Still Running (weakly). Issue 139

PAST – inspiration – “Three weeks ago, we did an out-and-back over this part of the Western States course.  It really took it out of us, even though we only went 38 miles,” said Ann Trason in 1996.  Back then, Western States was the most prestigious ultrarunning race in the US – perhaps it still is – and Trason won the women’s race every year from 1989 to 2003, with the sole exception of 1999.  That’s 14 victories.  She also placed second overall – i.e. only beaten by one man – more than once.  Her course record lasted from 1994 to 2012.

But Western States makes up only one part of her remarkable CV.  She also placed second overall in the Leadville 100, setting a course record that lasted until 2025!  She was women’s 100km world champion in 1988 and 1995.  She set 20 world records, her 5:40:18 for 50 miles lasting from 1991 until 2015.  In 1996 and 1997, she won the Comrades Marathon in South Africa (the biggest ultra in the world) and then proceeded to win Western States 12 days later.

She was the dominant force in women’s ultrarunning for years, many considering her to be the greatest female ultrarunner of all time.

PRESENT – perspiration – In the 2025-2026 edition of the Across the Years ultradistance races, held outside Phoenix, Arizona, starting on 28th December, Ann Trason, now aged 65, completed 112.8 miles in the Six Day event.  She has rheumatoid arthritis and used her walker to get round the 1.05-mile loop.  She had started out just trying to finish the 50km, held concurrently, but something kept nagging at her, making her leave her tent to do another lap.  In the end, she decided she wanted to earn a belt buckle – given to those who achieve 100 miles in US races.

What of the intervening years?  Well, after her 2003 Western States win, when her then-husband, Carl Andersen, could no longer run, she took a decade-long sabbatical from the sport, switching to ultradistance cycling, before reappearing in 2013 to crew for others and occasionally run races.

But Across the Years marked an altogether more noteworthy comeback.  As Ann’s good friend and co-Western States race founder, Shannon Yewell Weil, wrote of her 100+ miles, “Old ultrarunning champions never die — rather they roll out the walker, crown themselves with a jester hat, and march right back to the start line.”

FUTURE – suggestion – Are you inspired by Trason’s latest effort, I wonder, or bewildered by it?  Is it sad or joyous to see someone, who at one point in her career could outpace nearly all the men across 100 miles of mountainous terrain, reduced to pushing a walker around a flat one-mile course, covering about 20 miles a day?  Does that enrich or dilute the legend of Ann Trason?

Everyone will have their own perhaps quite complex thoughts on the matter.  Let me try and summarise mine with the following stories.  (Apologies if you’ve heard either before.) 

Hughie Neilson set a world record of 133 miles 121 yards for the 24-hour race-walk in 1960 – eclipsing every mark from 80 miles upwards in the process. 

I can remember competing against him at the end of his career – in the early 80s – when he was struggling to get round – not even his fabled Tizer was reviving him.  And I heard one of the timekeepers say to him: “Come on, Hughie, stop now.  It‘s no good going on like that.”  And I can remember feeling very sorry, not so much for the distressed state that the great man found himself in, but more that his effort was being judged pointless, when to me it was anything but.

And……. not so long ago, I was plodding slowly round Kings Pond in Alton, probably looking worse than Hughie had but trying my hardest, nevertheless.  When an old guy – yes, I know, even older than me – who was sitting on a bench by the side of the path, called out to me as I shuffled past: “You’ll have to go faster than that if you want to outrun the Grim Reaper.”

I just smiled and carried on.  He probably thought he was being funny, but I was a little put out, not least because I knew I could never say something so unsupportive to anybody – especially anybody who was obviously struggling.  I wish he had still been there when I came round the loop again, because by then I had worked out the right reply: “That may well be, but he’ll get you before he gets me.”

Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

I think you know where I stand.  Where do you?  I’d be VERY interested to know.  Thank you.