Once unable to last a mile, ultramarathoner Noora Alidina has conquered 100 miles.
By LAURA LEE
Published August 20, 2003
She pretended she wasn't alone.
Noora Alidina had to imagine she wasn't doing this: running through the California desert with no one in sight. Falling on loose rocks after trekking 56 miles. Getting back up to finish the 44 miles ahead.
Running her first 100-mile race on one of the world's most demanding courses - alone - she imagined her husband, Arif, was alongside. In her mind, she ran with her three training partners, each lasting a few miles at a time. Then she would focus on one of her five children.
When she entered aid stations, she watched other runners being greeted by friends and family with hot soup and hugs. Alidina paused long enough to grab a few bananas and keep going, knowing she was being tracked on the race Web site by the people who loved her at home in Palm Harbor.
"I literally felt those people with me the whole way," said Alidina, 46. "I might not have had the physical support there, but they were with me in my mind. They were running with me."
Alidina finished the 100 miles in 29 hours, 16 minutes - 44 minutes before the race is considered officially over and no more times are tabulated.
Fourteen years ago, she could not run a mile.
Before she married at 28, her biggest athletic pursuit was playing volleyball as a schoolgirl in Jordan. It was then that she moved to the states with Arif, an ear, nose and throat surgeon and casual runner. She could not last a mile with him.
At 32, Alidina started a routine of walking an hour in the mornings before Arif went to work. If she strolled too leisurely, she jogged to get home before he had to leave. She quickly worked her way to running 3 miles, then 6 and 9. Within a year of her first jog, she ran a marathon and qualified for the Boston Marathon. She seemed to be a natural.
"She's got fantastic feet and knees," Arif said, adding that she has especially high arches."Her running doesn't put any stress on her feet. She's just balanced for it."
Alidina never has had a coach or technical training on running. She has figured it out on her own. She has run Boston eight times and the New York Marathon twice. Her personal best was Boston in 2000, when she finished in 3 hours, 19 minutes. Eventually, marathons no longer fulfilled her and she started running ultramarathons.
Ultras are usually any distance longer than a marathon; 50 kilometers, 50 miles, 100 kilometers and 100 miles. Even multi-day races. The focus of an ultra race is not so much speed and who finishes first, but on simply finishing.
"I always feel I could do more when I finish a marathon," Alidina said. "I feel like I want to go longer. There's more there for me."
Three years ago, she added the longer races to her schedule.
Though Alidina has run her share of 50-milers - she won the women's division at Crooms Trail in Brooksville the past two years - it was a huge leap to make her first 100-miler - the Western States 100 Endurance Run. The 29-year-old race is considered the Boston Marathon of ultras. It goes through the canyons of northwest California and crosses the American River. It begins at the bottom of a former Olympic ski slope, rising from 6,200 feet to 8,750 feet above sea level in 41/2 miles. It is a race for experienced 100-milers, not first-timers from Florida, where the highest point is 345 feet. But that did not deter Alidina, one of five Floridians to enter this year. Three finished.
"She's a pusher. She's bullheaded. She's determined. That's Noora," said John Holmes, an ultra runner and race director for the Brooksville 50-miler. Holmes has run the Western States twice.
She is not so determined that running consumes her life. It is not her passion, she says. Her five children don't allow for that. After an out-of-town race she catches the earliest flight back, sometimes flying home the evening of a race.
"Her family's first," Holmes said. "When you're doing something like this, you've got to be selfish. Noora doesn't do that. It's hard to do it her way."
Ranging in age from 18 to 7, the children are year-round competitive swimmers. Alidina gets up as early as 3:30 a.m. to run so she is home in time to deal with family matters. She says she drives 120 miles each morning getting everyone to school. She always has worked her training around her family and preparing for the Western States, despite its foreign course, was no different.
"It feels great we're not second to her running," said Janeen, 18. "But we know it's really important to her and it makes us more supportive of her."
The Western States' course is one of sharp ascents and descents, narrow paths and loose rocks. Alidina was encouraged by friends to run a trail at least once a week. The closest trail course is in Brooksville. "I don't see going there is worth taking away time from my family," she said.
She never ran a trail outside of the Brooksville race. The Western States offers a training run on the actual course Memorial Day weekend, but she decided against it - too much time apart from her family. So she trained strictly on the neighborhood streets. She averaged 45 miles a week, building up to 130 the week before the race.
"Nobody does my method," Alidina said. "I did what I have to do to train. I did it off the books. I do what's convenient for my family. I knew I could do it deep in my heart. It's my mission."
Her way was enough to finish and that was the goal.
"It was a spectacular journey," Alidina said remembering the race. "You still feel like you're running through the mountains, the canyons, the fresh air. ... You can barely breathe. The excitement takes your breath away."
Running the race in late June, she never thought she would fail to cross the finish line before the 30-hour deadline. She never hit a wall, but she did slow from her 24-hour pace after her fall to make sure she would finish.
"The sheer expanse of what you're doing - to do 100 miles - it's a matter of picking your feet up and down," Holmes said. "Going uphill two and a half hours and downhill an hour and a half. It's overwhelming that you're out there that long. You make up your mind that unless you die out there you're not going to quit. You have to have the willpower to do that."
With a quarter of the race to go, she faced one of her biggest fears: water. Crossing the American River was one of her biggest worries. Despite being the mother of competitive swimmers she is unable to tread water. The water came up near her shoulder and she held on to a rope to forge her way across.
"It was phenomenal that she did it without any assistance from a crew," said Pete Pfannerstill, an ultra runner who operates a sports massage therapy business in Seminole. He has competed in the race twice and went with groups both times. "It's tough mentally not to have any support, only family friends that want to see you finish."
After 20 years of marriage, Arif still is trying to understand his wife.
He knows she can endure a lot. For years he watched her run during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, during which strict observers fast from food and drink from dawn to dusk. She loaded up on liquids before sunrise, ran and would not get another drink until sunset. He said he could not do it because he did not think he could care for his patients safely.
"She is just extremely tough," he said of Noora, who has never dropped out of a race. "She always finishes, even when she's hurt and damaging her body. Her mind is so strong, it will keep her running when she's doing damage to herself."
After completing her first 100-miler, Alidina wants more. As her kids get older, she will have more time for herself. More time to train. More time to run.
She already is online, looking for more races. She found a 100-miler coming up in November in Virginia, but cannot commit quite yet. Other things come first.
"That'll have to wait," Alidina said, "and see if it interferes with my kids' schedules."
MEET NOORA ALIDINAAGE: 46.
RESIDENCE: Palm Harbor.
OCCUPATION: Stay-at-home mom, registered nurse. She was the first oncological nurse in the Jordanian army.
FAVORITE RACE: 100-mile ultramarathon (29:16:58), Boston Marathon (3:19:44).
PACKED WEEKEND: In January, she ran all three Gasparilla events, the 15K, 5K and Hops Marathon, in two days. Her combined time was the best in her age division.
BIGGEST FEAR: Swimming in open water.
BIGGEST ACCOMPLISHMENT: Her family.
WHAT'S ON HER FEET: New Balance (once purchased 20 pairs at one time because they were on sale).
PRERACE MEAL: Honey-wheat bagel with peanut butter and jelly.
POSTRACE MEAL: Broiled or grilled chicken, small french fries with extra salt.
