TRANSCRIPT:
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
Javelina Jundred is often called the Burning Man of the trail running world. It's a Halloween-themed costume ultramarathon held annually at McDowell Mountain Regional Park in Fountain Hills. And it often delivers scorching temperatures over the five 20-ish-mile loops that make up the premier 100-mile race.
This year, however, Mother Nature had different plans. Two major storms brought torrential downpours and flash flooding to the desert course. In between the intermittent rain, we met up with runner Emma Keating the day before they would toe the line.
EMMA KEATING:
I started dreaming of doing, like, super long ultras in 2020. And I guess I should mention I'm 23 years old. So I was 17, and I was like, you know what? Ultrarunning looks really cool, which is an insane thing. And so in the last five years, I've done a couple, like, 50Ks, 50-milers. But a lot of my previous races have been, like, the Rut 50K or Speedgoat 50K, which are known to have a lot, a lot of vert. And both of my 50-milers have been in, like, mountainous terrains.
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
Vert is shorthand for elevation gain. And the Rut and Speedgoat both challenge runners with around 11,000 feet of vert over 31 miles. For reference, the Javelina 100-mile race has around 7,000 feet of total elevation gain. Emma's advice?
EMMA KEATING:
Don't read books about ultrarunning, because then you're going to get into it. Yeah, well, I mentioned I listened to Born to Run on a lot of my runs. And, you know, it's talking about human evolution, biology and how we're adapted to run. And I was like, this is awesome. I guess I'm going to study this and run and just devote my life to being a nerd. So that's how I ended up here.
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
Here, as in the University of Utah.
EMMA KEATING:
I'm now working on my doctorate of physical therapy. So running races has kind of been out of the question. They're really expensive. It's hard to travel. It's hard to train for. When I moved to Salt Lake City a year ago, I immediately started running with Women of the Wasatch and have found such a great community and so many incredible friends through that. And I saw this scholarship, and I was like, oh, I'll just toss my name in. And then about seven weeks ago, I learned that I got the scholarship for this race. And I had just finished syllabus week and figured out that I think that I, like, I could make it work, and committed. And seven weeks is not a lot to prepare for a 100-miler.
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
The typical training plan usually spans 16 to 30 weeks, but Emma's not alone.
EMMA KEATING:
Women of the Wasatch has three athletes. Myself, we have another athlete, Heba, who's doing the 100-miler, and then Helen, who's doing the 100K. And yeah, it's just going to be a lot of fun and a lot of support.
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
Support and good vibes can carry you a long way in an ultra. But you have to put in the training work, too. Emma reflects.
EMMA KEATING:
It's been really, really hard to train. Fortunately, my university had a fall break during my peak week, so I was able to, like, just go on a training retreat. But in the last seven days, I had to take three exams before traveling down here to Phoenix. So at least I'm studying physical therapy, and so it's—and we're constantly learning, like, oh, movement is good for you. Just maybe not 100 miles of movement.
PUBLIC RADIO RUNNER:
A hundred miles of movement takes a village. And so do podium finishes. Emma finished second in the 100-mile nonbinary category. Their hard work, a strong support network and good community vibes are a combo meant to endure. For KAWC, I'm Public Radio Runner.
