45 Hours of Running – One Woman’s Trimuph

Ever thought about running a marathon? How about an ultra marathon? What about running a mile for each year of your age. Well, Lynette McDougal decided to take things to another level; run the number hours to equal her age… 45!

On March 15, 2013 Lynette set out do just that… run for 45 straight hours. “When I read about Catra Corbett a couple of years ago I was floored by the idea of running an hour for every year, but I chewed on it and decided this was the year I was going to do it”. Lynette also said that one day she would like to run the Hard Rock 100 and this would provide the confidence because, “I know I’m going to be one of those 45 hour people”.

Here’s our full Q&A with Lynette:

TAUR: Did you do anything different to train compared to a 100 mile race?

Lynette: I based it off of consistency, running every day. January and February I was hitting it hard, for me, and getting up to 70 mile weeks. I forced myself to run a lot of flats because the race would be flat… this was my mental training (laughs).

TAUR:  How did the RD’s support you?

Lynette:  Ken Rubeli & Stephanie Krinetz with Beyond Limits Racing supported my idea. They let me start at noon on Friday before the other races were started.

TAUR:  So how did the challenge go?

Lynette:  I started great and didn’t feel like I was going out too fast. Ed “Jester” Ettinghausen was there as well. He was trying to run 200 miles that weekend (he completed 160 miles) and I ran with him from noon to 4 or 5 o’clock. I felt really good until 1 am. That’s when I stopped to eat and after I ate the blood rushed to my stomach and had to stop to get warm in a sleeping bag. The hardest part of the race was knowing it was 1 am and I was not even half way through. I had one more low point 6 am when I stopped to move my gear and had to get warm again. After that the lows weren’t really that bad. My feet got angry and had to run 2 laps and then walk one.

On the second night it was hard knowing it was going to be cold. I did a couple of laps with the sleeping bag over my shoulders. On the second morning when the sun came up I was able run the entire 2.5 hours. Those last 2 hours were my highest high. I finished at 9am.

TAUR:  Did you tally up your total mileage?

Lynette:  Yeah, the total amount came to 136.

TAUR:  How did you feel after?

Lynette:  My legs never bothered me, it was my feet.  And, I felt ok after until Monday night when my feet swelled and made sleeping really uncomfortable. My legs felt great and I actually did 3 hours of snowshoeing on <the following> Wednesday with my daughter’s class.

TAUR:  Here’s the $64,000 question?  How to you feel about doing a 100 now?  Is it “just” a 100…?

Lynette:  Uh…yeah (with a huge laugh). Definitely puts a new perspective on things. I’m doing the 100 mile at the a Pickled Feet race this weekend.

And she did…Lynette ran the the Pickled Feet 100 race… finished in 23:20 only 2 weeks after her 45 hour run.

Lynette’s next 100 mile race is Born to Run.

Congrats to Lynette!