When Professor Len Ruth weighed close to 222 lbs he would talk about running in a 5K race, which is approximately 3.1 miles.<\/p>\n
\u201cYears ago, I\u2019d be in church and they\u2019d talk about how there\u2019s a 5K coming up and I used to joke about how I\u2019d run in it,\u201d Ruth said.<\/p>\n
That changed after Ruth made his new year\u2019s resolution on Jan. 1, 2005, to lose weight.<\/p>\n
After losing the weight \u2013 Ruth said he\u2019s lost roughly 80lbs \u2013 he began running in 5Ks. He continued to move up the ladder, running in 15Ks, half-marathons (12 miles), marathons (26 miles), 50Ks (31 miles), 50 miles, 100 miles and most recently the Northcoast 24-hour endurance race in Cleveland on Oct. 3.<\/p>\n
Ruth, who lasted 15 hours, said he was disappointed with his finish.<\/p>\n
\u201cI would\u2019ve gone further, but I got really sick to my stomach,\u201d he said. \u201cI had already gone 70 miles, so it was enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruth has been running for almost five years.<\/p>\n
\u201c(The reason I continue to run) is partly because I have an addictive personality,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cIt was fun, it helps me keep my weight off.<\/p>\n
\u201cMostly (I do) it because I like to have hard things that I put in the future that I work towards and then try to accomplish those things because then you get a greater sense of accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruth said that he runs every day and doesn\u2019t take a season off. To prepare for this race, he did six months of training. When training, he ran 80 miles a week and he would alternate days: A 15-mile run would be an easy day and a 35-mile run would be considered a hard day. Ruth said he spends close to 15 hours a week running. The week preceding the race, Ruth said he tried not to run as much.<\/p>\n
Ruth\u2019s family attended the race to support him. During the race, tables were set up with food and liquids, according to Ruth. The race began at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n
\u201cSometimes you just get into a zone,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cYou just look at the clock and two hours have gone by and you didn\u2019t notice it.\u201d<\/p>\n
While running, Ruth said some of the runners talk to each others would listen to music (which usually isn\u2019t allowed in ultra marathons) but said being tired was one of the last things on his mind.<\/p>\n
\u201cSurprisingly, when you\u2019re out running (you don\u2019t get) tired. I\u2019ll be going until two in the morning, four in the morning and I don\u2019t feel like it\u2019s a normal day,\u201d Ruth said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think with the adrenaline and the exertion and pain, I don\u2019t feel sleepy at all. At least not for 24 hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ruth considered his 24-hour race as a failure, but said he was proud of the Umstead 100-mile endurance race he completed in Raleigh, NC in April, clocking in at 22 hours, 33 minutes and 41 seconds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a little crazy once you get past 65 miles,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cGo past that and it does get a little masochistic, a little bit crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Service Box: Tips for those interested in running in a marathon<\/p>\n
1) <\/strong>Take baby steps<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe key is that you have to build up after a long time,\u201d Ruth said.<\/p>\n Ruth also said that potential runners should stick by the 10 percent rule: \u201cNever increase your mileage by more than 10 percent in a week.\u201d<\/p>\n 2) <\/strong>Stay consistent<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t take many days off,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cYou can\u2019t let yourself go back to where you (started).\u201d<\/p>\n 3) <\/strong>Make it a priority<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cMy whole day revolves around running,\u201d Ruth said. \u201cIt\u2019s gotta be the number one priority in your life, almost.\u201d<\/p>\n 4) <\/strong>Age is nothing but a number<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of 40, 50 and 60-year-old people doing this because as you get older, you still have your endurance,\u201d Ruth said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" When Professor Len Ruth weighed close to 222 lbs he would talk about running in a 5K race, which is approximately 3.1 miles. \u201cYears ago, I\u2019d be in church and they\u2019d talk about how there\u2019s a 5K coming up and I used to joke about how I\u2019d run in it,\u201d Ruth said. That changed after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[761,1959,655,760],"class_list":["post-3162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news","tag-5k","tag-kamari-stevens","tag-professor","tag-ultramarathon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-P0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3162"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3599,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3162\/revisions\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}