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| August 19, 2005
Long-distance Runner BY PAT RYAN
Mark is an ultrarunner, one of a small band of superb athletes who run 100 miles in under 18 hours and possibly even enjoy it. He is also the seven-time winner of the Ride and Tie world championship, a trail race with teams of three—one horse and two runners. But even Mark initially thought that people who ran 100 miles “must be crazy.” Mark started his long-distance running because of his Ride and Tie successes. Ride and Tie, explained Mark, is a trail race of 25 to 50 miles in which two runners take turns riding the same horse toward the finish. The rider goes a distance, stops, ties the horse to a tree, and starts running. His partner runs to the horse, mounts, and rides off, eventually overtaking his running partner (“Hopefully the horse is faster,” says Mark), surpassing him or her and tying the horse to another tree. Sometimes the runners change roles without tying the horse, a maneuver known as a “flying tie.” They keep switching roles until the finish. “Good runners can get a good rest while riding,” Mark said, but often “good runners aren’t good riders.” Since Mark does both well, he has passed faster runners who have trouble on the horse. Mark became involved in Ride and Tie by chance. He’d seen one in Reno and thought it looked like a lot of fun. Two years later when a coworker who had entered a Ride and Tie race needed a partner, he asked Mark. Mark, remembering that first glimpse, agreed and began “living and breathing Ride and Tie,” making it a way of life, selling his home in Petaluma so that he could keep horses at home in Novato. Mark’s passion for Ride and Tie led to his long-distance running. To keep fit, he frequently trained with the long-distance folks and eventually paced some for their last 38 miles of the Western States race. Pacing, he said, gave him “a front row seat for the race,” and when he paced the winner two or three times, he got to “feel some of the glory without all the pain.” He then did some shorter races, 50 kilometers and 50-milers and “had some success.” He was invited to run in the International 50K one year, a race held in a different country each year. He ran that event in Moscow. With success in the shorter distances, he found that people assumed he’d done the 100-miler and would ask his time. He had to admit he hadn’t done one yet. Finally, in 2002, on a run with his buddies on Mt. Tam, when they all talked of signing up for the Western States, he decided to do it. He trained hard and finished that year third over all, behind the top guys in the nation who were in their 20s and 30s. Mark was 47 and his time was 45 minutes faster than the record for 50-year-olds. Going for a new record when he hit 50 seemed so right. This year both the Western States and Ride and Tie were stacked next to each other two weeks apart, and Mark wondered if he’d have sufficient recovery time from the 100-miler. It turned out that he felt surprisingly good for the Ride and Tie because he’d not completed the last 20 miles of the Western States. “It’s amazing,” he said, “how quickly you recover if you’ve only run 80 miles rather than 100.” He still hopes to set a new record for the Western States, but hasn’t decided yet if he’ll try again in 2006. A 100-mile race requires a six-month commitment, so he’d have to start training this November—not so easy while working full-time. Surprisingly, Mark claims that “80 percent of the fun is the training.” Training for a 100-miler means running 100 miles a week, including a long run on the course on weekends. He would get up on Saturdays in the dark, drive to Squaw Valley with his buddies, run for 10 hours and then head home. I asked what he thinks about while on these long runs. Running with friends, he enjoys the teasing and joking. They talk about kids, family, social issues, weather, sports, just about anything and develop strong bonds of intimacy. “They’re your brothers,” he says, “what’s said on the trail, stays on the trail....It is fun,” he says, radiating his enthusiasm, “it really is.” Photo by Pat Ryan. Ride-and-Tie champ Mark Richtman placed 3rd overall in his first 100-mile race, coming in behind two guys decades younger than he. |
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Racecar Driver Highland Games Champ Cyclocross Racer Rock Climber Paintball Player Long-Distance Runner Big League Pitcher Swimming Competitor Rowing Champs |
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First he had to run through snow—18 miles of it, then sand—two miles, but Mark Richtman was on a mission: to set a new record for 50-year-olds in the Western States 100-mile race this June. A string of successes against top runners in the nation this season bolstered him. In a 50-kilometer race, just five days before turning 50, his time was 20 minutes faster than the record for 50-year-olds. In a 100-kilometer race, his first on turning 50, he broke the record by one hour and 40 minutes. But after running 18 miles through the snow at the base of Squaw Valley, then through the sand, he stopped to change shoes. When after 63 miles, his top-ranked, and younger, competitors were close behind, he sped up, sure that he could “drop” them on the next stretch, a sloping downhill mile. He did surge ahead, but the extra push created more strain for his already taxed body. He developed stomach cramps and, at 80 miles, dropped out of the race. That trace of overconfidence, he reflected, cost him the record for 50-year-olds this year. He had started too early to think of it as a “race” instead of an “endurance event.” |
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