Iron Mom
Primal Quest is an adventure race, an offshoot of the French sport that spread abroad in the mid-1990s. It appeals to would-be explorers seeking to test their resolve against weather, uncharted terrain and chance run-ins with wild animals. Ultra-endurance racing has grown fivefold in the past decade, with more than 400 races a year. During the Gobi March, for example, runners face sand storms and brutal heat as they cross 155 miles of China’s Gobi Desert. There’s a 150-mile race through subfreezing temperatures in Antarctica. And in California’s Badwater summer race, runners risk heat stroke and worse in a 135-mile march through Death Valley.
The sport draws mostly amateur athletes in their 30s and 40s, men and women who have honed the mental discipline to race for days. Most have full-time careers, but they devote three to six hours a day to train. Some work out in sports labs that circulate the lower levels of oxygen found at high altitudes. The most fanatic have their toenails surgically removed to head off foot injuries and infection.
Ultra-races test minds as well as bodies, says Timothy Noakes, a professor of exercise and sports science at the University of Cape Town Medical School in South Africa. “In ultra-endurance races,” he says, “you’ll find that the winners are the most mentally fit.”
Source: WSJ July 26, 2008
