Editor’s Note: For those who are just joining us on this journey, Ben is currently trying to share his experiences with all the veterans out there to show that the Keto Diet can be used to aid recovery from PTSD as well as managing the chronic pain from injuries sustained during their service. In an effort to shine a light on his efforts and share his journey, he is planning to run one ultra-marathon a month in 2018. And he’s doing this just burning fat while running (Carb Free). You can read his back story here. You can also read about his epic first run here.
So we missed Ben last month while we were in Australia so this month we catch up with him as he talks about his 4th and 5th ultra distance runs this year. Five ultra runs in as many months, and to think a year before that he couldn’t tie his shoelaces!! Due to unforeseen scheduling issues he found he was not able make a proper ultra distance race in April so he had to get creative. He decided to run the standard marathon in his hometown of Dearborn and then immediately afterwards go to the start of the kids race and run that with his kids. That would then give him the ultra distance mileage he was looking for.
In order to do this, however, he would need to complete his standard marathon (26.2 miles) in 4:30 hours in order to make the start of the next race. This would mean he would have to run a personal best marathon time by quite a substantial amount. So he set off and not only did he finish in time but he made it in 3 hours 51 minutes That is an extremely respectable marathon time by anyone’s standards, let alone for line backer who couldn’t even walk around the block a year and a half ago. The problem was now that he had to wait for the start of the next race and it was freezing cold and his muscles seized up and he was in really bad shape before the start. Then his daughter got really tired and he had to carry her most of the way but was able to put her down and jog over the line holding her hand which, he says, was a highlight for him since he started this running thing.
So now we roll into May and , again, scheduling issues meant that he was not able to get to a proper ultra distance race. This time he strung together 4 races in the same area on the same day back-to-back-to-back……to-back with no carbs in between, just burning fat while running.! It was extremely challenging and in a some cases he ran from the finish of one race to the start of the next one but, in the end, he got his ultra distance in and has maintained his commitment to run an untra distance run each month this year. Now it’s all about planning his next run in June.
[Doug Reynolds: Founder – LowCarbUSA®]
