Sandee Sanger loves a challenge. That’s what drives this 44-year-old ultra marathon runner into competing in 100-mile races.
Last year Sanger ran 100 miles through the Cascade Mountains in Plains, Wash. A lot of racers failed to finish the treacherous trail because there were no aid stations and no markers to help runners navigate through the course. Sanger finished in 35 hours.
Along with finding her own way by map, she also carried her own food and filled up her water pack from streams along the way.
“It’s a lot of mental toughness,” she said. “A lot of it is deciding to do it and following through with that plan.”
In 2012, she raced for seven days through the Atacama Desert in Chile. The Atacama is the driest desert in the world, but ironically it rained. Unlike the Cascade Mountains race, this race did have aide stations positioned 5 to 10 miles apart. Carrying 20 pounds on her back, Sanger ran from station to station, sometimes running during lightning storms.
“Despite all that pain, you just keep your mind focused on the finish line,” she said. “That’s the only way to get there.”
Sanger wasn’t always so successful. The first 100-mile race she attempted she didn’t finish. She ran 76 miles of the Javelina 100 before the blisters got to her, and she gave up.
Unable to leave a race unfinished, she went back to Arizona two years ago and completed in the Javelina 100.
That race helped her find the types of courses she likes to run. Sanger prefers more technical trails through higher elevations, where quitting isn’t really an option.
“I’m not the fastest, but I can be the toughest,” she said.
Sanger started running ultra marathons around eight years ago. Before, she’d been running road marathons, which she started doing in the fifth grade. When a friend decided to train for an ultra marathon, Sanger decided that if her friend could do it, she could do it.
“Once I got to the trail that was it. I never went back to the road,” she said. “It’s not just a run, it’s an experience.”
In the mountains, the sounds and smells feed Sanger’s soul and she feels more free. If she’s had a bad day, everything is good again after a run.
Sanger recently qualified for the Hardrock 100 Endurance Run in Colorado. Because the race’s finishing rate is low, only a limited number of people are invited to run. She was placed in a lottery and will find out in December whether or not she’s going to run the narrow, icy trails that sit 33,000 feet above sea level.
“It’s a real mountain race,” she said.
Sanger trains six days a week, and on one of those days, she completes a 30-mile long run. After work, she grabs her dog, Bugs, and the two of them take off up Figueroa Mountain.
Sanger also coaches her 17-year-old son and 15-year-old daughter on the cross-country teams at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School. Her son, Calvin, is on the boys’ varsity team and they compete in the CIF finals at Mt. San Antonio College on Nov. 22.
“Running is a really positive thing in our life,” she said. “I hope one day we run 100 miles together.”
This article appears in Nov 20-27, 2014.