Heath Forbush
The Front Porch 100 – A Self-Supported 100 Mile Race

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What does your life consist of outside of running?
My life is a whole lot of chaos outside of running. I’m married and we have two kids. A son who is 8 and a daughter who is 7. When I’m not hanging out with family I enjoy spending time outdoors hunting and fishing. I also run my own small landscaping business. Needless to say there isn’t a lot of downtime in my life. Always something going on.
2. What made you decide to pursue ultra running?
As someone who hunts, Cameron Hanes is someone who came across my radar back in 2021. He is a hunter who also competes in ultra marathons to stay in shape for elk hunting. As I learned more about Cam I also came across one of his friends, David Goggins. From there I listened to Goggins book Can’t Hurt Me and signed up for my first 50 miler on Antelope Island, which was about 6 months away. These guys introduced me to the idea of running an ultra marathon but the biggest motivation to go for it was my kids. I wanted to show them both that we can do hard things, even things we may think seem impossible. Both of my kids are inspirations to me and each have their own challenges but my daughter has gone through more in her short 7 years than many would go through in multiple lifetimes. She was born with a disability and with that comes a lot. Some of the doctors said she wouldn’t walk when she was born and she started walking at the age of 3. Many of the daily tasks most of us take for granted are difficult for her but she continues to persevere. She helped me see that I can do a lot more than I was doing. (Sidenote: this topic is tough for me to know how much to share. I don’t really feel comfortable sharing too much about her medical situation because it’s private to her and her story to tell. But on the other hand I feel like as a parent of a child with a disability it has its own set of challenges that others may benefit from hearing. It’s just a fine line there that honestly I’ve struggled to figure out how to navigate it)
3. What drives you to keep doing ultras?
The main thing that pushes me to keep doing Ultras is my family. I want to stay healthy and active in order to be able to show up for my family for as long as possible. Now there are a lot of different things you can do to stay healthy and active that don’t require running 100 miles but I also find it fun. The kind of people you run into on the trails typically tend to be pretty awesome people that help you want to do better and be the best version of yourself that you can be.
4. What has been the biggest challenge you have faced in ultra running?
For whatever reason this seems to be a hard question. As I’ve prepared for races I’ve had the typical stuff happen like shin splints and a bout of plantar fasciitis and had to work through those. However, none of the things running has thrown at me have seemed like a “big challenge”. There is a running documentary A LONG WAY FROM NOWHERE: 150 Miles at The Desert RATS Stage Race | Ultra-Running Documentary, I came across this while preparing for my first ultra and there is a runner in there who sums up my feelings about running so well. His name is Phil Pinti known by some in the running community as the Macho Man and he shares his devastating story of how he and his young two kids lost his wife and their mother too soon. While his hard and my hard are totally different I resonated with his words when they asked him why he kept running when the race got hard. He said “my life is harder than this. My day to day, my week to week is harder than this. This isn’t hard.” While physically taxing to run long distance it just doesn’t seem to compare from the challenges life has thrown my and my family’s way.
5. What is the most important lesson you have learned from ultra running?
I Think the most important life lesson ties into the previous question. Like I said long distance running can be physically taxing. You will hit a point where you feel like you can’t take another step but, If you just keep moving and putting one foot in front of the other you’ll get through it. Time will pass, you’ll continue making progress, even if it’s not how you planned or as quickly as you’d like, and you’ll get to the finish line. Some people’s trials don’t necessarily have a finish line but by continuing to press forward you can find beauty in the pain.
6. What is something you wish you had known when you first started ultra running?
Do a little research and figure out a plan. When I started to prep for my first ultra I was walking a lot for work anywhere from 15 to 25 miles a day. I thought my legs were in shape. While at work I listened to Goggins book and thought everyone doing these races was like him. I followed his example and just threw myself into it and started running 10 miles a day everyday and tried to run each time as fast as I could. I got plantar fasciitis pretty quick and learned that walking shape isn’t running shape. In fact my first run was very humbling. I thought I could go forever due to the fact I walked a large amount for work and for my first training run I just said I would run as far as I could. I started at a fast pace for me and made it about 15 miles and was limping around for like 2 weeks after with the most sore legs I’ve ever had.
7. What is your top piece of advice for someone who wants to run their first ultra?
I shared three things the other day with a friend who is doing his first 50 miler this year. They were:
1) come up with some kind of a plan to work into it. I just saw people like Cam and said I’m going to do 10 miles everyday and gave myself plantar fasciitis real fast and dealt with that whole time.
2)when you start doing longer runs of an hour plus figure out what kind of salt/electrolytes you like and what fueling will sit well in your stomach. I just winged it on race day and battled stomach problems for Last 30 miles
3) find a good anti-chafing lubricant that you like. Somewhere I heard baby powder worked and I used that on my first 50, hadn’t tried it out before race day and it was worst decision ever hahaContact Heath: