Sarah June is an ultra runner as well as a running coach and she just completed something pretty incredible: A 247-mile ultra run on the Maricopa Trail. You heard that correctly: A 247-mile run.
With her completion of the trail run, she set what’s called the Fastest Known Time, or FKT, on the trail.
She spoke to The Show recently to talk more about it and said she actually didn’t start running until after college and got hooked fast.
Full conversation
SARAH JUNE: A 5K led to a 10K, 10K led to a half-marathon, marathon, and you extrapolate out from there.
LAUREN GILGER: But most people stop maybe at a half- or a full marathon. You did not. What is ultra running exactly?
SARAH JUNE: Ultra running is anything longer than a marathon.
LAUREN GILGER: Simple as that. And how long is the longest race that you've run?
SARAH JUNE: An organized race, 100-miler. That was in, yeah, that was in October of last year.
LAUREN GILGER: OK, that's the longest race, but you've run much further distances than that with this "Fastest Known Time" thing, which are sort of unofficial races, right?
SARAH JUNE: Yes, unofficial races. It's kind of like a world record in a sense. It's like the fastest known time on a certain route or course.
LAUREN GILGER: Right. OK, so let's talk about the Maricopa Trail. First of all, describe it for us. It sort of loops the entire Valley. How long is it?
SARAH JUNE: It's a total of 315 miles with some offshoots. But the loop that connects the entire thing, the big circumference, is 247 miles.
LAUREN GILGER: And that's how long you just ran?
SARAH JUNE: Yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: My goodness. OK, so why the Maricopa Trail? Was this like a bucket list item? Was it the mystique of doing this trail?
SARAH JUNE: A little bit of both. Like I've known about this trail for a few years and I was just biding my time until I thought I was ready for it. And Burrito League came up, and I did a lot of miles in January because of Burrito League, and it was — it was time.
LAUREN GILGER: We have to talk about Burrito League at least briefly, although this could be its own conversation entirely. Talk a little bit about how many miles you ran up and down Mill Avenue in January.
SARAH JUNE: I ran 807 miles.
LAUREN GILGER: And why is it called Burrito League?
SARAH JUNE: It was originally, for the last couple years, Strava and Chipotle put on a challenge of however many, segments you can get, the person who runs the most gets free burritos for a year.
LAUREN GILGER: Oh wow, OK. Not Chipotle anymore, but you still get burritos?
SARAH JUNE: Yeah, local businesses. So local businesses donate the burrito.
LAUREN GILGER: Yes. OK, so one was organized on Mill Avenue and you spent an inordinate amount of time running up and down Mill Avenue, 800 miles in a month. So that kind of gave you a sense, it sounds like, of what you could do.
SARAH JUNE: Yeah, yeah. I was running faster on that last day than I was in the first week. So I was just — my fitness was getting stronger, I was getting stronger, I was durable, and I was going to take that fitness and put it somewhere else.
LAUREN GILGER: OK, so talk about the logistics of setting up an ultra run like this, a 247-mile loop. I mean, do you sleep? Do you eat? How do you make that happen?
SARAH JUNE: Yeah, so it's time-based, right? So you can strategize as much as you want of like: How much am I going to sleep? How much am I going to eat? How often am I going to see my support vehicle that's following me around?
So yeah, I just wanted anything between like 7- and 15-mile sections depending on the terrain and the access from the street, basically. I didn't leave the trail, so I had — I had a lot of support coming in. So they'd bring cheeseburgers and they'd bring smoothies and coffee and all the things. So that was really nice.
And I slept in the vehicle. So every once in a while I would take a 30-minute nap, or I would take a two-hour rest, especially during the heat of the day when it was hot, you know, get out of the sun, cool down, sleep for two to three hours and then get back out and going.
LAUREN GILGER: Did you have a full night's sleep in any of this?
SARAH JUNE: No.
LAUREN GILGER: My goodness. OK, so what does that do to the body? Like you're a running coach as well, you know a lot about the physicality of something like this. What did it feel like?
SARAH JUNE: Oh, that's a great question. I think it was more mentally hard than it was physically hard. I mean, there were times where my legs are tired, but it's more of like a mental game than it is a physical one.
LAUREN GILGER: You set the fastest known time on this trail. What was it? How long did it take you?
SARAH JUNE: Took me three days and 12 hours, 17 minutes.
