When crippling foot injuries put Karen Vollan in a wheelchair for a few months in 2010, the trajectory of her career as an endurance athlete changed.
The North Las Vegas resident was a repeat Ironman finisher and easily a sub-four hour marathon runner.
But she realized she might never be as fast as she had been before.
“But it turned out that quantity versus quality is a real thing,” she said.
The 47-year-old retired English teacher is planning for Sunday’s 7 Bridges Marathon in Chattanooga to be her 96th marathon or ultramarathon since Jan. 30, as she continues her quest to run 133 marathons in a year.
“I was hoping for 135, but I just can’t seem to squeeze in any more races,” Vollan said by phone from Fletcher, N.C., on Tuesday night. “I ran out of weekends.”
The 7 Bridges Marathon will be her eighth marathon in eight days, and it presents a unique challenge.
She will have roughly seven hours to finish the race, which could be a struggle, considering she will surpass the 200-mile mark for an eight-day stretch during the middle of the race.
“It does become survival,” she said. “You’ve just got to find a way to make it.”
Race director Jay Nevans said that, so long as Vollan makes it to the Chickamauga Dam at the 16-mile mark within four hours, she can finish the race.
“After that there’s not really a time limit,” he said. “But we do like to go home eventually.”
Vollan said there are seven women in the world who have completed 100 or more marathons in a year, adding that she knows five of them, which made the task seem attainable.
When her brother died last year, it provided the final “coup de grace,” she said, in motivating her to attempt the feat.
“It was a huge factor, because my brother wasn’t even 50,” she said. “He was an alcoholic. So I looked at his life and I looked at my life. We were just dichotomous. We were completely opposite, and I thought, ‘He just wasted his life.’ And I decided I’m not going to waste my life.”
Vollan is scheduled to hit 47 states – all except Alaska, Hawaii and Oregon – on her journey.
She will be in Guntersville, Ala., on Friday for the seventh and final day of the Appalachian Marathon Series.
Realizing Chattanooga was nearby, she jumped on the opportunity to add another event to her visit to the Southeast.
“I’m retired, have all the time in the world, and I’m going to see the world, see the United States,” Vollan said. “The best way to see a town is to run through it. And if it takes me seven hours, that just means I get to see more of it.”
***
Nevans said there are close to 2,600 runners signed up across the race’s divisions: full marathon, half marathon and 5K.
The number of runners is “a little flat,” he said.
Last year, the half marathon wound up 0.6 miles short after race officials failed to correct a traffic plan based on a previous year’s course. Runners were offered a 50 percent discount for this year’s half marathon.
“We expected a small dip,” Nevans said. “We’ve got to build our trust again and get the distances correct while providing the same great services we did last year.”
This year’s half marathon is designated the Desmond Doss Memorial Four Bridges Half Marathon, named for the first conscientious objector to be awarded the Medal of Honor. He was a Seventh-day Adventist who lived much of his life in Rising Fawn, Ga., and is buried in Chattanooga National Cemetery.
A movie about his experiences, “Hacksaw Ridge,” directed by Mel Gibson, is being released Nov. 4.
The movie, Lionsgate Entertainment and the Seventh-day Adventist Conference are race sponsors, Nevans said.
“We’ll have a video introduction from one of the executive producers thanking the racers and mentioning the movie,” he said.
Contact staff writer David Cobb at dcobb@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249.