First time running 100 miles and taking first place!
Adrian Macdonald started running in sophomore year of high school. His soccer coach was also the indoor track coach. His coach convinced him to join the indoor track team after soccer season. He started as a sprinter, but the assistant coach convinced him to run middle distance, and he settled into running the 1000 meter event during the indoor track season.
He ran the mile even in outdoor track and finished college with a personal best of 4:12. His goal upon leaving college was to break 4:10 for the mile, but injuries slowed him down so he went to physical therapy and decided to find a different race distance he hadn’t done before.
He switched to Marathon and it all seemed like a new world where he had a clean slate ahead of him.
He ran his first marathon in 2014, and continued as a road runner until races were canceled in 2020. He started running on trails and experimenting with longer runs in training. He saw that he ran well at altitude and seemed to recover faster than his friends. So he started thinking about trying the ultra distance.
He decided to run the Leadville 100 as his first race at that distance. In training, he adopted the mindset that he only had to run all day. Thinking about it as 100 miles was intimidating. But he said, “I can run all day.”
He didn’t realize he was in the lead until he was past the turn-around point and headed back. He didn’t panic. He knew there were experienced ultra runners chasing him, but he felt strong and trusted his training to get him to the finish line.
He placed first with a time of 16:18:00.
Looking ahead, Adrian says he wants to see how he can do in other races. He doesn’t have the next one picked out yet, but he will be out there again testing himself against the competition.
Connect with Adrian Macdonald:
Instagram@macdonaldadrian
Linktr : https://linktr.ee/macdonaldadrian
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