LAUREN GILGER: Wow, I really thought that was going to be a longer amount of time. How long did you sleep when you got home afterward?
SARAH JUNE: It was hard to sleep. Like your body is just like — your legs hurt, your whole body hurts, that sleep doesn't come easy. You have hot sweats at night, you're not sleeping through the night. That first night was rough, like there's not much sleep that happened. But the following night, slept like a baby.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, OK. So you broke it up into sections, you stopped and napped here and there, you ate, it sounds like, a ton of food along the way to try to even keep your body going. What were the hardest moments?
SARAH JUNE: Oh man. So there were some steep sections north of Cave Creek, there was some really steep up and down, and the trail wasn't as maintained in that area, so it was a lot of trying to find the trail.
I had pacers with me, so pacers as in friends that are running with me to help keep me going and — and show me the way so I didn't have to do the navigating. And even they were having trouble finding the trail. So that was the most challenging part, was late at night, it was cold, couldn't find the trail, tired.
LAUREN GILGER: I have heard that ultra runners sometimes just like disconnect from the moment and almost hallucinate as they go. Did that happen to you?
SARAH JUNE: Actually, no.
LAUREN GILGER: Were you expecting it?
SARAH JUNE: Yes. Honestly, yes I was. I was like: OK, when are the hallucinations going to happen? But I think the hallucinations didn't happen because of how much food I was actually eating. I was trying to eat as many calories as I possibly could get in and still continue to run. But one trick that I like is just being as present as possible, trying to not disconnect from the moment.
So just being super present in the moment I think helps me, because I know I can take one more step and then one more step. So I don't necessarily disconnect, I just know I can take another step and I can keep going that way.
LAUREN GILGER: Did you have a moment where you thought, maybe I can't take another step?
SARAH JUNE: Yes.
LAUREN GILGER: When did it happen?
SARAH JUNE: I was — it was in the middle of the night, it was just coming out of a really hard section, one of that section I just told you about up in Cave Creek, and I woke up and I told one of my crew members, one of my friends that was helping, I was like: I don't want to keep going.
And he just blank stare, like frightened stare at me, and I said: But I am. And he's like: Oh, OK, good.
LAUREN GILGER: A lot's going into this, you can't back out now kind of moment. PK, OK So you didn't back out, you finished the race. Were there moments that were really beautiful or revelatory for you?
SARAH JUNE: Oh yeah. There were a few times that I cried and I was just so happy. One of the last climbs coming up over Windgate Pass overlooking, you know, where Gateway Trailhead is and just seeing the — it was at night and it was the last big climb and I just saw the city lit up, glittering.
It was just — I told my pacer, I told my friend, and I was like: Hey, we're going to stop here and we're just going to hang out for like five minutes and just take in the moment because this is pretty darn incredible, what we just did.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, yeah. What did it feel like to finish it?
SARAH JUNE: Oh man. I think it was a quarter mile out and I just was bawling. My tear — I just — tears were streaming down my face. Along the way there's Maricopa signs, like Maricopa Trail signs. And every — every time I'd go by one I'd be like: Hello, friend.
And so I — the last — very last one I put my hand on it and I just had a moment where it was just like: Wow, I just did this thing and I wish it wasn't ending.
LAUREN GILGER: You wished it wasn't ending?
SARAH JUNE: Yeah.
LAUREN GILGER: What does that say about it for you?
SARAH JUNE: It's — it's my calling. Like I am — there's more — there's more to unpack.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah. So let's talk about that calling and like why you think you do this. Because I mean, I am sure that lots of people have said to you: You are crazy. Like why would you ever put yourself through this? Why would you spend so much time and resources to do something like this? What's the point, the goal to you?
SARAH JUNE: I think you can learn a lot about yourself through fitness, through running, through ultra running, that you can apply to everyday life. The struggles that you have during an ultra marathon can be applied to the struggles that we have as humans. And I think that's the beautiful thing about ultra running.
LAUREN GILGER: Yeah, I remember having a yoga teacher once who said if you can not yell at me during this two-minute plank, then you can not yell at someone in traffic tomorrow.
SARAH JUNE: That's exactly right. That's exactly right. If I can get through this, I can get through anything in life.
LAUREN GILGER: Sarah June, trail runner, ultra runner, running and strength coach with June Coaching joining us. Sarah, thank you so much. Congratulations and good luck on the next one.
SARAH JUNE: Thank you.
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