Community College (JCC). Then it was on to the college track to check our speed, with sprints of 400 meters and then 100 meters. Next, and still on the track, the event that demands both speed and endurance: the mile. Finally, it was back onto the roads to measure endurance with (what else?) a marathon. That was it. Five races run one after the other, with a little break for lunch (if you were fast enough) before the 2:00 p.m. start of the marathon.

Why would anyone want to enter such an event? Why did I? Don’s article had, in fact, made it quite clear that this would be no picnic. His title referred to “The Combat Zone.” Another article, written by Jim Harmon for Runner’s World, was titled “The Ultimate Challenge.” Maybe that was it. In 1987 I was 49 years old. At age 46, I had run PRs in distances from 5K to the marathon, and I was pretty sure I wasn’t going to be able to top any of those times in the last few months before I turned 50. I needed a different challenge. Why not The Ultimate Runner?

HOW DO | GET INTO THIS THING, ANYWAY?

The first challenge was figuring out how to enter. Remember, this was in the days before Web sites and online entry forms. But help was close by—in the office right next to mine. At the time, I was working for Sport Canada, the federal government agency that supported Canada’s amateur sport organizations. My colleague, Joy Harrison, had always been supportive of my running activities, so I took a copy of Don’s article next door for her to read. She was laughing at Don’s description of his breakfast problems when she suddenly exclaimed, “Mike McGlynn! I know Mike McGlynn. We used to work together at the Y.” She was referring to the creator, along with Charlie Kuntzleman, of this whole, crazy five-in-oneday event. McGlynn, an associate professor in the health and fitness department of Jackson College, was now also the race director of The Ultimate Runner. Joy contacted him and, in no time an entry form was sitting on my desk. Challenge number one overcome.

Challenge number two? How do you train to race five different distances that demand such different sets of muscle fibers, energy systems, and mental abilities? In the months that followed the confirmation that my entry had been accepted, I worked out a 10-day rotation.

¢ Day 1—marathon training: that is, run long

° Day 2—easy recovery

¢ Day 3—100-meter training: speed drills and short sprints ° Day 4, 6, and 8—easy recovery

° Day 5—10K-type tempo running

° Day 7—something for the 400

* Day 9—tepeats on the track for the mile

¢ Day 10—another easy recovery run or maybe even a rest day. Then back to the beginning.

Because most of my training and racing since I started running in 1975 had focused on road races from 5K to the marathon (with one fling at an ultra: see Marathon & Beyond, Volume 10, Issue 1), days 1 and 5 involved familiar stuff. I had tried running a few 800- and 1,500-meter races in the early ’80s, with some success. And in my first running career, as a high schooler from 1950 to 1954, I had been a sprinter, racing 60, 75, and 100 yards. I had even been allowed to run as far as 220 yards as a member of Canada’s British Empire and Commonwealth Games teams in 1954, but I had never raced either 440 yards (too far for girls in the ’50s) or 400 meters. How would I train for that?

Fortunately, my older son, Craig (the cyclist in my ultra adventure), had become anational-level 400-meter-hurdles runner. By 1987, he had been training seriously with several gifted coaches including another colleague of mine at Sport Canada, Ken Porter. Craig and Ken had taught me to do sprint-type drills: the hops, skips, and bounds that they had assured me could help distance runners, too.

IF ARTHUR SAYS IT IS SO, IT IS SO

Arthur Lydiard had confirmed for me that such training was valuable. I had met him at the Lydiard Running Camp in Scarsdale, New York, in 1983. He had us all, high school cross-country runners as well as men and women in their 30s and up, doing marches, skips, and high-knee runs across grassy soccer fields and learning how to do uphill bounding and fast-leg downhill running in his famous hill triangles. I pulled out my notes from camp and my copy of Running With Lydiard with its ““Middle-Distance Track—Women” schedules, and did what I could.

Fitting all of that into my schedule as a full-time manager at Sport Canada made for a busy summer, and soon it was time to pack for the trip to Jackson. It was a long drive from Ottawa—so long that we arrived too late to participate in Joe Henderson’s “Ultimate Runner Trivia Quiz,” not that I would have been able to win anyway. The experienced Ultimate Runner types present that year included several winners from the previous year and John L. Parker, best known for writing the classic running novel Once a Runner. John’s article on the Ultimate, “Then the Vulture Eats You,” became the title for a great collection of short stories on the joys of being a distance runner. I hadn’t seen that article before I arrived in Jackson, so I didn’t know about the vulture! Scott Hubbard, who was covering the event for Michigan Runner, knew so much about the Ultimate that he didn’t even consider entering it. He won the quiz instead.

Don’s biggest problem come race day, according to his article, was what he should eat to keep himself fueled for all of the day’s events. For me, as I awoke that Saturday morning and checked the weather, the problem was what to wear.