Episode 49 - Jill Hudson | Chasing 100 Hundred-Milers at 64

When this conversation was recorded, Jill Hudson had finished 97 races of 100 miles or more. She is 64. She plans to finish the last two back to back, over New Year's, at the same race where she ran her first.

Jill is a retired Seattle school principal. Her dad got the family running in the late 1970s, and she ran her first marathon at seventeen. She came back to running in her forties, after her daughter was born, and found the Marathon Maniacs: a marathon a month, then two, then more. She never liked long training runs, so the races became her training. She says she ran marathons as a middle school principal and ultras as a high school principal, and that the stress of the second job had something to do with it.

Her first hundred was a 48-hour race at Across the Years in Arizona, New Year's 2011 into 2012. She finished with seven or eight blisters, went into a tent, and cried so hard people came to check on her. Then she went back out and walked extra laps for fun. Four years later she won the Across the Years 72-hour outright, men and women, with 204.7 miles.

It took three tries. The year she finally got there, a six-day runner called her a rascal, and she added it to her mantra: I'm strong, I'm prepared, I'm a rascal who's got this. When young runners ask her for tips, she tells them the same two things: be positive, and have a mantra.

Most of Jill's hundreds are fixed-time races. Runners loop a short course, often a mile or so, for a set time: 24 hours, 48, 72, six days. Whoever covers the most distance wins. Jill likes them because they're flat, social and fast, and because you see your friends every lap.

She also tells Mark about the time she went off the flat stuff. She won a raffle entry into Western States, trained for months, and reached mile 90 before she timed out. That night a friend gave her a buckle he had made himself: a cat on its back with its legs in the air. It's one of the buckles she's proudest of. A few months later she ran her 100-mile PR, 23:08 at Hennepin.

They talk about how her body has changed since 60: the gym she finally joined, the hand cramps that changed her fueling, decaf all year so caffeine still works at 3 AM. They talk about the races she started hosting when COVID shut everything down, which are small and cheap and known for pie. And she has advice for anyone close to 60 who thinks long running is behind them: find races with long cutoffs, walk when you need to, and find someone your pace to talk to.

The plan for 99 and 100 is specific. Across the Years now offers a straight hundred-miler, so Jill will run the 48-hour starting December 28, rest a day, and start the 100 on the morning of New Year's Eve, when a lot of runners start so they can run through midnight. If it goes to plan, her hundredth hundred finishes on New Year's Day.

For the full video conversation, head to the Run Long After 60 YouTube channel and subscribe.