01/24/2023
ATTENTION TO AWARD! 🥇
2022 MURCAn of the Year
It is with great pleasure that we present Amy Adams as the 2022 MURCAn of the Year. Throughout this period, Amy exemplified the highest ideals held highest by MURCA, by tenaciously confronting the physical and mental challenges of completing 12 tough ultramarathons, while providing a positive example for fellow runners to emulate on the roads and trails, and supporting fellow MURCANs as we all aspire to level-up our training and races. Especially noteworthy, for 2022, Amy successfully completed the following races, which included 8x 100-milers and 2x 200-milers:
- Run Undead Ultra Trail Party - 100 Miler – 2nd place (4th Overall) 31 Dec 2022
- Devil Dog 100 Mile – 2nd place; 3 Dec 2022
- Rim to River 100 Mile; 5 Nov 2022
- Uwharrie 100 Mile – 2nd place; 22 Oct 2022
- Buckeye Ultra 200 Mile Road Race – 2nd place; 29 Sep 2022
- Virgil Crest Ultras - 100 Miler – 2nd place; 10 Sep 2022
- Eastern States 100; 13 Aug 2022
- Cacapon 12 Hour Challenge – 2nd place; 16 Jul 2022; 42 miles
- Cow Bone Trail Run 24 Hour – 1st place; 28 May 2022; 84 miles
- Massanutten Mountain Trails 100 Mile; 14 May 2022
- C&O Canal 100; 30 April 2022
- Swammie Shuffle 200 – 1st Place (4th Overall); 27 Feb 2022
In addition to the impressive 2022 year period, it is important to reference her last five years of ultra-running which included the successful completion of 42 ultramarathons, including (1) 326-miler, (3) 200-milers, (11) 100-milers, (3) 80-milers, (2) 100ks, (8) 50-milers, (5) 40-milers, and (9) 50ks. Throughout this period, Amy began learning her ultra-running craft, while she suffered from an undiagnosed eye/brain condition for the five years she had been running ultramarathons, until 2022. She went through years of gastro-related tests, never getting an answer as to the cause. Over the years, Amy was prescribed different ineffective medications to combat the extreme motion sickness, all of which caused drowsiness, and did not stop the motion sickness anyway. Year after year, her races were completely derailed, despite her dedicated training. It was so bad that she was often forced to stop due to throwing up blood and shaking violently for hours, even after stopping running.
Amy knew that eventually she would find the root cause of her issue, and she finally came across a research paper on Binocular Vision Dysfunction Convergence Insufficiency after DNFing yet another 100 in October, 2021. She was seen by a Developmental Optometrist (not your regular optometrist) and given a series of tests, and sure enough, that is what was causing my severe motion sickness.
The extreme motion sickness came from looking down at the trail and having to move her eyes so quickly for hours on end, combined with what she saw in her peripheral vision, as there is a disconnect from my eyes to my brain in making one image from what both eyes are seeing. As a result, prior to her diagnosis and ultimate treatment, Amy was only able to complete flatter races, or races where she walked more than ran, to keep from getting sick, as I had to keep my eyes up and not look down much. She has had extreme motion sickness occur around the 30 mile mark but sometimes she could go 50 miles, if it was a flatter race, and she kept my eyes up on the horizon. After her diagnosis, she went through 6 months of vision therapy at the end of 2021, into the beginning of 2022. Although she will always have this condition, Amy is now able to run ultras without experiencing the severe motion sickness, nausea, and violent shaking that used to occur, resulting in many DNFs.
Now that Amy’s eye condition is no longer an obstacle, she is grateful and happy to be out there doing what she loves. She serves as an inspiration to those who have faced many challenges and failures, but who had the tenacity and grit to continue to pursue their life’s goals and passions. Well done Amy and Semper Fidelis!
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