Building endurance and strengthening mindset
There are many ways students might relax before beginning their third year of medical school.
They might take a summer vacation, catch up on some pleasure reading or engage in a summer research project.
Or they could run 100-mile race in 90-degree heat.
That last one might not be appealing unless you’re third-year medical students Nick Sciarretti and Alex Keith.
The pair completed the Burning River 100-mile ultramarathon on Sunday, July 27, in Cuyahoga Falls. Both finished within the cutoff to earn a ticket in the lottery for the Western States Endurance Run.
“If you complete Burning River 100 in less than 30 hours (we finished in 29:20), then you qualify to enter the race lottery in November,” Nick explained.
“Like many ultrarunners, running Western States is a dream, so I will definitely be throwing my name in and hoping for a bit of luck with the draw and my fourth-year schedule,” Alex said.
Do the runners see any changes in mindset, focus or other mental benefits that could help them in their rotations (both are at University Hospitals)?
“We started clinical rotations this year on July 21,” said Nick. “I cannot speak for Alex, but I would say that in the short term it does not have much of a benefit to rotations—if anything, it has been quite the opposite. In the long term, however, I think it has major mental benefits. It’s definitive proof to yourself that you can do hard things. It builds deep confidence—because if you made it through that, you know you can make it through anything.”
Alex thought about it differently. “I think completing an ultramarathon during clinical rotations was one of the toughest yet best things I could have done for my mindset,” he shared. “There is a unique kind of mental clarity that comes from pushing your limits over 100 miles. You learn to stay calm when things go wrong, problem-solve under pressure, and persist through discomfort for hours on end—all skills that translate directly to medicine.”
He continued: “More than anything, training for and completing a race like that forces you to become durable. No doubt that this same kind of durability is exactly what is needed to endure medical training: the long hours, steep learning curves and most importantly the responsibility to care for others. I think ultrarunning and medicine both ask you to show up every day with discipline, even when you are exhausted — and I am grateful that my hobby helps prepare me for my profession.”
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