Becca is a running coach and started running in high school, she did track and field and along the way did an ultra probably 6 or 7 years ago and fell in love with the sport, the challenge and adventure of running which is how she defines herself as a person and it’s what she thinks she was meant to do, her purpose on earth.
She didn’t do anything after high school, she was working in the restaurant industry for about 16 years in bar management and one day she was drinking with her best friend’s brother and he told her that he wanted to do an ultra marathon on his birthday and told her to do it with him and to her that sounded great. They were doing 4 or 5 miles a couple of times a week to stay in shape.
The first time she ran was maybe 10 miles in high school. She felt like it all fit because it was like a trail and she loved being in the woods, it was a happy place for her. She then got a small training group to run her first 50k with so she found her way in an unconventional way.
She tells us that her first ultramarathon was tough, she ran with a friend and before that they had only run 20 miles, they had some training but not that much and realized there was a lot more they needed. She was surprised at how slow those last few miles were and how they got injured too fast, they spend so many hours running and they are not going to run that fast after 7 hours. When she finished she didn’t even want to drink her beer because she was in so much pain, she thinks it was like 8 laps and even though it was hard she thinks it was super fun unlike the southeast trail series.
After that she did a couple more 50’s which she liked, because she really liked the hilly stuff, hiking and stuff so the harder the better for her. She also did a couple 40 mile runs, did 100 and then her first 200 miles, all in one year.
Her first 200 mile attempt was in Washington and it was the first time she had ever run in the west and she went out on her own, no gear or anything. She ran 131 miles. She ruptured the tendon on the top of her foot at mile 80 so everything became enormously slow and it was very painful, it made it a much more intense experience.
She remembers feeling like a knife was being stuck in her foot, it was a very intense pain and it burned. In her recovery time she did not take that time off, what she did was bandage her foot. It took at least 3 months to heal.
Becca runs in sandals and tried to do a 100 the first time in sandals and said never again, she says it was the most horrible decision she ever had because the design made her so uncomfortable, her feet were so bad, she was tucking her socks under the arches to cushion her feet a little bit. But she loves sandals because she doesn’t get blisters and her feet dry out and she can go 1,000 miles in a pair of $50 sandals.
When I asked her what the strategy was for the second time in 10 hours as a significant time reduction she said the first time was very traumatizing and she had a lot of downtime, she thinks it was like 9 hours of total downtime, it was very stressful and she really wasn’t prepared. The second time was different and much healthier and she only had about 2 hours of downtime that time.
On the last man standing in Tennessee she did it the first year and had very good competition between Chad and Greg Armstrong and they had it again this year.
Becca says John loves the last man standing format, it seemed like they had to work with it because it was a fixed distance and it’s hard to sell a fixed distance on a one mile loop, it just doesn’t sound as fun. They put it together and had to do it under the guise of a wedding because of all the restrictions because the governor has made an executive order that you can have as many people as you want to gather if it was a funeral or wedding.
She was training people for 3 years for Ultras and thought she wasn’t really good, she put on that little box that she just had to stay in the same place and not advance but with all the down time, she had time to how to do the certification and learn all the things.
Becca has a different training philosophy, she practices individualized plans, she finds them more appealing to her philosophy and core and strength training is a big part of it. In many plans they just run for the sake of running and they practice a little more low mileage, everything has a purpose and they incorporate strength training, she says her big thing is longevity and sustainability you know what it is.
She works out all day at her job cleaning, she weights her ankles when she moves, when she scrubs the baseboards she gets in the plank position.It slows down the cleaning a little bit but it makes it really hard and she did that 2 or 3 months before the race. And in that race he didn’t have any injuries, he didn’t feel any twinges or anything bad and his body felt very strong and very prepared for all the hours of movement.
Becca has always admired people who rock and thought she couldn’t do it. There were people out there carrying 30 pounds all the way up to 50. In that race she felt like the road was kicking her ass. John got her into that world and she said she would have to learn to carry that weight sooner or later. To do it you have to be aware of what you are doing and be aware that you are not slouching but the routes are hard and once you start getting to the top you really have to work on your posture and stay focused and make sure you are climbing with your hips like you should.
She really works on her heart rate because it’s something that makes a difference to her and being in tune with her body because if you’re not breathing correctly and you’re going up a hill, that could cause your heart rate to skyrocket, but you can help get a better control of it if you have a proper breathing technique.
Being in tune with her body is important to Becca, she practices meditation and is a big believer in visualization and intention, it’s her way of having the mental energy it takes to run.
In her schedule Becca has the crucial 50, because for the 50 you get a belt and for the 0 you get a buckle, and you can only wear those two things together, they are made for each other, you can’t wear them with anything else and then she has a 100 in Colorado and it will be her first time there.
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