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Running to a dream
Allen earns spot on U.S. National run team
Friday, June 27, 2008
 Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by MICHAEL REID
Bill Allen, who completed 140.97 miles during the Cornbelt 24-hour race held in Iowa, holds his first place trophy from the event.
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But dreams sometimes have a way of coming true and the Prince Frederick resident’s dream was realized May 3-4 when he completed 140.97 miles to win the Cornbelt 24-hour race held in Eldridge, Iowa.
Upon completion of the exhausting 24-hour run, Allen received an e-mail from Roy Pirrung, president of the American Ultrarunning Association that read simply: ‘Great job! You’ll fit in nicely. Congratulations!!’
Allen will now take part in the 24-Hour Run World Championship, which will be held Oct. 18-19 in Seoul, South Korea. As a member of the six-man, six-woman team, Allen will try to help the squad win its first-ever team medal.Ê
‘‘It feels really great,” Allen said in an interview in the football bleachers at Calvert High School, when asked what it was like to achieve his dream. ‘‘It took five years but I did it.”
Before Allen could realize his dream, he’d first have to compete and finish well in a grueling race, something that was not foreign to Allen.
A four-time competitor in the Boston Marathon from 2001 to 2004, Allen posted his best time of 2 hours 52 minutes in 2002. The following year he was forced to drop out with a hip flexor injury at the 15th mile and, in 2004, he competed primarily to pace his brother.
In 2003, he finished 31st in the JFK 50-mile run, and he ran a six-hour race in 2004. In 2006 and 2007 he competed in the Hampton (Va.) 24-hour events, though he was forced to withdraw from the earlier event after 60 miles because of injury. The latter event he finished with 113.5 miles to set a new course record, which has since been broken.
It was these ultrarunning events, which is any footrace longer than the distance of a marathon, of 26.2 miles, and the Olympic Games that made Allen yearn for a spot on the U.S. national team.ÊÊÊÊÊ
‘‘When you watch the Olympics, you see the teams coming into the stadium in the opening ceremonies and the feeling they must have been wearing that uniform for their country, and about to perform whatever it is their sporting event is, for their country and their team,” he said. ‘‘That’s something I always dreamed of doing.”
Allen learned the national team was accepting applications and the criteria was that he would have to run at least 135 miles to even be considered.
‘‘When I realized there was a national team and there were world championships for ultra events, somehow I knew I could do it if I set my mind to it,” he said. ‘‘Maybe it’s the silly dreamer in me, but somehow I knew I could do it. I just needed to get healthy enough, long enough to make the team.”
He decided to put his heart and soul into running the event and showed up at Calvert High School to share his story.
The 47-year-old Allen, who is a plant operator at Constellation Energy, arrived wearing navy shorts, a tank top and gray sneakers. His long hair flowed behind him and he sported wraparound mirror sunglasses. On his finger was a 2000 Calvert High football state football championship ring he earned as an assistant coach. Allen, who has five children, including 17-year-old William, who attends Huntingtown High School, is an assistant cross country coach at the school.
Allen, who took up running 12 years ago to help lose weight, trained for the Iowa event by averaging 61 miles a week for the six months leading up to the race. He topped out at 96.75 miles one week and reached 90-plus miles another week and passed the 80-mile mark six other weeks.
But he also had his share of setbacks, including an Achilles tendon injury. He was also worried somewhat after he was forced to pull out of the U.S. National Championship race in Dallas after 74 miles.
‘‘Except for the Achilles tendons, I did [feel good],” he said. ‘‘I also felt pretty good in Dallas until I stopped to change my clothes for five minutes. After failing in Dallas, I had some very serious worries that something would go wrong again. I just tried to tell myself, ‘There’s nothing you can do about it except start the race and start going in circles.’”
And he missed his transfer for his flight to Iowa two days before the race.ÊÊÊÊÊÊ
‘‘It was very frustrating because I needed the sleep the next day,” he said. ‘‘Also, everything was in my bags and I had no idea where they were. But once I got to Iowa, even though I was tired and needed to get up early the next day for the race, I was happy that I had made it and my bags had made it.”
The race began at 7 a.m. and the runners were off, to complete as many laps and miles as possible on the running track in 24 hours.
7 a.m., May 3
With the crack of the starter’s pistol, the 44 runners left the starting line.
‘‘Oh yeah [you feel good], because you’re not running really fast to what you’re used to or capable of,” Allen said of the first few hours. ‘‘There were some people there that were going really fast and I don’t think they knew how long 24 hours is. That’s why I kept telling myself, ‘The race doesn’t start really until the pain starts to set in, which about 60 to 80 miles into the race.”
11 a.m., May 3
The runners, who were hampered by a stiff wind, rain and 30-degree temperatures, get some relief when the rain lets up. The wind, which would gust up to 40 miles per hour, would continue to slow down the competitors for approximately eight more hours.
