With 87 ultra-marathons under his belt since 2000, Mahomet resident Chris Migotsky hopes complete 100 ultra-marathons by the end of 2014.
Migotsky completed his 87th race at the 32-mile Evergreen Lake Ultra Marathon in 6 hours, 14 minutes. In April, Migotsky ran 100-miles in his best time at 23 hours, 56 minutes.
“Still can’t believe I did it,” he said. “And it’s one of my proudest running achievements getting under 24 hours.”
Participants have 30 hours to complete a 100 mile race. The first finishers complete the course in 15 to 16 hours.
Migotsky asked two friends who had moved to NC from Champaign-Urbana to pace him on the last half of the race. They ran the last 40 miles with him during the night hours, encouraging him to maintain his goal pace.
Running has always been a way to accomplish goals for Migotsky. He began running as a teenager to stay in shape for tennis and soccer in high school and college. When he moved to the Champaign-Urbana area for grad school, he got involved with people who enjoyed trail running.
“As a kid I watched the Boston Marathon, and thought it’d be fun to do a marathon sometime,” he said. “I didn’t even know what an ultra-marathon was.”
After progressively running a 5K, 10K and marathon, he completed his first marathon in 1999 in Madison, Wisc. His four-hour finish led him to the hospital for dry-heaves.
“I was hooked,” he said. “I had a terrible experience, but I loved marathons.”
With friends through the Second Wind Running Club and the Buffalo Trail Running Club, which meets at the pavilion north of the Mahomet-Seymour High School on Crowley Road on Thursday nights, Migotsky travels throughout the Midwest to run 32-mile, 50K, 50-mile, 100K and 100-mile races.
Migotsky has also raced in Colorado, California and Canada with friends.
“I like the camaraderie of running with a group like this, especially on trails,” he said. “You encourage each other, but you also compete against each other. I find It enjoyable to get away from the city and work on the long trails.”
The hard surface and repetitive movement on pavement runs is hard on Migotsky. It takes him a week to recover from pavement running, where it will take him two to three days to recover from an ultra-marathon on trails.
Migotsky said during a trail race, he falls at least two to three times. Runners are also plagued with fatigue, dehydration, vomiting, blisters and aches and pains during their run.
Approximately half of the runners who start an ultra-marathon do not finish the race. Each ultra-marathon has stations set up every six to eight miles with sandwiches and soup to help fuel the runners.
“Your mind starts playing tricks on you,” he said. “What do I do this? Your brain tells you this is bad for you. You’re vomiting. You’re hurting. It’s 2 a.m. You’ve got 40 miles to go. Why are you doing this? You have to be able to tell yourself you have a reason.”
Part of the adventure for Migotsky is not knowing whether he will finish when he begins the race.
Migotsky dropped out of three races in a row at 75 miles because he had no reason to run.
In the 100-mile race in April, he began to have doubts he could finish.
“My pacers told me I was on 24-hour pace,” he said. “If it wasn’t for them, there’s a chance I wouldn’t have finished. I did because of their motivation and support.”
The discipline and tolerance for pain has helped Migotsky in other areas of his life, particularly at work.
“If I can figure out how to get through vomiting on the side of the road with 30 more miles to go, then work isn’t that hard,” he said.
Ultra-marathoners have a mantra: “Relentless forward progress.” Migotsky said he remembers if he can’t run, walk. If he can’t walk, sit for just a bit. Even if he has to crawl, just keep moving forward and the pain will get a little better, and hopefully he’ll finish.
In the recent Evergreen Lake ultra in Hudson, IL , Migotsky wanted to drop out at 22-miles. Because the course was a big loop around a lake, he realized he’d have to go back or forward several miles to drop out, so he decided to finish.
“I’ve done so many of these, I don’t have much to prove to myself,” he said. “I want to get to 100 by the end of next year.”
With persistence, he will reach 90 by the end of the year. He will compete in two 30-mile races in Peoria and Pekin within the next two months. He will then travel to Seattle to pace his brother on his first marathon.
Just in the Champaign-Urbana area, Migotsky has approximately 50 friends who compete in ultra-marathons. Through the Second Wind Running Club, Migotsky started a 30-mile race in early spring at Clinton Lake. He also organized the Buffalo Trail Race in Mahomet.
“I think there are so many ultra-runners because the club really supports it,” he said. “(The Buffalo Trace Trails) are close enough to Champaign that people come out here every single week.”
Migotsky trains for the ultra-marathons by running 30 to 50 miles a week.
He also took a week off of work to run sun up to sun down along the Buffalo Trace Trails. He completed 303 miles that week.
“I’m not special,” he said. “Anyone here can do 100 miles if they train for it.”
