For most people, the thought of running a marathon would be daunting enough. But not for Anna Blazejewska, an assistant professor in the MGH Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging. Anna looked at marathons—26.2-mile foot races typically run on level, paved roads—and decided she wanted more of a challenge, so she turned to a sport with a frankly formidable name: the ultra-marathon.
Ultra-marathons are like “regular” marathons, except they really aren’t. Both involve running grueling distances, but that’s pretty much where the similarities end. For starters, the distances are much greater in ultra-marathons, stretching up to 100 miles or even more. But also, runners rarely encounter level, paved roads.
“Ultra-marathons are usually run on mountains, where you also have elevation gain and difficult terrain,” Anna says. “They’re more like adventures.”
Anna hasn’t always been a foot race kind of person. She didn’t run much as a kid, she says; she didn’t really do any sports. But one day when she was in her late 20s, a friend challenged her to run a mile, just to see if she could. She accepted. And then she surprised everyone by running twice that distance.
“My knee was damaged for like a week, and I had to go to the doctor,” she says. But she had been bitten by the running bug, not least because of the stress relief the practice provided. She started running more regularly, eventually took on 10K races, and later progressed to half-marathons. And then she discovered an entirely different kind of racing: the ultra-marathon.
In many ways, ultra-marathons were a logical next step for Anna. “With road races, I found that the longer the race, the more boring it becomes. When I learned about races that people run in the woods, I thought that sounded much more interesting, maybe because I like hiking and nature in general.”
Anna loves pretty much everything about ultra-marathons: not least, tackling the logistics. Underscoring the spirit of adventure that drew her to the sport, trail runners must prepare for any number of situations that might arise during a race: unexpected terrain, inclement weather, the possibility of getting injured. They need to be sure they have all the necessary gear and supplies, whether they are carrying it with them or friends are waiting with it at one of the aid stations on the route. Anna’s crew is her husband, fellow Martinos researcher Aapo Nummenmaa, who meets her with her favorite drinks and snacks, changes of socks, and whatever else is needed.
Her love of logistics also extends to finding ways to optimize her trail-running training. “As a scientist, I am very much interested in analyzing my own running data,” she says. “I have a Garmin watch to record every run, apps to go over the details, and a system of Excel sheets to keep track of my training.”
Anna has completed a number of ultra-marathons since that fateful day when she ran a couple of miles on a dare. She cites one, in particular, as among her favorites: a 40-miler called the Bigfoot Race, essentially a loop around Mount St. Helens, an active volcano in Washington state. The race presented more than its share of challenges: a 9,000-foot elevation gain, boulder fields, only two aid stations on the entire route. (“Aapo had to drive four hours around the mountain to meet me at a station,” she says, “then four hours back to the beginning.”) And that wasn’t all. She fell at one point, hurt her knee, and patched herself up using her first aid kit. Then she had to navigate a boulder field in the dark.
She wouldn’t change any of it. “It was pretty wild,” she says, “but it was also absolutely beautiful.”