Ostrofe meets ultra-goals
Published 7:23 pm Saturday, January 24, 2015
Seeing results for a 50K race might lead some to believe that they had just caught a typo, but that’s not the case with a run that 28-year-old Amy Ostrofe of Suffolk recently completed.
A 50K translates into 31.07 miles, and there are quite a few people who successfully run them and with solid times.
“The human body can accomplish most goals,” Ostrofe said, later adding she got the motivation to run a 50K because she likes to see what kind of physical limits there are, “see if you can finish that distance.”
Back in December, she raced with 233 others in the sixth annual Seashore Nature Trail 50K in Virginia Beach. She was the only female runner to finish in less than four hours, and she finished fifth out of all 234 participants.
“My goal is to run less than four hours, and I did that,” she said, referring to her 3:58:50 time. “Mostly running for me is about pushing myself rather than competition with other people.”
This was not her first time running a 50K, having run one once before in Florida that she finished in four hours and eight minutes.
Ostrofe said wrapping her mind around the concept of doing a course of that distance is the key to making it happen.
“It’s not much more than the marathon,” she said. “Once you start getting into the higher distances, I think it all starts to blend together.”
Races longer than the 26.22-mile length of a standard marathon are considered ultramarathons.
Events with names like that might scare some off, but Ostrofe has a proven record of rising to significant challenges.
“I told myself I’d never do an Ironman, and I did that, and I still think that’s crazy,” she said.
The Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4-mile swim followed by a 112-mile bicycle ride followed by a standard marathon run, without any break in between.
Ostrofe said the hardest part of a 50K for her was probably the training.
“If you want to go fast, you have to put in a significant commitment to training every day,” she said.
In preparation for the Seashore Nature Trail 50K, she said she had a good base and started training six weeks ahead of the event.
“I did the same training I would do for a marathon without as much focus on speed work,” she said.
She ran anywhere between 50 and 80-plus miles a week, only taking Thursday off, while covering the greatest amount of distance on the weekends.
Her commitment becomes even more significant when accounting for the fact that training comes amidst her duties in the U.S. Navy as a doctor for a Norfolk-based helicopter squadron.
Ostrofe said the first time she got interested in racing was probably the Yuengling Shamrock Marathon in 2012.
“I like to race because it gives me a set end point to train,” she said. “For me, I have to have some type of goal.”