Janice O’Grady was a stable mid-pack ultrarunner for her total life. Then, over the course of two months in 2023, she set 5 ladies’s age-group world data. In her phrases, “My motto is, you don’t need to get quicker, you simply need to become older.” After turning 75 in 2023, she set the ladies’s 75-to-79 age-group world data for the 50-mile, 100k, and 100-mile distances, in addition to for 12 hours and 24 hours.
O’Grady discovered ultrarunning at age 38. She has taken a measured and pragmatic strategy, to which she credit her longevity. Her first extremely was the 1987 Ice Age Path 50 Mile, and since then, she’s finished 148 ultras — 13 of them 100 milers.
From her early years as a lawyer in Minnesota, to transferring to Northern California and embracing the working scene there within the Nineties, to turning into a race director, to retiring and transferring to Colorado and beginning up her personal race, to setting 5 world data in 2023, O’Grady is exhibiting what is feasible at all ages.
Janice O’Grady climbing towards Hope Cross in the course of the 1992 Leadville 100 Mile. All photographs courtesy of Janice O’Grady.
Her Begin in Working
Residing in Minneapolis, Minnesota, O’Grady didn’t begin working till she was 33 years outdated. She remembers the change to the approach to life clearly, saying, “I stop smoking on January 1, 1982, and the regulation agency I labored at then had a bunch of runners. So, they sucked me into coaching for a 10-kilometer race that 12 months.” She was already coaching for a marathon in 1984 when she met her future husband, Tom O’Connell, who had been working ultras since 1979.
After a number of years of watching him run ultras and crewing for him, she knew she wished to attempt one too, and signed up for the Ice Age Path 50 Mile. O’Grady says, “There weren’t that many races then, and the closest 50 miler to us was the Ice Age Path 50 Mile in Wisconsin, and so I went, and I ran it, and I mentioned, ‘Okay, I’ll by no means try this once more,’ however then I saved at it.”
It was a fast development from there. 4 years later, in 1991, she entered and completed the Western States 100. With a notoriously dangerous abdomen and an lack of ability to deal with the warmth, she appears effectively happy in regards to the end, saying, “The one motive I completed it that 12 months was as a result of it wasn’t scorching. It by no means obtained over 75 levels Fahrenheit within the canyons, if you happen to can think about that!”
She follows up, “I attempted a few occasions after that, and naturally, my abdomen took me out as a result of it was scorching, and I used to be barfing everywhere. I’m glad I obtained to [finish] it as soon as.”
O’Grady in the course of the 1991 Western States 100.
California Working
Earlier than there have been concepts of working the Western States 100, the Nugget 50 Mile in California absolutely drew O’Grady into the game of ultrarunning. Within the early years, whereas nonetheless residing in Minnesota, she and O’Connell usually traveled to California to race, and the U.S. West Coast offered vastly totally different working terrain than Minnesota. In response to O’Grady, “That was once I was hooked, as soon as I obtained on mountain trails.”
The 2 continued to go to California for the racing, “You type of needed to go there as a result of we didn’t have something in Minnesota. And Northern California was the center of ultrarunning again then.” The pair would take turns racing and crewing for one another.
When the regulation agency O’Grady was working at wished to open a department in California’s San Francisco Bay Space, she instantly volunteered to go. She wished to be nearer to the close-knit working neighborhood she and O’Connell had develop into a part of there.
She says, “We had an exquisite group of ultrarunners within the Bay Space. There was in all probability a core of a few dozen or 15 of us, after which typically it could broaden to 25 relying on what we had been doing.” Saturday lengthy runs had been a weekly incidence, and with so few ultras round, she says, “All people was all the time coaching for a similar races on the similar time, so relying upon what we had been gunning for, we’d exit and run anyplace from 20 to 35 miles each Saturday, and it was so enjoyable.”
The neighborhood within the space felt particular. “We had an excellent core, and all of us ran about the identical tempo, center of the pack. And we’d have a lot enjoyable on these runs, after which we’d go to races collectively, they had been good occasions.”
