by Donald Buraglio

One major distinction between road racing and ultrarunning, besides the obvious difference of race distance, is the degree of danger that competitors encounter on a regular basis.

All road racers, from 5K runners to marathoners, contemplate risk from time to time. We all know stories of runners who have suffered dehydration, heat stroke, or even heart attacks during competition. Fortunately, the occurrence of severe incidents at road races is somewhat on par with the odds of getting struck by lightning.

For ultrarunners, on the other hand, that danger is a full-throated roar. It’s a threat that competitors have to stare directly in the face for hours on end, and one that frequently gets the better of many runners by the time the race is done.

At last year’s Western States run, more than 30 percent of the runners who started were unable to finish. The year before that, only 53 percent finished the race. Any year that sees a finisher percentage greater than 70 percent is considered a good year. These numbers aren’t unique to Western States — in fact, some ultras have drop rates approaching 50 percent annually.

Throughout the Western States course, there are medical checkpoints where runners are weighed and examined, and they must be deemed suitable to continue the event. This is another remnant of the race’s origin as a horse race; the Tevis Cup features veterinarians stationed at regular intervals to inspect the horses.

(Interestingly, the annual dropout rate is slightly higher for the horse event than it is for the human one — which probably speaks both to the sensibility of horse owners, and the mule-headedness of ultrarunners.)

Running 100 miles in temperatures that frequently top 100 degrees isn’t something the human body is normally equipped to perform. On race weekend, approximately 50 physicians and 100 nurses are available on the course along with podiatrists, paramedics, EMTs, chiropractors, physical therapists and massage therapists.

While the runners are in extremely capable hands during their 100-mile adventure, there’s definitely an element of frontier medicine practiced on the dusty trails during race weekend. Take blisters, for example — the bane of any ultrarunner’s existence, sometimes growing so large as to span the entire length of the foot or ankle.

At Western States, the tried-and-true remedy is to: 1) lance and drain the blister, 2) squeeze a tube of super glue into the blister to fill the space once occupied by fluid, and 3) cover the whole thing with a big piece of duct tape.

Before you laugh, consider this — it’s effective, and a lot cheaper this way. I mean … who needs medical supplies when you can accomplish the same result for $3.95 from the local hardware store?

Speaking of blisters — Western States runners also make for such unusual case presentations that the race is included as part of graduate school study. Podiatry students monitor the course at various stations to witness all the disgusting injury manifestations that can result from running for multiple hours under scorching heat, through river crossings and across rocky trails.

Over the past few years, no fewer than 10 published medical studies have focused on Western States runners, featuring such ominous topics as immune system suppression, respiratory tract cell destruction, muscle wasting and severe inflammatory syndromes, and cardiac damage incurred while running 100 miles.

More at montereyherald.com

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