Hallucinations, blisters, nose bleeds, stomach issues, searing heat, lack of sleep and water. None of these things could stop Durango resident Seana Green from reaching her goal.
Green did something most people couldn’t fathom doing at 30 years old. She completed a 300-mile Ultra race through scorching and rocky Arizona terrain.
By the way, she’s 50 years old.
On April 11, Green finished her 300-mile odyssey in Patagonia, Arizona, after beginning it six days, 23 hours, 13 minutes and 13 seconds earlier in Superior, Arizona.
Green showed her personality and spirit as she blew bubbles, did a little runway walk and a mic drop celebration as she finished her journey and crossed the finish line of the Arizona Monster 300 ultra race.
“There's this huge sense of accomplishment,” Green said. “I didn’t want to rush the ending because it's bittersweet, it's over. Everything you've worked for is coming to an end and it will now be in the past … this isn't going down in the history book somewhere. This is a personal endeavor that was supported by my closest friends and family. You worked up to this. You anticipated for it, right? Sometimes the anticipation is so big, the build up and it's hard for it to be over.”
After the bittersweet feeling at the finish line, Green knows she won’t do the Arizona Monster 300 again. She’s glad she did it, but the course was challenging and the seven days of sleep deprivation were a lot to handle.
It was also a lot to train to complete this arduous task while balancing a full-time job.
Green moved to Durango in 2007 and wasn’t an athlete growing up. She described herself as an artist who was always a big hiker and walker. But as she got older and her kids got older and moved out, Green had more time. She became a member of the Durango Running Club, did track workouts and met new people.
She began Ultra running seven years ago and back in 2021, Green did the Moab 240. The company that put on that Ultra race put on a few other 200-mile races that Green was interested in. Then, talk about the Arizona Monster started and Green was convinced that it was the one for her. She then signed up a year in advance for the race.
“Logistically, it's easy to get to,” Green said. “It's a day's drive. Some of the other 200s are all the way up in the Tahoe area or up in Oregon. Then as soon as it opened, I thought, ‘Sign me up!’ I love Arizona; I love the desert; I love the big vistas, the open space and it's nice to run at night … The longest trail race right now is the 300; this was the inaugural year and I wanted to do an inaugural race, being on the ground floor and see how it went.”
About six months before the Arizona Monster 300, Green began training. She has a full-time job as a mail carrier so she had to get up at 4 a.m. to run on the treadmill or stairmill for a few hours before work.
Green trained 15-17 hours per week. Some of the time, she was running, but a lot of the time, she was power hiking. She knew that how fast she finished wouldn’t be about how fast her top-end speed was, but how fast her low-end speed was.
When the weather was nice enough, Green would train on the Ailen Run Trails in Aztec or over to Sand Canyon near Cortez. She knew the terrain in Arizona would be very rocky and therefore would be very hard to prepare for in Durango.
One of the most important pieces of equipment Green trained with was a weighted vest. It was anywhere between 20-28 pounds to simulate more than amount of water and clothing she’d have to carry so when she did have to carry her equipment during the race, it would be easy.
Green’s social life took a dip during training. She couldn’t risk getting sick by going to social functions and had to prioritize her sleep and training. Luckily, her partner, Robert Bussard, is very supportive and the two shared time on the trails as Green trained sometimes 6-8 hours on Sundays.
“It's fitting in your training, in a way that for most people, it's not comfortable,” Green said. “But you have to become comfortable with the uncomfortable if you're going to make these races. It's mentally challenging and there are times where maybe you want to throw in the towel, but then you realize, ‘I've dedicated six to eight months of my life to this and this too shall pass.”’
Besides training, Green had to assemble a support crew to help pace her throughout the race. She met her crew chief, Chad Monroe, at an Ultra event five years ago. Bussard helped pace Green for about 65 miles. Two ladies from Flagstaff, Arizona, whom Green had met at the Moab 240, also paced her.
After months of training, the start date of April 4 at noon arrived. Green arrived at the start line nervous and excited. She knew she wasn’t going to get much sleep for the next week.
Green was required to pack a waterproof jacket, an insulation layer, a pair of long pants, gloves, a hat, a headlamp, a spare headlamp with extra batteries, a GPS-enabled device, an emergency 500 calories and the capacity to carry three liters of water.
Runners had to be ready to be self-sufficient because there was an average of approximately 15-22 miles between the 19 aid stations.
At the aid stations, there were sleep stations with cots and blankets. There was plenty of food like ramen, breakfast burritos, personal pizzas, pasta, burgers and chips.