All of the whereas, O’Grady was working at her regulation agency, the place she was a accomplice, and structuring her coaching across the work that continuously noticed her touring and going for multiweek intervals with out working in any respect. “It was a juggling act,” she says, “nevertheless it labored.” Her work schedule compelled O’Grady to run decrease mileages than most of the individuals she usually ran with, however she says the necessary coaching was all the time all in regards to the Saturday future.
Extra lately, O’Grady working the 2021 Heartland 50k.
Watching Ultrarunning Develop
O’Grady admits there was concern within the Northern California working neighborhood within the Nineties that the game wouldn’t final. She says, “The comradeship was wonderful. We had been apprehensive that the game would die as a result of there have been so few of us and a few had been getting older and stopping working, so it appeared like the game was shrinking. Then, abruptly, younger individuals obtained .”
O’Grady noticed, “The extra the youthful individuals obtained concerned, the extra they had been within the science of it.” She laughs when she recounts her reminiscences of her early years racing, “I imply, finally we had PowerBars. That was the extent of particular meals. In any other case, you ate food-food.” She continues, “Now, after all, it’s all about fueling, which we by no means thought of. You threw some stuff in your pack, and assist stations had peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and a bunch of snacky issues, and that was it.”
It’s not solely the fueling that’s modified, it’s additionally the quantity and dimension of races. “I believe once I began, there have been 5 100 milers within the U.S., and now there are a whole lot.” O’Grady says, “All people’s obtained the science of coaching plans, and we by no means had any of that. We didn’t have fancy working garments. It’s actually developed, and it’s been enjoyable to observe it, and I’m glad I can nonetheless be part of it!”
Race Directing
O’Grady not solely ran races but additionally helped to direct them. It was an integral strategy to be concerned with and provides again to the working neighborhood that meant a lot to her.
She was a race director, alongside O’Connell, for the Quicksilver Endurance Runs, beginning in 1999, and helped arrange the occasion along with her Quicksilver Working Membership. It was a gaggle of associates placing on a enjoyable race, and she or he smiles when describing how the duties had been divided up. “The whole lot was so organized already after we began directing,” she says. Even after she and O’Connell moved to Conifer, Colorado, in 2006, they continued to direct the occasion in 2007 earlier than passing it on.
It didn’t take lengthy earlier than O’Grady began one other race in Colorado. After working the huge path community within the Buffalo Creek space in her yard and realizing how in depth and exquisite it was, she measured all of the segments and put collectively a 50-mile and 50k route, which she known as the North Fork 50 Mile/50k.
O’Grady working the 2024 North Fork 50k, a race she co-founded and directed till 2020.
Discovering individuals within the Colorado working neighborhood to assist out wasn’t exhausting. Of beginning the race in 2010, she says, “I used to be on the extremely e-mail record, and so I mentioned, ‘Hey, anyone within the Denver space excited about serving to me begin a race?’ And I obtained six volunteers proper like that. And 5 of them grew to become the help station captains.” She continues, “Three of them had been nonetheless assist station captains 10 years later once I turned it over to a brand new race director in 2020.”
Chasing World Information
By means of all of it, O’Grady saved working.
In 2006, at age 58, O’Grady retired from being a lawyer, saying, “One of many causes I retired early was as a result of I nonetheless wished to run, and I by no means actually obtained an opportunity to do it like I felt I might do it.” Shifting to Colorado after retirement gave her a brand new set of trails on which to coach and run.
She says she was all the time a middle-of-the-pack runner all through her profession, however she educated exhausting and continued to like the game when many individuals her age struggled with accidents or a scarcity of motivation and stopped working.
She’d by no means even thought-about herself in competition for a world file till proper earlier than she was set to race the 2023 Tunnel Hill 50 Mile. Somewhat bit earlier than the race, somebody requested her, “Have you ever seen what the American file is for 50 miles for the ladies’s 75-to-79 age group?” She had no concept.
O’Grady discovered that the American age-group file was over 18 hours, and no official world file existed but. She now had a aim in thoughts and dialed in her coaching, “I ended doing the mountain trails for a number of months and targeted on making an attempt to run flatter.”
She discovered methods to compensate for residing at elevation, “I did speedwork, or I ought to say not-so-slow work, on downhills as a result of I stay at 8,000 ft, and for years, I’ve not been capable of maintain working on flats at this altitude. So, the one manner that I might actually run an entire mile with out stopping to stroll was to go downhill.” She explains, “I’d attempt to run [downhills] as quick as I might to get the speedwork in and get my mind working at sustaining working and never strolling each 5 minutes.”
She thrived on the Tunnel Hill 50 Mile’s low elevation and ran the double out-and-back course in 12:02:39, setting not solely a brand new age-group American file however establishing an age-group world file.
It didn’t take lengthy for O’Grady to start out researching different age-group data, as she had already signed up for the Throughout the Years race in Arizona on the finish of December 2023. She says, “We went there, and my husband Tom was so nice. We arrange in order that we had been proper throughout from the timers, and so they knew which [records] I used to be going for and what the occasions had been. Tom would go over there once I was getting shut in order that they had been all prepared. It went like clockwork.”
Whereas O’Grady didn’t break her 50-mile file, she obtained the 12-hour, 100k, 24-hour, and 100-mile age group world data. Whereas she’s happy with all of them, it’s the 100-mile mark of 29 hours, 50 minutes, and 33 seconds that she’s most happy with. The prior file was simply over 31 hours. “That was the one which I actually wished … that one I really feel was an accomplishment, and I hope that one will grasp on for a short while, however you by no means know.”
After a lifetime of being mid-pack, O’Grady now has a brand new function and motivation for working, saying, “Having the age-group competitiveness has obtained me type of extra fired up about it now.”
O’Grady working the 2022 Jackpot 100 Mile, which was additionally the 2022 USATF 100 Mile Championships.
Longevity
O’Grady plans to maintain working and racing so long as she will. She says, “Not many people final into our 70s. Each time I am going to a race, I’m the oldest feminine finisher, typically the oldest finisher, interval, however I’ve solely been final as soon as.”
She shortly factors on the market are a bunch of runners about to enter the 75-plus age group, and she or he’s excited to see what they’ll do. “I believe individuals have realized methods to maintain themselves.” She factors out that many prime age-group runners “didn’t begin [running] till they had been of their 50s and a few even 60s. So, they appear to do higher of their 70s than these of us who began earlier.”
O’Grady not does a weekly future, pushing the interval between large efforts to 10 days as a substitute of seven. She additionally continues to be a comparatively low-milage runner and says, “If I don’t have a race developing and it’s every week that doesn’t have a future in it, I would solely run 15 miles.” However that doesn’t imply that O’Grady is sitting round the remainder of the time, “I’ve my two-and-a-half-hour energy exercises. I keep fairly match.”
She is aware of that she’s slowed down through the years and says the continuing joke amongst her friends is, “You’re working the identical as you all the time did, however there’s one thing unsuitable with the clock as a result of the time is so gradual.” However she’s not upset in regards to the slower occasions, saying, “I really like being on the market, and if I’m slower, I get to be on the market longer.”
Most individuals O’Grady used to run with have stepped away from the game. However each month, these that may attempt to have a Zoom name to catch up, and O’Grady says that yearly on the Western States 100, “Quite a lot of the outdated gang nonetheless gathers at Foresthill [a village located at mile 62 of the race] within the afternoon to observe runners go by.”
O’Grady has a number of races developing, together with 3 Days on the Truthful in New Jersey, the place she hopes to get her 24-hour world file again — the one one which was bested this 12 months. She says of working and racing at age 76, “I take pleasure in being on the market, and I can do it, and it’s as a result of I adore it. I’ll maintain at it so long as I can.”
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