Take Your Mark with These Five Running Stories

[Music] when you're on the trail that long you don't really think about how long is it gonna take me to get to somewhere or how fast am I going you're thinking about don't get yourself hurt my name is Karl Meltzer and I am an ultra-marathoner we did 36 miles you know it's pretty weekday but no one's ever been this far in 10 days I just recently broke the Appalachian Trail record from Maine to Georgia at 2000 189 miles and I completed that in 45 days 22 hours and 38 minutes beating the previous record by just a little under 10 hours total mileage average per day for that 46 days will be forty seven point six the 80 is not a walk in the park it's a hard trail every time I clip my foot and it goes forward it totally stresses going on I scream in pain you really have to have a team it's not just the one guy running it's really the crew who if they're not perfect for you then it really won't be successful I think Appalachian Trail not only is it very popular and iconic but it's also very difficult now it's all downhill and easy I am concentrating on my foot placement all the time so 2 hours goes by like nothing just because I'm zoned I'm sowing doubt I slammed my head into the ground a number of times and it beats you down you have to expect that but you can beat it too as long as you just keep persevering and fighting through the issues that you're going to have the last day I ran 85 miles my body was so amped and ready to be done that it didn't matter really how far it was I felt the same in my lady as I did a mile 10 my just numb at that point really bonus it's important for people to know that the 80 is a special place and it should be protected it's a trail for one who wants to gain fellowship with nature no matter whether you're running it whether you're walking it whether you're taking 10 years to do it when you walk that trail you have a vibe and you feel it every year someone else's gets a little bit faster someone will break my record for sure it might come this year I don't know I'm still going to be happy because I gave it everything I had you know I think that's what's important I think lies is crazy but in a very good way I think he's very smart I think he knows what he's doing people think he's a sadist or whatever it's like my trail film a flair for the dramatic I see man Laz Kentrell a true backwoods rebel of Tennessee created one of the world's most grueling foot races one that is so challenging it leads many to assume it must be an act of sadism are you a sadist no no I think people are obsessed with comfort to the point that they forget if you don't have any discomfort in your life how do you know when you feel good The Barking marathons is a 100-mile race comprised of five 20-mile loops which you have 60 hours to complete it's over some pretty rugged terrain it's got a massive amount of climb about sixty-six thousand feet you have just your map and compass it's cold it's wet it's miserable you're alone the fact that they'll probably almost certainly fail makes it more appealing they started in 85 and we've had 14 finishers yeah we always use a camel because that's about the best cigarette I think the course is located in frozen head State Park home to the Brushy Mountain State Penitentiary a location not chosen by chance in 1977 James Earl Ray the man who killed Martin Luther King jr. made headlines again when he escaped the prison in the 54 hours he was free he only made it eight miles from his cell because this terrain is no joke Johnson man you could put together a race course that would really challenge people's soul I think every runner would like to do better than James Earl Ray and get further than eight miles although some of them don't everybody gets a big number for each loop there's paperback books which are kind of strategically placed so that to get them all you have to follow the course and you pull out the page number that matches your dip you have to turn your pages to show that you've done the course he has a brilliant sense of humor he's parodying the sport of ultramarathon running those of us who run ultras we have a certain egoism that we think we're pretty good because of what we can do and so he set out to puncture that balloon laz keeps making it harder because he's trying to put it at the limit of human possibility [Music] after they decided that they've had enough and quit we play caps on the bugle both because caps is what you play for someone who's died in action and because they they're being capped out I think genuinely in his heart he wants to see people succeed when people actually finish five loops and you see him at the end he's so excited yeah if one or more of them comes in it's an inspiring thing it's hard to believe a human can accomplish that it's good that some years no one finishes because the bark we should win sometimes too when I'm running backwards it almost feels like I'm flying because it's such a different visual perspective seeing how far I've gone as opposed to how far I need to go when you're going backwards you can really just take a step back literally and enjoy what you're doing hi I'm Erin Yoder I'm a backwards runner I have the world record for the fastest mile ran backwards my fastest backwards mile time is 5 minutes and 54 seconds I've been running forward for over 20 years I started running competitively when I was in elementary school and then ran on scholarship during my early 20s I ran so much that I sustained a knee injury my doctor told