An Ongoing Experiment: Pete Stringer, Part 1of 2

Many of those who run races within their relative vicinity often come across a small cadre of runners that seem to be a legendary fixture to the running scene. Commonly these individuals have racked up years of experience, which includes running, racing, volunteering and so much more. They are true ambassadors who have witnessed the ebb and flow of all that is running. Coming from the Upper Midwest, two individuals who resemble these similar traits are Tom Bunk and Roy Pirrung. A race weekend just would not be complete without them. It's like old home week.

Similar to Bunk and Pirrung is perennial running veteran Pete Stringer from Massachusetts. In this two-part series, Stringer reflects on what he has experienced through the years. Stringer also delves into his running philosophy, models of consistency, and his belief in minimal shoe wear, which includes his favorite shoes of choice (ala: Inov-8 Mudroc). Please click on the "Read more" link below to read Part I.

An Ongoing Experiment: Pete Stringer

There are lots of reasons that people run. Some run for fitness. Some run for glory. And some run for a far grander, yet humble reason— because they need to. Pete Stringer, of Osterville, Massachusetts falls into the third category.

Stringer, 66, has become something of a local celebrity in Eastern Massachusetts for the intense races he runs, his status as a contender who consistently places high in these events, and quite simply because he’s considered “old” in the world of competitive athletics.

“It’s almost a little embarrassing because I didn’t even get into ultra running until I was ‘old’ as people go,” he says. A runner for over 60 years, Stringer didn’t start running ultras until he was “over 50, but it was love at first sight.” And in the 16 years since he stumbled into these longer-form races, he’s racked up quite a resume of more than 35 ultra marathons. Stringer is a veteran of such “gnarly” ultras as Western States, the Vermont 100, and Leadville.

Training Equals Studying

So how do ultra runners like Stringer pull off such long races? They aren’t gods, they just train smart and study the science.

Stringer is semi-retired, which allows him to train an average of about three hours a day. That average includes at least one long run per week, which is usually closer to five hours long. During the week, he also coaches, so some of his mileage takes the form of running with his students.

He also hits the gym three days a week for weight training, which he says might well be the most important aspect of his total training regime. He says that a consistent weight training routine is absolutely necessary for him to maintain strength and prevent injury. “It’s necessary once you get past age 45 or 50. It’s good for everybody.”

He says, though, that many runners balk at the idea of weight lifting and strength training, particularly trail runners. “I think a lot of it is, it’s difficult to explain to somebody until they’re willing to try it for a few weeks and see the difference. I think ultra runners and ultra trail runners, they’re more likely to skip it or poo-poo it than track runners who generally come from college programs where it’s instilled. Trail runners think they can do it naturally. But try it: Focus on core training and strengthening. It probably won’t alter your stride or the running, but it shows up when you get really tired later in the race. Strength and core training helps your posture to keep you from getting injured and stay economical. There’s just an enormous benefit with the weight training; when I skip it for a few weeks, I notice it.”

Similarly important is rest time, and Stringer says he aims to keep one day totally off per week. He says it doesn’t always happen, but it’s important to recover, especially when you train so much.

Ultra Words of Wisdom

People who don’t participate in endurance sports events or who aren’t familiar with the lonely times that an ultra runner might experience while training or racing on some forgotten trail in the desert or wilderness often ask: “What do you think about for all those hours?”

Any endurance athlete will tell you that the bulk of that time is spent thinking about the fundamentals: food, water, the desire to rest, and the best ways to get more efficient and get to the finish line faster. Stringer is no different, and he says he’s carefully observed other runners and charted his own progress to become the best runner he can be. In all that time thinking and studying form and function, input and output, Stringer can now sum his years of diligent training and study up in a single sentence:

“It’s never efficient to run fast.”

When it comes to the absurdly long ultras, Stringer says it’s vitally important to stay at a steady pace that you can maintain. For example, if you’re a four-hour marathoner running at a nine-minute-per-mile pace, you’ll never be able to maintain that pace over the course of a 50-miler, and certainly not over the course of several days.

“Stay away from that pace, because you can’t sustain that for very long. That’s not going to be efficient.” He says he prefers to stay steady, even if that means being “slow” and he runs in five-hour segments. After five hours, he stops, eats, rests a bit, and then gets back on his feet.

Truly, slow and steady wins the race: “If you maintain a pace that’s not wildly diverse, you’re going to cover so much more ground than if you run, sit, run, sit, and so on. I’ve done a lot of math and studied lots of races before trying my first. The lesser of the curve that you can have on your [speed] graph, the more efficiently you’ll cover ground.”

But he didn’t know this innately. Like the rest of us, Stringer had to watch and learn.

Stringer tells the story of the first time he saw a multi-day race. He was surprised at how the contestants looked. “There was this one Russian woman, I’ll never forget her. If you were looking at horses, she more resembled a plough horse than a thoroughbred.” Her advantage was that added strength and endurance that her stockier frame offered. And that’s what made her a great ultra marathoner, even if she didn’t look like the willowy marathoners we’re all used to seeing. “She never came off the track. She was always moving,” Stringer says.

Stringer was inspired by this woman and others he saw running and he got in touch with some of the runners after the event. “I found it rewarding to talk to them. Their theory is the old tortoise and the hare thing. They have great personal characteristics, and if you’re going to be successful in a multi-day race, you have to be patient.” He says that the typical type-A, “hare” athlete personality stands less of a chance of success in the grueling multi-day marathons because, they “are going to blow it the first day.” The patient tortoises’ success comes in part from the fact that they “constantly monitor their bodies and give themselves what they need for fuel and hydration.” He says they know all the tricks for avoiding injury and to ease discomfort including innovative homeopathic remedies for everything from shin splints to stomachaches. He says that it’s “incredible stuff, and I ended up using it.”

Last year, Stringer completed his first six-day marathon and says that, essentially, he slept about one-and-a-half hours each afternoon and about three hours each night. “That gave me enough shut-eye time to make the rest of the time tolerable,” so he could stay on his feet with just brief stops to refuel or visit the bathroom.

“Forward motion is the catch word,” he says. Staying on your feet and just keeping moving in a forward direction and staying patient is what separates ultra runners from everyone else. Stringer finished 332 miles in this ultra-ultra race last year, good for 6^th place. He hopes to repeat his success next year.

Source: The Sri Chinmoy 2007 Race Results web site, www.srichinmoyraces.org/us/ultras/6-10-day-race/6-10-day-race-2007/results_2007/results_6day-men

With these ridiculously long endurance races, Stringer says that he’s more competitive than some of his younger counterparts simply because he has more endurance and because he has the patience. “It’s fascinating— as you get older the speed simply goes. And the endurance goes, too, but not as quickly. You can still be so much more competitive with the top people. My six-day total was sixth-place [last year]. Many of the runners under me could certainly beat me [in terms of speed on a shorter course], but you simply have to just keep going.” And that’s the key to success, he says. “You get these extraordinary totals for these three- and six-day races, and the runners, they barely seem to be moving. But they just keep going.”