Tuesday, November 11, 1997
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 5
'Ultraboy' takes races in stride
Graduate student runs in 100-mile, 27-hour marathons
Mary Corcoran
mcorcoran@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Peyton Robinson runs marathons — big marathons.
He runs miles and miles and miles on rocky trails for more than 24 hours at a time.
He is an ultraboy.
An ultraboy, by his own definition, is a person that runs ultra marathons. An ultra marathon is any race more than 26.2 miles long. Typically, the ultra marathons Robinson runs are 50- or 100-mile races.
"The point of any ultra is an ultra-hard running race," said Robinson, a 38-year-old Lawrence third-year graduate student. "If they were easy to do, then they wouldn't be quite so damn fun to do."
The ultra marathons Robinson runs usually take place on trails, not asphalt, because 100 miles of road running can seriously damage an athlete's feet.
"The terrain is hard on the body, and it's painful after a while, but it's easier on the body than a road could be," he said.
But even on softer ground, Robinson has to take time to recover after a grueling 100-mile run, which takes him at least 27 hours to finish.
That's 27 hours of running without sleep. He eats and drinks on the run, stopping only sporadically to rest for no more than a half-hour.
Although the racers are allowed to sleep, Robinson said 90 percent of the finishers did not because sleeping adds more time to the race. Most races have a time cutoff at around 30 hours and have less than a 50 percent finishing rate.
After finishing a race Robinson takes four days to recuperate.
Peyton Robinson, a third-year law student from Lawrence, runs at Clinton Lake State Park. Robinson was a Lawrence police officer and has run five ultra marathons, which are 100 hundred miles long. Photo by Roger Nomer/KANSAN
"My feet swell up really badly and won't fit into a shoe. Some of that is tissue damage, but I think it's mostly due to being on your feet that long and having water settle," he said.
Robinson has also lost a number of toenails while running. Blisters form underneath his toenails, causing the nail to turn black and fall off, he said.
"I don't have very pretty feet," he said.
Robinson's wife of seven months, Dee, said her husband went through a ritual with his feet before and after a race.
"We wrap the pads on the outside of his feet with duct tape, then he Vaseline's them and puts on his socks," she said. "After a race, he goes through a ritual of massage to help shrink the swelling."
Robinson has run five ultra marathons, all this year. His last
The only ultra marathon Robinson did not finish was one through the Shenandoah Mountains, near Washington, D.C. He injured his feet on rocks during the race.
race was in October.
Robinson, who goes through a pair of shoes every 4-6 weeks, has been running for three years and has completed more than 20 marathons.
He began his running career by running every week with a group of seven Lawrence women. The group runs about five times a week at 5 a.m.
Susan Hadl, Lawrence police sergeant, has been running with the group for many years. She encouraged Robinson to join the group while Robinson worked as a police officer for the Lawrence police department.
"He was running three miles on a treadmill at the Lawrence Athletic Club," Hadl said. "I told him to get off the treadmill and run outside. It's a much more stimulating atmosphere."
Hadl said Robinson proved to be a determined individual while he worked at the police department.
"He's very thorough," she said. "Everything I've seen him be involved in, he's been to the max."
Robinson was a police officer for six years before deciding to return to his alma mater to earn a law degree. He received an undergraduate degree from the University of Kansas in 1986.
Hadl said, "I know he toiled with the decision to leave the police department for law. But I know he began law school with the same determination and dedication I saw in the department." That same dedication drives Robinson to succeed in ultra marathons, a success that Robinson said anyone could achieve.
"Most people think they need to overtrain for these," he said. "But if they do it, they'll realize that they can go farther than they ever thought they could and do more than they ever thought they would."
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1938-1998
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