Janice O’Grady was a strong mid-pack ultrarunner for her whole 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 must get quicker, you simply must grow old.” 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 method, to which she credit her longevity. Her first extremely was the 1987 Ice Age Path 50 Mile, and since then, she’s accomplished 148 ultras — 13 of them 100 milers.
From her early years as a lawyer in Minnesota, to shifting to Northern California and embracing the working scene there within the Nineteen Nineties, to changing into a race director, to retiring and shifting to Colorado and beginning up her personal race, to setting 5 world data in 2023, O’Grady is displaying what is feasible at all ages.
Janice O’Grady climbing towards Hope Move throughout the 1992 Leadville 100 Mile. All images courtesy of Janice O’Grady.
Her Begin in Operating
Dwelling in Minneapolis, Minnesota, O’Grady didn’t begin working till she was 33 years previous. She remembers the swap to the approach to life clearly, saying, “I stop smoking on January 1, 1982, and the legislation 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 just a few 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 do 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 incapacity to deal with the warmth, she appears nicely glad in regards to the end, saying, “The one cause I completed it that 12 months was as a result of it wasn’t sizzling. It by no means received 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 sizzling, and I used to be barfing far and wide. I’m glad I received to [finish] it as soon as.”
O’Grady throughout the 1991 Western States 100.
California Operating
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 frequently traveled to California to race, and the U.S. West Coast supplied vastly completely different working terrain than Minnesota. In keeping with O’Grady, “That was once I was hooked, as soon as I received 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 legislation 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 turn 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 couple of dozen or 15 of us, after which generally it might increase to 25 relying on what we have been doing.” Saturday lengthy runs have been a weekly prevalence, and with so few ultras round, she says, “All people was all the time coaching for a similar races on the identical time, so relying upon what we have been gunning for, we’d exit and run wherever 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 might go to races collectively, they have been good occasions.”
All of the whereas, O’Grady was working at her legislation agency, the place she was a companion, and structuring her coaching across the work that ceaselessly 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 pressured O’Grady to run decrease mileages than lots of the folks she frequently ran with, however she says the essential coaching was all the time all in regards to the Saturday long term.
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 Nineteen Nineties that the game wouldn’t final. She says, “The comradeship was superb. We have been fearful that the game would die as a result of there have been so few of us and a few have been getting older and stopping working, so it appeared like the game was shrinking. Then, unexpectedly, younger folks received .”
O’Grady noticed, “The extra the youthful folks received concerned, the extra they have been within the science of it.” She laughs when she recounts her reminiscences of her early years racing, “I imply, ultimately 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 help 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 measurement of races. “I feel once I began, there have been 5 100 milers within the U.S., and now there are lots of.” O’Grady says, “All people’s received the science of coaching plans, and we by no means had any of that. We didn’t have fancy working garments. It’s actually advanced, and it’s been enjoyable to look at it, and I’m glad I can nonetheless be part of it!”
Race Directing
O’Grady not solely ran races but in addition helped to direct them. It was an integral approach 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 set up the occasion along with her Quicksilver Operating Membership. It was a bunch of mates placing on a enjoyable race, and she or he smiles when describing how the duties have been divided up. “The whole lot was so organized already once 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 intensive and delightful 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 folks 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 checklist, and so I mentioned, ‘Hey, anyone within the Denver space concerned about serving to me begin a race?’ And I received six volunteers proper like that. And 5 of them grew to become the help station captains.” She continues, “Three of them have been nonetheless help 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 received an opportunity to do it like I felt I may do it.” Transferring 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 an absence of motivation and stopped working.
She’d by no means even thought of herself in competition for a world report 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 report is for 50 miles for the ladies’s 75-to-79 age group?” She had no thought.
O’Grady discovered that the American age-group report was over 18 hours, and no official world report existed but. She now had a purpose in thoughts and dialed in her coaching, “I finished doing the mountain trails for just a few months and centered 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 in a position to maintain working on flats at this altitude. So, the one means that I may actually run a complete mile with out stopping to stroll was to go downhill.” She explains, “I’d attempt to run [downhills] as quick as I may 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 report however establishing an age-group world report.
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 have been proper throughout from the timers, and so they knew which [records] I used to be going for and what the occasions have been. Tom would go over there once I was getting shut in order that they have been all prepared. It went like clockwork.”
Whereas O’Grady didn’t break her 50-mile report, she received the 12-hour, 100k, 24-hour, and 100-mile age group world data. Whereas she’s pleased 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 report 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 hold on for a short time, however you by no means know.”
After a lifetime of being mid-pack, O’Grady now has a brand new objective and motivation for working, saying, “Having the age-group competitiveness has received 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, generally the oldest finisher, interval, however I’ve solely been final as soon as.”
She rapidly 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 will do. “I feel folks have discovered learn how to handle themselves.” She factors out that many prime age-group runners “didn’t begin [running] till they have 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 now not does a weekly long term, pushing the interval between large efforts to 10 days as an alternative of seven. She additionally continues to be a comparatively low-milage runner and says, “If I don’t have a race arising and it’s every week that doesn’t have a long term in it, I’d 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 power exercises. I keep fairly match.”
She is aware of that she’s slowed down over time and says the continued joke amongst her friends is, “You’re working the identical as you all the time did, however there’s one thing flawed 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, “A number of the previous gang nonetheless gathers at Foresthill [a village located at mile 62 of the race] within the afternoon to look at runners go by.”
O’Grady has a number of races arising, together with 3 Days on the Truthful in New Jersey, the place she hopes to get her 24-hour world report again — the one one which was bested this 12 months. She says of working and racing at age 76, “I get pleasure from being on the market, and I can do it, and it’s as a result of I adore it. I’ll hold at it so long as I can.”
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