How far can you go in 12 hours?
Tiffany Dupree is a part of the Plant City Running Club. Fellow clubbers, Mayor Nate Kilton and his wife, Kat, invited her to run with them for the Tick Tock Ultra held at Lake Hollingsworth in Lakeland on September 27. This endurance event started at 7:00 a.m. and offered both a six-hour, and a 12-hour, challenge on the 2.84-mile paved path around the lake.
“I thought about doing it as a fundraiser back in February,” Nate said. “I actually suggested a 100 to Kat, but she knew better than for us to try that, so she said, ‘Let’s do Tick Tock. That is just as many laps as you can do in 12 hours.’ It never developed into a fundraiser, but the two of us signed up, and we knew that Tiffany was working on the 100 and it would be a good training opportunity for her, so we invited her to join us.”
Tiffany was under the impression she had agreed to run the 12-hour race as a part of a relay team. But when she got to Lake Hollingsworth that morning, she realized there was no relay team, and the Kiltons were running the whole 12 hours. But, Dupree did it anyway, and the trio ran together for 40 miles. “The race is an individual, but we stayed together just to cheer each other on and keep each other going,” she commented.
“That tells you about her mental toughness, because when you have that expectation that you are going to be running a relay, and you run 40 miles, that is impressive,” Nate said.
Runners are permitted to take breaks during an ultra. “Ultimately, you want to keep your breaks as short as possible because the longer you take, the less motivation you have to get back out there,” Kat said.
To prepare for the race, the Kiltons cut back their workouts to short runs Monday through Thursday. Short runs for them are five to six miles. “The big thing is, if you train for it, it’s not that bad,” Kat said. She has finished three marathons (26.2 miles), but this 40 miles for the Tick Tock was the longest distance either Kilton has run.
“That type of time and distance, it becomes more mental than it is physical because your body can withstand a lot more than your mind thinks it can,” Tiffany said. “Your body will hurt, but if you can get your mind to ‘Shhhh,’ you can surpass that. It’s a big mental game when you get to that point. Just keep moving forward. It doesn’t matter how fast you are going, just keep moving forward.”
“Your body will 100 percent do whatever your mind will tell it to do,” Kat added. “Pain is temporary. Race results are forever.”
What do you feel like after going 40 miles in 12 hours? “I was miserable afterwards,” Nate said. By Sunday morning my feet didn’t hurt anymore. I got a massage, and now I feel fine.
We had to keep moving,” Kat said. “If we would have sat around all day, it would have been worse.”
“These two are tough,” Nate said. “I just try to keep up. Tiffany is the real gangster here. She is going for 100 miles.
Dupree began running three years ago. “I started running because I was bad at it,” she said. “I had a friend who wanted me to do a half marathon. She convinced me to train for a couple of months. When I did that, I said to myself, ‘Hmm. That was really hard.’ Then I started running with the running club a little bit, and there were two women who were training for a 50K, which is a 31-mile run. They said, ‘Come on and train with us.’ So, I said, ‘Sure.’ So, I did that, and I said, ‘Whew, that was really hard. What can I do that is harder and more challenging?’ I am a goal-oriented person. I love a challenge to see if I can achieve it. So, it kind of escalated from there. It’s hard to train like you really need to when you have to adult as well; when you have a full-time job and house responsibilities.” Her full-time job is as a stylist at Audrey’s Style Bar. Her training schedule is like having another part-time job.
Dupree currently has an ultra coach, and she runs five to six days a week. “I run based on time-on-feet,” she said. “For long distances you are not worried so much about speed, you are worried about your body holding up for that distance. I will run an hour to an hour-and-a-half. My weekend runs are usually 3-plus hours.” This adds up to her running for between 40 and 50 miles on a normal week. “I have done a lot of races this year, so my coaches had to back off my training because I have incorporated so many runs like the 12-hour we did Saturday.”
Dupree signed up for a 100-mile run last year, but was put on a waiting list, so she didn’t train for it beyond her normal routine. Three days before the run, she was notified she had gotten in, so she took on the challenge and made 50 miles in 14 ½ hours. This year, she did make it into the Tampa Bay 100 on November 8 and 9. The distance has to be completed within 36 ½ hours. But they need to watch out. This time Dupree has been training for it.
