Sunriver race winners share determination, passion

The Sunriver Marathon for a Cause, benefiting St. Charles Cancer Services, finished up Sunday with a celebration and two races.

What does it take to make it past the finish line in record time? This year’s half-marathon winners, Allison Morgan and Jared Bassett, put in more miles of running a week than many people even drive.

As a sponsored athlete and mother, Morgan has to make time for her runs. It’s not always easy, but she makes it work.

“You just have to learn to budget your time, and get your runs in,” she said. “And just you have to figure it out a little bit more. But, they’ve actually made me stronger in some ways.”

How did her 4-year-old twin boys make Morgan stronger?

“You race, and have to go home and take care of them all day, so you just kind of — you just do it, you just get it done,” she said.

There’s a theme here: dedication. These two are training at least one to two hours a day. During training, Morgan runs 60 to 70 miles per week, and nearly 80 miles if she’s preparing for a marathon. Due to this extensive training, races like Sunriver’s half-marathon aren’t always a push.

“I didn’t have to dig too deep in the well today,: Bassett said. “i just kind of went tempo after it, which is great, and prefect for my training.”

You heard that right: This race was just training for Bassett.

“Sometimes it’s nice to jump into races and use them as workouts, because it’s hard to race, you know, 100 percent all the time,” he said.

Bassett is building up to compete in the Half-Marathon Trail Championships next month.

For these competitive racers, injury is not an excuse to give up.It’s a chance to rest, recover — and to do more cross-training.

“I’m not a huge cross-trainer unless I’m injured, and then you’re like pool jogging, and biking,” Morgan said.

Competitive racing is fun, but these runners still have to struggle getting out of bed, sometimes, like most everyone else.

“There’s mornings when I get up before work and I’m just like, ugh, like I just really want to sleep an extra hour today,” Bassett said.

Like many sports, food comes first. Racing means being hungry every two hours. When eating for a race, Bassett said the couple days before are the most important.

“And honestly, the day the morning of, like I can’t eat a lot before a race, so I just kind of had toast and coffee, and that was it. You have all of the energy stores from the day before,” Bassett said.

Even though these athletes training plans are different, they were running for the same great cause in Sunriver.

The full marathon winners were Thomas Morgan — Allison’s husband — and Stacie Fulcher.