Pushing the Limits of Endurance
Mark Tanaka is a busy ER physician with a young family. He's also a successful ultrarunner where 50-mile and 100-mile races are the norm.
Long Beach to San Diego. New York City to Philadelphia.
About 100 miles separates these coastal cities. It's a trip most of us would make by car, train, or maybe by air. But for Mark Tanaka, 40, it's a distance he regularly and voluntary travels on foot.
Welcome to the life of an ultrarunner.
For the past five years Mark has been a regular on the ultrarunners circuit, taking part in 50-km, 100-km, 50-mile and 100-mile runs across the country. This past June he placed first in the Kettle Moraine 100-mile run in Wisconsin, his best finish yet.
"Out on the trails, where the air is clean and you're out in nature, it's meditative time. You can't get that elsewhere," he said. "I'm more fit now than I was in my 20s."
His recent wins include: fourth at the Ohlone 50-km, third in the Quicksilver 50-mile, and second in the Ruth Anderson 100-km. He was also named the 2006 Pacific Association USA Track & Field Ultra Grand Prix Male Open Division Champion.
Although his long list of prizes and top-place finishes is impressive enough, what's more astounding is Mark finds time for ultrarunning while working as an emergency room physician. He's also got a wife, Patti, a two-year-old son Peter, and the Castro Valley, Calif. resident is expecting his second son in September.
It's enough to exhaust most people, if not all.
"Once you train your body to do the distances you're in shape to do another race. You get addicted to running that much," said Mark. "If I go one or two weeks without running two to three hours a day I start going through withdrawals."
On this particular day he's already completed a trail exercise, a session that comes just a few days after competing in a 50-mile race in Lake Tahoe, Calif.
In a couple of weeks he's scheduled to take part in a 50-km race near his home in the San Francisco Bay Area, one of two races he tries to get in each month.
The Addiction Factor
Mark began his career as an ultrarunner at the age of 35, when most runners have already peaked and are on the decline. But now in his 40s, Mark's finishing times continue to get better.
There was some foreshadowing of Mark's talents as a runner. He dabbled in cross-country running during high school and during his medical residency in Chicago he regularly took part in the Chicago Marathon, placing in decent times.
But it wasn't until 2002 that he got his first real taste of ultrarunning at the 50-km race on Chicago's lake front. With no prior experience and little training, Mark at first didn't fare so well in the ultramarathons. Twice he ended up riding in an ambulance to the ER due to low sodium levels and exhaustion.
One of his most difficult experiences came during the 100-mile Lake Tahoe run last year when he got altitude sickness and was barely able to finish. Several times he had to lay down on the trail and for a week later he was coughing up some blood.
But these experiences have only made Mark want to keep pushing himself as an ultrarunner.
"At first I didn't know what I was doing. It was hard but it was still fun. It became a challenge for me," he said. "Running is so addictive."
For non-runners, ultramarathons seem surreal with a good dose of crazy. But for Mark, it's the beauty of the natural terrain and landscapes along those long, endless miles that continue to draw him back. He has also found a lot of comraderie amongst those who call themselves ultrarunners.
"Some people think ultrarunners are too out there. But people who run can appreciate," said Mark, who luckily hasn't had any major injuries in his career so far.
It's Not All in the Family
It took a while for Mark's family to get used to his interest in ultrarunning. His father Shiro, an MD, thought it was too dangerous a sport, putting unnecessary pressure on his joints. His wife Patti, 39, still has mixed emotions about it.
"On one hand I'm happy he can compete so well, but the other part hates it. It's taken over our lives ... it's a huge time commitment for the family," she said. "But it's tough to tell someone who is really good at something to stop."
During the June Kettle Moraine run Mark's parents Shiro and Fumiko drove up from Cincinnatti to witness their son's ultrarunning prowess. They were at mile 67 to see their son's progress and Shiro snapped his digital camera as Mark crossed the finish line in first place.
"My initial reaction was this is crazy. But after attending his ultrarun for the first time I think maybe it's okay. I'm not going to oppose it vehemently anymore," said Shiro, who along with his wife and son are lifetime JACLers.
Fumiko always thought her son would pick a different hobby, perhaps something along the lines of classical piano. But she has slowly resigned herself to her son's ultrarunning addiction.
"I'm not a hundred percent opposed. But I still don't understand why they do that. Looking at them it makes me tired," she said with a chuckle.
Still, Mark was just happy to see his parents at one of his races.
"It was cool that I won the race the first time [my parents] showed up," he said.
Life is a Training Field
If you're ever in the San Francisco Bay Area you may just see Mark running along its streets. That's because his untraditional training schedule often involves running to and from the hospital to work his hectic ER schedule.
With his wife working full-time, Mark's racing and training schedule is often a compromise. Some days it's his turn to pick up their son Peter at the daycare and most weekends are reserved for family time.
This year his ultrarunning schedule will be on the fly as the Tanaka family prepares to welcome their second son this fall. In the meantime, he's got the Castro Valley race in two weeks.
"Ten years from now I hope to be still doing this," said Mark, even though he concedes a likely drop in his intensity level. After all, he'll be 50 years old.
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