet and ran right by the white line where the surface was flatter."
While her bike was 26 minutes slower than her 2007 pace on Day 1, she was 16 minutes faster than her 2007 bike time on Day 2. Heaslett still trailed Armstrong by 1 hour 40 minutes entering the run, thanks in large part to 53-minute deficit to Armstrong on the swim.
All her experience, the cortisone, the tape, and running farther from the edge of the road did their work well on Sunday, as Heaslett took off like a shot in the dark and into the sunny morning. She ran on the balls of her feet, her legs looked lighter than air, barely touching the ground.
After she crossed the line with a new run record, Heaslett smiled and said "I'm happy with that. It's not my 50-mile PR, but after those first two days -- and the heat, I'm not really acclimated for 100 degrees on the pavement in Wisconsin -- it's one of my best."
Comments
So she got smart and slowed down on the bike before the 52 mile run this time! That's some nice execution...like we say around here, no such thing as a good bike and a bad run!