me to stop running and I really didn't want to stop so I knew I had to make some sort of change a [Music] retro running or backwards running is where you're literally just running in Reverse and there's no impact on my knee I run backwards everywhere I run backwards on the treadmill I run backwards on the track and also out on country roads backwards running feels great on my knee I don't feel anything which is reason why I really enjoy it [Music] when I'm coaching my track team I occasionally have them run backwards as to enhance and diversify their training workouts onward and upward good job way to go good warm up there there's more backwards runners out there than one would think there are hundreds if not thousands of people that decide to run in Reverse the last World Championships there were over 20 countries represented in close to 200 athletes the backwards running has allowed me to see things in a little bit different perspective in a world where everyone goes forward and I'm going backwards it's really allowed me to just get back to competing against myself and not be so concerned what other people are doing it found great gratification in the fact that I'm just competing against my own shadow you [Music] people think fat people never get off the couch and people think that fat people sit around eating all day my mission is to challenge people's assumptions about fat people I'm Myrna Valerio and I'm a runner I've been running long distance for about eight years I've done nine marathons and ten ultra marathons with my longest being 100k traditionally trail races and other outdoor events have not always been welcoming to people like me I'm black I'm a woman and I'm fat when I go to a race I know I'm breaking the mold it's still very white and very male so I know going in that I'm going to be different [Music] ten years ago I lived a very stressful life and so that took a huge toll on my health I consult it with the doctor who told me that I needed to change my lifestyle pretty drastically if I wanted to see my son I'll go up so I did I'd had some experiences with people always making the assumption that whatever I was doing it was for weight loss after a couple of years it was not a weight loss thing anymore it's about fitness running makes me feel like my most human self my first mile was pretty awful it was painful it was slow when I'm feeling like this is really too difficult I know that in the end I'm doing it for a reason there's always a larger reason the end goal not always only being to finish but the more important thing is that I'm out there because sometimes I come in last it's amazing to me how many messages I get on a daily basis saying thank you for being you thank you for living in your own space and taking up space and not being afraid to do that because that has allowed me to do that I'm going to continue doing it because I think people still need to see me [Music] I'm not sick when I run like I'm really I'm just so normal you wouldn't think someone who goes unconscious like 14 times a day runs like you just wouldn't put it that way [Music] my name is Katie cook I'm 20 years old I live in Dublin Ireland and I love running I was dying there's four two types of epilepsy on - nine years old a one of which which is frontal lobe epilepsy so at the moment I have 14 seizures in the 24-hour period they used to be 1617 so we're calm and I'd lightly which is why I was getting really bad dizziness from my medicine through and into the hospital they loaded me which is a term for epileptics when you're going on like a new medicine and I didn't wake up until six days later I was a mobile for the goths up two years I moved from being in a wheelchair to being in the same her frame when I gradually started getting back into running it kinda gave me this newfound energy I don't know why I put on my ready boots and started running I feel like it's so cliched but you kind of feel like on top of the world that you could do anything like I don't feel sick anymore until I have a seizure I don't like Damas you know it's amazing feeling like all the endorphins like pulsing or your body on it's great like I like it's honestly like amazing I train alone for most Myron's like during the week however I do have a pal for my races like official races which is dr. Colin tardy [Music] so I have two roles so first of all I'm her doctor the other role I play which is to be her partner in running and my job is to make sure that when katie has a seizure if she's running that nobody carts her off the course okay so before I knew Katie she would run races and if they were in public people would you know quite reasonably insists that she be carried off the course which to her displeasure so my job is to say no you know that I am her doctor and that she's fine that she'll recover and then she gets up and she runs I don't let anything really get in the way of living life at all I just don't think it's the way to go I suppose yeah I don't I don't let epilepsy get in the way at all [Music] you

Channel: Great Big Story

Views: 133,877

Keywords: great big story, gbs, lag, documentary, docs, great big reels, sports, action, run, backwards running, ultramarathoner, biography & profile, New York City Marathon, TCS Marathon, Sports & Action, Athlete, Fitness, Health inspo, Healthy lifestyle, Active, Body, Physical Health, Physical, Motivation, Inspiration, new releases, sports & action

Id: 1gQ-UkIFlCc

Length: 16min 6sec (966 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 22 2018