No. 79 • Tucsonan Reed sets world record with 300-mile run

March 28, 2005: Pam Reed runs world-record 301 miles without stopping

Tucson ultramarathoner Pam Reed was a guest on the “Late Show With David Letterman” in April 2003; he wanted to know what she was paid to win the 135-mile Badwater Marathon, through Death Valley, in days when temperatures exceeded 120 degrees.

“I got a belt buckle,” she said.

“Good Lord,” Letterman replied, “sign me up.”

Pam Reed runs not for money but joy. Or something related to joy.

Ten times she has run the Badwater Marathon. She ran the Boston Marathon twice in a day. She has run the Leadville 100, at 10,000 feet in elevation in Colorado, and the Arrowhead 135, in subzero temperatures in Canada.

But nothing compares to the 79 hours in March 2005 when she ran 301 miles on a frontage road near Picacho Peak. No sleep. No lunch breaks. Nothin’ but runnin’.

It was so impressive that CBS’ “60 Minutes” flew a crew to Tucson to do a feature on Reed’s career.

Here’s how I started a column on Reed the day after she finished the world-record for sustained running:

“At 4 a.m. Friday, Pam Reed got out of bed in the Tucson foothills, changed into her running clothes, was driven to the middle of nowhere and started to run.

“She ran all day and all night Friday. She ran all day and all night Saturday. On Easter Sunday she did not attend church, did not appear in an Easter parade, did not sit down to Easter dinner. She ran for 24 hours on a 12½-mile loop on a highway frontage road between Picacho Peak and Marana.

“About 2 in the morning, every day, I got very sleepy,” said Reed. “But I kind of closed my eyes and it went away.”

“At 5:52 a.m. Monday, in the dark, followed by two support vehicles and flanked by two friends, Reed reached the 275-mile mark. The (previous) unofficial world record for sustained running, male or female, is 262 miles.

“Reed kept going. At 1:55 Monday afternoon, she completed 300 miles. But rather than chance the math, she ran a final mile, No. 301, just to be sure.”

I stood at the finish line as Reed stopped for the first time in 79 hours and 55 minutes. She calmly embraced her mother and father, a few friends, and walked over to chat with reporters.

“I’m amazed I did it, but I’m more amazed at how (good) my body feels,” she said. “I’ve hurt more after a (26-mile) marathon.”

And that was about it. After 80 hours and 301 miles of running, both believed to be world records, Reed had comfortably broken Dean Karnazes’ 262-mile record.

A day later she flew to New York to be on a few syndicated TV shows.

Pam Reed was a high school tennis player in Michigan who moved to Tucson in the early 1980s. She was married with three kids. She later divorced and married UA grad Jim Reed, a CPA and triathlete. A lot of couples go to the movies or play tennis for fun; the Reeds ran. And ran. And ran.

She was first sighted on the world running radar after winning the 2002 Badwater Marathon, not just the first woman overall, but also finishing ahead of every man in the race. The Badwater race was the idea of Tucson attorney Chuck Giles.

“Do you think I’m crazy?” Reed told him.

Giles and Tucson judge Susie Bacal became Reed’s loyal supporters; serving as her crew on Badwater-type races, and encouraging her to believe that she was strong enough to become an international ultra-marathoner.

When David Letterman and “60 Minutes” both turn their heads, you know you’ve done well.

Where are they now? Reed, 55, longtime director of the Tucson Marathon, spends much of the year in Jackson, Wyoming, with her family. Last summer she ran the Zion 100 in southern Utah in 26 hours.

How they did it: After winning her inaugural Badwater 135, Reed said temperatures near 120 didn’t stop her. “I felt fine,” she said. “My crew handed me water and ice, and I drank some energy drinks to get some calories in me.”

Photo: Tucsonan Pam Reed runs along the I-10 frontage road on Friday, March 25, 2005 during her 300-mile run near Picacho Peak. Photo by Jim Davis / Arizona Daily Star