I Held On. Others
Quit.
Spinning
instructor found she has a gift for breezing through miles of nature – and
past her marathon competition
By Dave Shelles
spt4@wyomingnews.com
Published in the Wyoming
Tribune-Eagle -
May 25, 2005
CHEYENNE - You wish
you were as tough and fast as this woman.
Through duct-taped
feet, weeds slapping at her calves, a field full of ego-driven men
and the constant battle of wills between mind and body, Katy Cotton
has always persevered.
She won the Rocky
Mountain Double Marathon in 2004, covering the 52.4-mile course of
gravel, dirt and rocks in 9 hours, 58 minutes. The next competitor
finished 15 minutes later.
No, she didn't win
the women's side. She won the whole darned thing.
She won it on a day
when the winds whipped down the Laramie Mountains and chilled the
average runner to the bone. Just 11 of the 27 starters finished and
earned the belt buckle for which the race is known, and Cotton beat
them all to the finish line.
Call it mental
toughness if you want. Cotton has her own way of expressing what
drives her to compete at a high level in these contests of
endurance.
"I call it
pig-headed," she said. "I make up my mind on something and nothing
else happens. I just stay pretty focused on it and, by God, it's
going to happen. I've done that a number of times in various
competitions. I've had people tell me 'Oh no, you can't do that.'
You don't tell me I can't do that or I'll prove you wrong. That's a
lot of it."
Getting started
For someone as
accomplished in the ultramarathon world as Cotton, her beginnings in
the sport are humble and impressive at the same time.
A spinning
instructor at F.E. Warren, Cotton heard of a group of people
training for the Lincoln (Neb.) Marathon. She joined them and
breezed through the race - on just five weeks' training. Most
running coaches recommend athletes train for upwards of four months
for those kinds of races.
Within a month she
ran the 2000 Wyoming Marathon at Lincoln Monument, which is held the
same day as the Rocky Mountain Double Marathon. That taught her not
only did she have a gift for running long races, but she preferred
running in nature instead of on concrete or asphalt.
"Through that
summer I was running trails with that group of people and I
discovered that I have a love for trail running," she said. "I like
climbing the mountains, and screaming down a gnarly downhill is
really fun. It's an equalizer for me because I'm not one of the
tall, skinny, fast gazelle types. I really have great navigation
skills on nasty trails, so it's kind of fun."
That fun has meant
finishing 17 ultramarathons - defined as any running event longer
than the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles - and finishing in
the top three of about one-fourth of them.
But she said the
performance at the Rocky Mountain double was easily her best. Not
bad for a race that wasn't even the highest priority on her list.
An insider’s
advantage
Really, Cotton was
looking ahead to the Big Horn 100-mile race, which takes place three
weeks after Rocky Mountain. Essentially, the Rocky Mountain double
was going to be a training run leading up to the Big Horn.
But she knew some
things the other competitors didn't.
Cotton knew the
course like the back of her hand, as she runs on the trails around
Vedauwoo several times a week. She knew each turn in the main road,
each rock along the side of the road. And she knew the atmosphere up
there, how unstable it is.
"Knowing the course
is a huge benefit in something like that," said Brent Weigner, the
race's organizer and himself an accomplished ultramarathoner. "You
really start getting brain-dead after the miles. The weather really
worked to her advantage, too, because she trains up there and she
knows how to deal with the wind and the cold.
"It was a nasty,
nasty day. There were a few people in the field that were more
talented runners than her but she was able to turn that around by
being mentally tough and prepared."
Cotton said she
went against conventional ultramarathon wisdom by taking the first
marathon out hard rather than pacing herself. At the halfway point
the weather turned foul and she pressed on while others dropped out
one by one. Officials told her she was in the lead and she pressed
on until she crossed the finish line first.
Built for endurance
Explanations abound
as to why women might be especially well-suited to such
competitions. Some have suggested the pain of long-distance running
pales in comparison to that of child-bearing. Others have suggested
women metabolize fat better than men, a key in consuming nutrients
while running for great distances.
Cotton calls it
flat-out mental toughness, a trait not found in every person, let
alone every endurance athlete. As she mentioned before, tell her she
can't do something and watch her prove you wrong.
"So when I won the
race last year I honestly think it was a matter of mental toughness
and strategy," she said. "The fellow who took second, he was way
stronger than me but it was his first ultra, I think, and he did the
normal, conventional thing - go out easy. I was standing at that
starting line knowing what that course was like and knowing we were
in for bad weather. I made haste that first marathon and pushed,
which you don't normally do. But I knew that second marathon the
weather was going to be miserable and we would be slogging, just
pushing the wind to get finished.
"So I was ahead of
everybody at the middle of the race and I held on. Others quit."
A bigger challenge
Cotton has a lot of
irons in the fire these days. She helps her mother at the
family-owned Avenues Pet Clinic, teaches spinning, and has started a
non-profit organization that helps masters athletes (men over 40 and
women over 35) in their training and racing of ultradistance events.
She knows the field
is gunning for her at Sunday's Rocky Mountain Double Marathon, which
begins at 6 a.m. at Lincoln Monument, but she won't be running the
double this year. Instead, she'll toe the line for the Wyoming
Marathon, looking instead to the Big Horn 100-Miler, which takes
place three weeks later.
As long as the
running isn't a drag, her body is willing, and she's still motivated
to win, Cotton said she'll keep doing these races. And winning.
"If you like
running, anything like this is doable. It's just a mental thing,"
she said. "Don't let it freak you out by the miles. I did a marathon
on five weeks' training ... and I wasn't exactly super-fit or
anything.
"I just did it."
