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CharityMike DeNoma:Going the Distance and ThenSome…and Then Some MoreOn January 20th, The Center’s Running Team member andultra-endurance athlete Mike DeNoma took to the trails in themountains of Brazil to compete in one of the most grueling footraces in the world: the Brazil 135 Ultramarathon.TExT: KARI SCHIRO IMAGES: MIKE DEnOMAThe race’s course takes runnersalong the most difficultportions of the Caminho deFé (Path of Faith), a popularpilgrimage route in the MantiqueiraMountains. It might be said thatDeNoma was on a pilgrimage of hisown: to test the limits of his enduranceand raise money along the way.As one might imagine,ultramarathons are not for the faint ofheart. An ultramarathon is defined asany foot race longer than a traditional26.2-mile marathon, but many ultraendurancecompetitions include othersports such as cycling, swimming, andskiing. In some cases, the distanceis just one of the challenges; manycourses also take competitors throughabsurdly arduous conditions. Take,for example, the Sahara des SablesUltramarathon in Morocco, a six-day,151-mile trek across the SaharaDesert. Or the wintertime Arrowhead135, a race in which athletes choosetheir mode of transport — by bike,foot, or ski — and race along 135miles of snowmobile trails in northernMinnesota where temperatures oftenplummet to -30 degrees Celsius.ROUGH TERRAINThe Brazil 135 is also notorious forits tough terrain. In total, runnersascend a remarkable 33,000 feetand descend 29,000 feet — a courseequivalent to a full ascent and descent(from sea-level) of Mount Everest.Only about ten of the race’s 135 milesare on flat ground.During these ultra-races, competitorsoften experience the effects of thebody being pushed to its limits. Theseinclude hypothermia (DeNoma hadtwo bouts of it in Brazil), the lossof motor skills (which, DeNomaexplains, is particularly trying whenyou can’t grip the handlebars duringa bike race), and hallucinations (for aportion of the Brazil 135 DeNoma sawgreen Santa coats hanging from thetrees and a musician playing a “fireflyxylophone/piano.”)Finishing these races is never agiven: in Brazil, sixty athletes startedthe race and only forty-seven finishedit; the others dropped out, most likelyafter a freak hailstorm hit the backof the pack of runners. DeNomawas 45th out of the 47 athletes whofinished; he completed the race in anastonishing 49 hours, 57 minutes, and37 seconds despite an ill-marked trailand several hours (and many extramiles) during which he was lost. Heslept for a total of only about twentyminutes during the entire race.Still, DeNoma insists that there isnothing superhuman about his abilityto complete these ultra-feats. In fact,he sees his story as an example of howan average person can accomplishjust about anything with the propertraining and preparation (see graph onpage 24).A LATE STARTERDeNoma first began competing inendurance events at the age of 50.Up to that point, he had not run arace longer than 10 kilometers. Thisall changed when his then-companyStandard Chartered sponsored a racein Nairobi. At the starting line, hesaw a young blind man who wastied at the wrist to another runner,and DeNoma recalls thinking thatthe runner would surely be knockedover. Instead, when the starting pistolsounded, DeNoma found himselfswept off his feet. After he recovered,the blind runner was gone. At theend of the race, he caught up with therunner and discovered that he hadwon the race.The runner was Henry Wanyoike,now a multi Paralympics medal holderand the fastest blind man in the world.As a child Wanyoike trained as arunner, but in his early twenties hesuffered a stroke that left him blind.After learning to run tied to a guide,his biggest hurdle was finding a guidewho could keep up him; he ultimately22march 2012 www.communitycenter.org.tw