My runner friend and I have started calling it the three "w"s: When you're mid-race -- or mid-training run -- and the pace/weather/ your stomach/life reduces you to walking, wheezing and whining.
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Army 1st Lt. Claire Heid, 24 (23 during the race), had more than her fair share three "w"-worthy issues at the Badwater Ultramarathon in July, but except for some walking, I never saw her succumb to the other two. When I would have been fetal on the side of the road, wallowing in frustration and pain, she persevered and showed a ferocious amount of tenacity.
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Claire finished in 41 hours, 15 minutes and 47 seconds, becoming the youngest female finisher in the race's history. Read more about Claire, and all the elements she juggled leading up to Badwater, here.
I emailed her two weeks after the race to see how she was recovering, and to get some thoughts on how her race went.
Claire writes:
When people said that Badwater would change my life, I honestly didn't believe them. But they were right. It's still surreal to me that I did it and that it's over. Since before running my first ultra, it was always my goal to be the youngest female to run Badwater. Every race that I've done has been building to that, so now that it's over I'm a little sad because the journey that got me there has been incredible. Evan as I was wincing putting on combat boots to go to work the day after finishing the race, I already knew there would be another Badwater in my future. It won't be for a while with a deployment in my near future, but I know I'll run it again.
For now I need to focus on my wedding in just five weeks, the month-long training cycle my unit will be going to just days after I get married, and of course my deployment in December. But I'll probably get in a 100 miler or two after I get back next year.
I think the car trouble wouldn't have been a big deal to me if I had planned what to do if something like that happened. Miles 90-122 are a long, tiring stretch of the race, despite that much of it is "runnable." As a runner, I like being informed and knowing what's going on as well as having a plan. At that point in my race, I was exhausted and my feet hurt a lot. I knew that I was slowing down and I was motivating myself to run and walk in intervals, but that was taking all of my mental energy, and once the car broke, it caused added stress and I started to fall apart.
I'm a big believer that everything happens for a reason, though, so I'm not really upset about it. If the vehicle had been there the whole time, I do think I would have had a faster finish time without that mental breakdown, but ultimately my goal was to finish and I did. ...
I think the biggest thing that I can take away from this whole experience is that I have been incredibly blessed to achieve my goal as well as humbled by the people who have supported me. When I turned on my phone after the race, my Facebook exploded with support and encouragement throughout the past 48 hours as well as congratulations upon my finish. All of the articles about me, emails, phone cals, text messages ... I've never felt that kind of support for anything in my life, and it almost brings tears to my eyes when I know how many people have believed in me. While I know that my friends and family are very supportive of what I do, it's the people that I hadn't talked to in months or years who showed their encouragement and pride in my accomplishment that surprised me most.
One thing that I can take away from this is a new level of confidence in my running. I've never been the fastest ultramarathon runner, or run a sub 24 100 miler, and it's been a few years since I've won a race. But now I'm ready to tackle some tougher 100's and increase the intensity of my training plan when I do. ... Now that I've tackled the toughest footrace on the planet, the sky is the limit with future races. ...
People have asked me what my goals are now that Badwater is over. I know that when I'm back from deployment I want to run some of the tough 100's that I have on my bucket list. But for now, my focus is on Kevin, my fiance, and enjoying the three months we'll have together as newlyweds before I deploy.
Team Red White & Blue: Claire is fundraising for the veteran support group Team Red White & Blue. Her donation page is here.
Stay tuned: Look for race recaps from Retired Army Maj. Tim Hardy, Marine Corps Capt. Mosi Smith and Navy Lt. j.g. Hannah Roberts soon on the blog.
Also: Click here to read how a soldier won 'world's toughest foot race.'
