10-27-2022 Howard Mag - Flipbook - Page 72
Green works out with his trainer,
Dennis Albright, as he prepares for
his next big race. PHOTO BY KEVIN
RICHARDSON
Green with his wife, Kay, shown in 2021. PHOTO COURTESY
OF TOM GREEN
been for him to say, ‘OK, that’s it. That’s the end of my career.’
But Tom didn’t.”
Back in 1986, when Green was 35 and there were just four
100-mile races a year in the U.S., he was the first person to run
them all in a single year.
In subsequent years, he collected four age-group national
championships and ran more than 300 ultras, defined as any
race longer than the 26.2 miles of a marathon.
Running 100 miles is no harder than running 26.2, he says.
It just takes longer and hurts more. The challenge has always
been more mental than physical, and that’s more true for him
now than ever before.
Post-accident, Green is much slower and far less steady on
his feet. Because he struggles to see, especially in the dark or in
sunlight dappled with shade, he relies on a jogging stroller to
signal the terrain by the way it pulls.
Sometimes he finishes last, and that’s OK. He has a genuine
fondness and respect for the participants struggling alongside
him at the back of the pack.
Green seems to have a gift for pushing through pain. He
got dehydrated and dizzy during his September event, the
Hainesport Endurance Run in New Jersey, which he described
as a “brutally long suffer fest.” But he kept going, stopping for
occasional catnaps and reaching 100 miles in about 42 hours.
“Years ago, I was more interested in getting my best possible
time and if things weren’t going well sometimes you’d just drop
and try to save yourself for the next time,” he says.
Bespectacled, with a gray mustache and gentle smile, Green’s
conspicuous lack of hubris belies the simple fact that he
remains an ultra running force.