She runs 100-mile races for fun. Now this Pierce County woman has achieved a rare feat
Only 25 other humans have ever done it.
Now a Pierce County woman has done it, too. Van Phan, 52, recently tore through her 100th, 100-mile ultramarathon.
She’s now the first Pacific Northwesterner to be part of the elite, international club of athletes who’ve run 100, 100-mile races, according to Davy Crockett, an ultramarathon historian and expert.
Phan completed the 32-hour Hamster Endurance Run in Bellingham on Aug. 13, marking her seventh 100-plus-mile run in 2023 and 100th off her career.
Phan consistently completes runs that are far more than the 26.2 miles of a standard marathon. She began her extreme distance career almost exactly 20 years ago when on Sep. 20, 2003, she ran the Cle Elum Ridge 50K.
She lives in Lakewood with her boyfriend, Mikey Skylar, who also ran the Aug. 13 Bellingham race. Since she was a toddler, Western Washington has been her home. Phan is not a professional runner. She has worked full-time as a physician assistant since 2001.
Phan didn’t start long-distance trail running until she was 29 in 2001 when she ran her first marathon. She found a love for the sport where endurance won over speed.
In ultramarathon races, runners travel over great distances in sometimes desolate terrain, running continuously from dawn to the deep dark of night.
“The attraction of these runs, for most people, is because they are on trails in the mountains,” Crockett said. “For 100 milers, it’s an adventure.”
Phan’s 100th 100-mile race was less a high-altitude traverse and more of a spin around a hamster wheel.
The race in Bellingham was on a 2.6-mile loop around calm, picturesque Lake Padden, near the Canadian border. Phan looped the lake 42 times in just over 30 hours, totaling 109 miles in 30:15:33.
“I kind of regret not continuing … I probably could have knocked out two more laps,” Phan told The News Tribune regarding her performance.
She trudged through Saturday night, missing sleep while she ran the wooded, relatively flat and soft lake trail into midday Sunday.
“My strategy is to walk early so that I can run the flats and downhills throughout the entire race,” Phan said. “I’ve done so many of these … it’s the experience that tells me how to pace myself.”
Phan tries to maintain her heart rate under 130 bpm while running for multiple days at a time.
“I keep my heart rate down enough so that I feel like I’m not taxing myself,” Phan said.
The Hamster Endurance Run was a race against the clock. Runners had 32 hours to run as many miles as possible.
After reaching 100 miles, Phan celebrated with friends who waited for her with cake and awards. But her competition was close behind.
“I left my celebration a little early so she couldn’t catch me,” Phan said. “I kind of ruined her plans … she ended up in 3rd place.”
No one was going to crash her 100-by-100 party. She ran another nine miles to secure the win.
Phan is a ruthless competitor, keeping an eye on other racers if they get too close. Phan has won 20 of her 100+ mile runs and made the podium in many more.
“Her success rate is quite high,” Skylar said. “It’s really unusual to have that many podiums and that many wins and that many over 200 [mile] races.”
Phan runs to compete with others and herself. Setting goals and grinding through the challenges that come with them is what fuels her.
The 70-mile mark is grueling. You’ve already drug yourself through more than two marathons, yet you’ve still got 30 miles to go, Phan said. Those minutes and hours of pain, along with a stubborn will to continue, motivate Phan to keep competing.
“People get big rewards by getting past those tough points in the race,” Phan said. “You need to be mentally tough and need to get past that point where you’re getting closer to your goal.”
Phan has gotten to know her body’s needs and limits well. She understands when she needs to walk, slow down or rest.
“In my first ultra, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into,” Phan said. “Now, I’m pretty calm … I have a sense of peace.”
In 2022, she ran 13 100+ mile races, and she’s completed seven so far in 2023.
“I started planning my races throughout the years to incorporate as many 100s my body could tolerate,” Phan said.
Phan has run over 624 ultramarathons and 19 200+ mile races. But she’s not done. Now that she’s reached her 100-by-100 goal, it’s time for 1,000 total ultramarathons.
She has plans to slow down for the next few months. Instead of running a 100-mile race every month, she’ll just run a few regular marathons.
Phan’s signed up for her second go at the 6-day Across the Years run in December in Arizona. The race goes for 144 hours through the new year. In 2022, she placed fourth in the women’s 50-59 age group in the 72-hour section.
“I do these runs, too, so I can appreciate how hard it is,” Skylar said. “[These races] really compound on each other; not only are you physically tired from the previous one but mentally, all that alone time in your head is like solitary confinement.”
This story was originally published August 20, 2023 at 7:05 AM.