‘‘That was lucky [the rain stopped], because it would have been really miserable,” Allen said. ‘‘Your shoes get heavy and everything gets wet. And you get colder easier. [The wind] did slow me down, but I tried to spin it. I tried to tell myself that I liked the weather and don’t let it bother me. It definitely slows you down, but I tried not to concentrate on it.”Ê
Allen’s plan was to run four miles and then walk for three minutes. He does not listen to music while he runs and his plan is to only ingest liquids and energy gels, no solid foods. When he needs a sugar rush, he’ll gulp down some de-carbonated Coke.Ê
‘‘Your system can’t quite deal with everything you’re losing, so it’s a diminishing thing,” said Allen, who drinks 15 ounces of liquid every half hour or so. ‘‘You just try to put in as much as your system can handle.”
Despite the fact he’s running on a high school track, Allen insists it’s not boring looking at the same visuals every lap.
‘‘The thing is, I know a lot of people who run on treadmills a lot and I’d almost rather cut off my appendages than run three miles on a treadmill,” Allen says. ‘‘When I get out on a track, I’m outside and I can go all day.”
He has run trail races, such as a 50K event a few years ago in Bozeman, Mont.
‘‘We went up and down four mountains that hadÊsteep drop-offs and steep climbs,” he said. ‘‘It was totally crazy. I love those things, but when you’re trying to go 24 hours and cover an extra long distance, it’s hard to beat a track that is flat and slightly rubberized which is slightly less hard on you.”
He also said he stayed away from lap counting.Ê
‘‘If you run the first couple miles and feel good but then suddenly think, ‘I’ve run three miles, I have so many to go’ it can be a downer and you’ll quit,” he said. ‘‘So, I’ve learned to focus on one little bit. I say to myself, ‘OK, run one mile good’ and when I finish that mile I think, ‘OK, that was a good mile, now one more good one’ and so on.”
He also said he did plenty of thinking.
‘‘I thought about my cross country team and how when the pain is always intense, I’m telling them, ‘No deposit, no return and embrace the pain and ask for more,” he said. ‘‘The key to performing is knowing you can take more pain than the other person. I also focus on my form and on my time each lap.”
4:23 p.m., May 3
Allen hit the 100-kilometer (60-mile) mark in a personal-best 9 hours 23.36 seconds.
6:25 p.m., May 3
Allen passes the 75-mile mark.
10:17 p.m., May 3
Allen crosses a makeshift tape barrier to set the American age group (45-49) 100-mile record in 15:17:19. The old record, which was previously held by Pirrung, was 15:20:45.
‘‘Well, it felt terrific to know that I actually had an American record and knowing that the guy I took the record from has had over 50 [records],” Allen said. ‘‘He’s a legend so the fact I was able to get one of his meant a lot. But at the same time, I was pretty spent.”
Allen had spent so much energy trying to break the mark that he hadn’t had a walking break in the previous four hours.
‘‘I was probably going faster than I probably should have at that point,” he said. ‘‘The next hour is where I had a lot of trouble with abdominal cramps.”
10:30 p.m., May 3
Allen said this point of the race was the most difficult.
‘‘The next hour was where I had a lot of trouble with abdominal cramps. I had a really hard time, but I kept saying to myself, ‘Only a punk would drop out after setting an American record.’”
But those pains were put on hold sometime later when Allen passed his previous best of 113.5 miles and learned from his crew he had a shot at Pirrung’s 200-kilometer (120-mile) mark.
‘‘At first I didn’t think it was true,” Allen conceded. ‘‘I was trying to do the math in my head but I was tired and it was the middle of the night. I figured it was something that would get me to help pass the time again so I went for it. I was wrong about the time I had and I actually had a little more time than I thought.”
3:30 a.m., May 4
Allen broke a second makeshift finish line in 20:29:04 to smash Pirrung’s 200K record by almost six minutes.
5:30 a.m., May 4
Allen reached another difficult time in the race and that feeling would remain for about 30 minutes.
‘‘That was really hard until the last hour,” he said. ‘‘During the night I gave up on reaching 140 miles]. I completely gave up on it and was like, ‘There’s no way. I’m in too much pain and I can’t keep this type of pace. I need to walk more.’”
But he didn’t and continues chugging around the track.
6:59 a.m., May 4
‘‘I was very emotional as I was finishing that last mile, because I had fulfilled the dream and had set two American records,” Allen said. ‘‘There were so many people congratulating me. I was choked up.”
Allen finished the race in first place with 140.97 miles, more than 37 miles ahead of runner-up Jamie Donaldson of Littleton, Colo. Four competitors did not finish the race and all but six runners completed less than 100 miles.
‘‘When I got back to my hotel room, I sat down and it kind of hit me that, ‘I actually did it,’” Allen said.
Now, though it’s more than seven weeks after the race, the newest member of the U.S. national 24-hour run team is still getting back to normal. Before arriving at Calvert High School, Allen ran six miles, his longest outing since Iowa.
He’s also had physical therapy on his tendons but he’s excited about the worlds.
‘‘I’m optimistic things are coming around,’ he said, before walking across the high school track, ‘‘and I still have 19 weeks to get ready for the worlds.”
