Retired Army Maj. Tim Hardy has run every day since Dec. 13, 2007; by the end of April, he will have extended his streak to 1,601 days of running.
Streak Runners International, Inc. and United States Running Streak Association, Inc. define a running streak as "to run at least one continuous mile (1.61 kilometers) within each calendar day under one's own body power."
But one mile isn't enough for Tim Hardy. He told me that most days, he'll run between 5 and 8 miles. And this July, over the course of two days, Tim Hardy will try to run 135.
Tim is one of a handful of military runners registered for July's Badwater 135-mile ultramarathon in Death Valley, Calif. Another is Marine Capt. Mosi Smith, who we wrote about in March.
I met Tim last May at the Massanutten Mountain Trails 100-Mile Run in Fort Valley, Va. Tim was running in the "solo" division, meaning he wasn't allowed to have a crew, a pacer or any sort of listening device, like an iPod. It was just Tim, his battered and bruised feet, and 100 miles of rocks that make MMT such a brutal race. He finished in 34 hours, 10 minutes and 16 seconds.
He's always run this way -- alone. Badwater will be his first race with a crew -- and this is only because it's required.
"I think military experience lends itself more to the mental toughness component of ultrarunning," he told me in an email. "It's a lot easier to look at a 24- to 36-hour event from the mental framework that it's only a day or two, as compared to being tied to a military mission that stretches for eight, 12, 15 months away from home."
Training:
The 51-year-old earned a Ranger tab during his enlisted years, and later became an officer with the Signal Officer MOS. He's now spending his post-service time as an Army territory manager for the TRX Force Team. He travels to Army posts around the East Coast and South to get units started with TRX. His job is to be fit and to help others get fit. This strong fitness base will undoubtedly help him at Badwater.
I asked him about how he'll tailor his training toward Badwater. In addition to maintaining his TRX strength training, he said:
I'm ramping my training back up to peak with an intensive training cycle that will include 90- to 100-mile training weeks from mid-May to mid-June. I've built races into my schedule to increase mileage that include some solid, long-range intensity.
I'm building in as much heat training into my schedule as I can; my job with TRX enables and requires me to travel to DoD posts all over the eastern U.S. As I get closer to the race, I'm going to spend time daily in saunas and steam rooms and run and train during the high heat of the day on posts in Georgia, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Arkansas, Alabama, etc.
Race credentials:
Tim is too humble and not one to brag -- so I'll do it for him. On Feb. 1, he completed the Arrowhead 135-mile ultra in International Falls, Minn. Arrowhead is the cold to Badwater's hot (Read about Naval Academy senior''s Ted Murner's 4th place run here). Tim found out about Arrowhead in 2009 while he was deployed. At the time, learning about Arrowhead further fueled his desire to race at Badwater:
I discovered that Arrowhead was -- and is -- as extreme an event in terms of winter conditions and overall effort as Badwater is for extreme heat and effort. From that point I became even more fascinated with Badwater, not in terms of just being tough enough to complete Badwater, but to complete both Arrowhead and then Badwater and to do that in the same race season.
He's already checked off a frigid Arrowhead finish -- 55 hours, 14 minutes flat -- and now his focus is on Death Valley.
Um, but why?
I called Tim to chat about his plans for Badwater, and asked him how he got into ultras.
"That's a good question," he said, eventually rationalizing that "if I do a couple of ultras, I'll get better at marathons."
Specifically, he wanted to qualify for the Boston Marathon. He still runs marathons, but "once you do a good trail event, you're hooked," he said. "It changes the perspective on everything."
Like Marine Capt. Mosi Smith, Tim had to complete an application to be considered for Badwater. Here's a piece:
"Since I first started running ultramarathons, my biggest goal has been to complete the Badwater Ultramarathon. I have been training and building toward this goal since I ran my first ultramarathon in 2006. I hope and anticipate that the Badwater Board will strongly consider my application and give me the chance to complete both Badwater and Arrowhead this year; I will not disappoint you."
Tim will write guest posts for PT365 and has promised to include a few of his favorite TRX workouts. Check back for more on Tim's journey to the starting line (and on to the finish line) of the Badwater 135-mile ultramarathon. Feel free to send questions for Tim to pt365@militarytimes.com and we'll do our best to get them answered.
Update: Read more about Tim on his blog, One Average Runner.
