Sometimes running is more than something you do. Sometimes it’s a way of life.
Voorhees resident Miriam Gilbert is always looking for a challenge.
She recently ran the Beast of Burden 100 mile ultra race in Lockport, N.Y.
Gilbert said she would walk for three minutes then run for 15 minutes.
She completed the race with no breaks in 27 hours 13 minutes and seven seconds.
Gilbert said sometimes she power walks.
She got her start in running by completing a 5K run in 1988. Her first ultra race was a 50-mile course in 2005.
Ultra is defined as any distance 30 miles or more.
Gilbert ran her first 100 ultra this past April.
She said she started running to stay healthy and also loves the outdoors.
“It’s a good way to stay in shape,” Gilbert said, noting it’s also her time when no one is bothering her with distractions like phone calls and emails. “It’s really my time.”
While she would love to run the 100 ultra in Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park in October, she was cross training there and in Yellowstone National Park this summer.
Gilbert said she is not sure if there is such a thing as runner’s high but felt great for two weeks following the last 100 ultra in N.Y. She said she had lots of energy and recovered more quickly than usual.
Gilbert had a lot of time to prepare for last one because she is off in the summer and runs 25 miles on weekends.
She is the director of the writing center at University of the Sciences and teaches first year writing and rhetoric.
For newbies, Gilbert recommends walking first, a half mile every other day and then bump it up gradually. She stressed that runners need to be disciplined.
“The more you do it in increments the better you’ll feel,” Gilbert said.
She said she often runs into people she’s seen at other runs.
“It’s a small community,” Gilbert said. “There are not a lot of us who run ultra marathons.”
She said she runs by herself, never in groups.
One of the most exotic locales where she has run is in the rain forest in Puerto Rico.
Gilbert’s dedication is evident when she tells how she would put her miles in when she would travel with her son who played in baseball tournaments in places like Wheeling. W. Va. and Pennsylvania.
She ran the Appalachian Trail, her first ultra, in 2005, through Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia
“It was really really beautiful,” Gilbert said. “It’s heaven.”
She said the loudest ultra was an urban one in Philadelphia.
“Even in the dead of night there was nothing but noise,” Gilbert said.
She is always looking for a new ultra.
“I like new challenges,” Gilbert said.