Green found that Top Ramen is a food that works well for her during these races. She also enjoys fig bars, Rice Krispies Treats and potato chips.
“You have to eat real food and you're going slow enough that you can actually metabolize real food, so you don't have to live on the gels,” Green said.
On April 4 at noon, Green began her journey. She was making good time on her first day and got to the mile 45 aid station and took her first nap. Runners weren’t allowed to see their crews until mile 75 and that was the end of the second day for Green.
But by that time, things had taken a turn for the worst for Green.
Suffering in the Arizona heat, heading south through the desert, Green’s stomach turned and she couldn’t keep any food down. She prepared the best she could by hitting the sauna for six weeks before the race, but the heat still got to her.
“I could only get down some gels and some Tailwind,” Green said. “Then I saw my crew and I tried to eat some soup; I went to take a nap and it came right back up. I was able to get some sleep. I left the aid station and I had some soup from the aid station. I went through the night with next to no calories, and then all through the night, and then all in day three just wasn't happening. I was actually fearful on day three that I was going to miss a cutoff. There are cutoffs along the way if you don't get to an aid station by a specific time, you're not allowed to continue. I was fearful that there were two cutoffs I was going to miss.”
Green made the cutoffs and eventually, her stomach got better in time for Mount Lemmon, one of the hardest parts of the race, 105 miles in.
Runners had to go 14 miles and take on 6,000 feet of climbing to get over Lemmon, with large, loose rocks on the path. Blisters were common at this point in the race.
Green climbed Lemmon at night and descended Lemmon during the day. By this time, almost three days into the journey, Green had started hallucinating due to sleep deprivation. Her longest nap was about 1.5 hours and the average nap was 10-20 minutes.
At times, Green thought she was walking through neighborhoods with houses and buildings when, in reality, she was with her pacers in the desert. She told her pacer that they should stop at a horse trailer nearby. There was no horse trailer.
“I would know I would need to sleep when I was walking and I would look down, and the trail would start moving past me, like on a conveyor belt,” Green said. “You look down and the rocks are moving fast, like on a conveyor belt at the grocery store. All of a sudden, you start stumbling because you can't keep your footing anymore. I would tell my pacer, ‘I need a 10-minute nap.’ Then you take a nap, you wake up and it's gone; you're good for another couple of hours.”
Green was cheerful during the race, laughing and blowing bubbles. She would rather be slow and fun than fast and cranky.
Even with her positive disposition, Green had her doubts. Wednesday night, her quads were cramping up, she fell on the trail, was dealing with bloody noses from the heat and desert dryness and starting having doubts whether she could finish. But Bussard was there for her, encouraging her to get to the next aid station to nap and refuel.
Green did that and had a 45-minute nap while Bussard refilled her water and her snacks as they prepared for the finishing stretch.
As Green and Bussard got closer to the end, it kept getting hotter, reaching the mid-90s. She couldn’t see the finish until approximately 200-300 yards away. Green looped around a parking lot and saw the finish with a big arch and the crowd. Her pacer, Monroe, brought her in for the last 16 miles but peeled away so that Green could have the moment to herself.
After Green crossed the finish line, she and fellow finishers ate personal pizzas and trauma-bonded over the incredible feat they accomplished. Each finisher got a handmade belt buckle made by a local artist.
Days and over a week passed and Green couldn’t shake the race; it was still ingrained in her psyche. Back at home, she would wake up from dreams and would think she was still in the race, telling Bussard that they needed to keep going to finish the race when they were sleeping in their home.
For about a week after the race, Green didn’t do much besides eat and sleep. Her circadian rhythm and digestive system were off. After moving almost constantly for a week straight, Green had twitches and jolts in legs for the first few nights as her body adjusted to not being constantly in motion.
Green’s upset stomach slowed her down and she finished 12 hours behind her goal. But the important thing was that she finished. She was proud to be one of the 38 women to finish out of 199 total finishers.
After her special week in the desert, Green hopes to inspire others to push their limits. It doesn’t have to be an Ultra race; it can be playing in a new Pickleball league, walking around the block or reading a book to completion.
“Anybody can run a 200-plus mile race; they just have to want to do it,” Green said. “I don't believe that it's out of anyone's ability, if that's what they actually choose, because when it boils down to it, it's more of a mental game than a physical game. There were friends of mine who started this race, who were in better shape than I, who dropped out and didn't finish … What are you willing to put up with to meet your goal?”
bkelly@durangoherald.com
