Ultramarathon Woman

Vernon student runs 100 miles to raise funds for ovarian cancer research — and because it’s fun, by Mike Celizic Vernon - If you ever have a mind to run 100 miles - you know, just because it sounds like such a fun thing to do - Sabrina Moran has some advice: Watch out for mile 77. “Rigor mortis sets in” at that point, Moran reported Monday, just two days after finishing her first ultramarathon, as runs of what seem like impossible lengths are called in the business. Starting about 15 minutes before 4 p.m. on Friday from Eric Trail at Route 565 in Vernon, Moran ran various loops through Vernon, Wantage and Hardyston until just short of 9 on Saturday morning. Her time on the road was a bit over 17 hours, but, taking out the time she spent changing shoes and eating, her actual running time was 15 hours and 17 minutes. She kept track of her mileage on two pedometers, with their totals backed up by her parents, who followed her in a car Saturday night and thought she actually ran 108 miles. But what’s another eight miles when you’re having so much fun? Plus, it was for a good cause - Sabrina raised some $1,500 with promises of more to go towards research on ovarian cancer, a disease which nearly claimed her mother. Actually, Sabrina said Monday - after her tiny little morning run of seven miles - when she was passing 60 miles, eight miles was nothing. “I was really going at a good pace,” she said. “I felt great.” And then she hit her wall, which coincided with the 77-mile marker. “I realized I had 23 miles left,” she said. “I couldn’t bend my knees and feet, they were so swollen. I had to push through that. It was the worst experience ever. I got rigor mortis.” For another 23 miles. Helping her through the night were three friends who ran with her, siblings Aimee and Paul Chegwidden and Garret Martucci, along with her brother, Teddy, who accompanied her for 35 miles. Her mother, Jeanne Lee Moran joined her for the final few hundred yards as her father, Ted, drove the support car. Most athletes run such distances in organized races, but Moran, a college sophomore-to-be who has been running since she was an elementary-school student in Vernon, isn’t one to wait on someone else’s schedule. “She knows what she’s going to do,” said her mother and inspiration, Jeanne Lee Moran with a proud half-sigh that suggested that long experience has convinced her that there’s no changing Sabrina’s mind once she settles on a goal. Two years ago, just weeks after being given a perfect bill of health after a regular gynecological exam, Jeanne Lee Moran was diagnosed with ovarian cancer, a particularly insidious cancer that shows few, if any, symptoms until it is in an advanced stage and has spread to other parts of the body. Moran underwent surgery and then chemotherapy at St. Barnabas Medical Center and beat the tall odds against her. This summer, with the anniversary of her mother’s diagnosis coming up, Sabrina decided to do something special to commemorate the occasion and raise money for ovarian cancer research. A lifeguard at Tall Timbers, a mobile home community in Vernon, Moran runs 20 miles a day. She had never run an official marathon, which she considers too short to be a proper race. But back when she was in high school, her cross country coach, Brian Cummins, had run a 100-mile ultramarathon to raise money for the Make-A-Wish Foundation. Her mother’s cancer gave her a reason to run one now. A member of the Vernon High School track and cross country teams since her freshman year, Sabrina, who is known to family and friends as “Bean,” is a committed young woman. Her life bears testimony tot that. She was Vernon high’s Athlete of the Year for 2004-05 and was runner-up in the Sussex County Scholar-Athlete of the Year balloting. In the classroom, no one was better - literally - as she graduated as Vernon’s valedictorian and went to the College of William and Mary where she is a pre-med major who intends to become a geriatric neuropsychiatrist. Once a participant in every sport that fielded a team, Sabrina realized that running was what she loved most. She no longer runs cross country, having decided that monster distances were made for her. Her next goal, she said, “is to run a marathon a day for as many consecutive days as I can.” After she finished her race Saturday morning, she said she went home to lay down, but couldn’t sleep. “I was kind of weirded out,” she said. “When you’ve been running so long, it feels strange to stop.” By Sunday, she was running again - five miles. That increased to seven Monday, and Sabrina sounded antsy to do more. “I guess I’m addicted to running endorphins,” she laughed. She is still accepting donations to ovarian cancer research. For more information on the disease, visit www.ovarian.org or call 1-888-OVARIAN. She will also accept checks made out to the National Ovarian Cancer Coalition at her home address, 2 Tallahatchie Drive, Sussex, NJ 07461,