Susan Donnelly Ultramarathon Trail Runner. Motivational Speaker. http://www.susanruns100s.com
Running all day and all night Date : January 16, 2009
How far do you think you can run? Five miles? Ten miles? Maybe even a marathon? Imagine running 100 miles straight. No sleeping. No music. That is an ultramarathon. Oak Ridge’s Susan Donnelly has run 26 of them.
“It’s an incredible sense of affirmation,” Donnelly says. “You generally start early Saturday morning, you run all day Saturday. You run all night with a head lamp, and then you finish sometime early Sunday morning.” Ultramarathons range rom 40 milers, 50 miles, and then the grueling all-day, all-night 100 milers. “I read an ad about a 50 miler and I remembered that ad about the 100 miler and I thought- I want to try this.” Her fastest time is around 25 hours. She does it all without music. She said she prefers to listen to the noises in nature. She does most of her marathons on trails. She says you can her the birds chirping and the wolves howling. The lack of music also helps her stay focused on the path ahead. “I almost think that the conscious part of my brain is focused on the rocks and sticks. That frees up the unconscious to just relax and float out there. It’s almost like a meditation.” Donnelly is also a motivational speaker. For more on her background, goals, and passion for motivational speaking read below: Susan is an ultradistance runner who competes in endurance events that span 30, 50 and even 100 miles.
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