Sue Ellen Trapp - Pioneer Ultrarunner and Legend

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By Davy Crockett

Sue Ellen Trapp

Sue Ellen Trapp was one of the elite women pioneer ultrarunners who burst into the sport in the 1970s. She was the fourth person to be inducted into The American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. She quickly achieved world and American records and showed how fast and how far women could run. With a busy life including her dental practice and family, she rose to the top of the sport twice, after an eight-year ultrarunning retirement, setting world and American records in her 40s and 50s.

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Sue Ellen (Hamilton) Trapp (1946-), of Fort Myers, Florida was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois. Her parents were Robert Roy Hamilton (1908-1971), a tool and die maker, and Marie Blanche (Festner) Hamilton (1910-1999). She had a brother, Ross Hamilton (1942-2014) of Chicago. Her ancestors were from Pennsylvania, Germany, Austria, and Denmark.

In the late 1960s, Sue Ellen went to dental school and married Ronald Edward Trapp (1943-), of Minnesota, who was also a dentist and entered the navy in 1969. He had been a cross-country runner in college. In 1971, Ron was stationed in San Francisco, California, as Sue Ellen was finishing dental school at the University of Illinois Dental School in Chicago. She gave birth to her daughter Kristina Trapp (1971-) in April while in California, and then graduated from dental school in June.

Trapp said that she thought the baby weight would melt off, but it never did, so she took up competitive tennis and swimming, with some running to help her get into shape. Her first road race came in 1971, San Francisco’s 12 km Bay to Breakers. She said, “I thought I’d just try it, and it was awful.” Later that year, the family moved to Lehigh Acres, Florida, a suburb of Fort Myers. She and Ron set up a dental practice together and Ron took up running and tennis, too. Results of her tennis tournaments would appear in the paper and starting in 1975, she was doing well in running races, too. In 1975, Sue Ellen ran her first marathon at Gainesville, Florida, with 4:04, but gained speed quickly. She placed second in the 1976 AAU Marathon Championships in Crowley, Louisiana, with 3:10:32. The two of them won husband/wife division of that championship. That marathon finish qualified her to run the Boston Marathon by 20 minutes.

Trapp won the 1975 and 1976 Melbourne Marathon, in a course record with 3:40:18 and 3:09:46. In 1976, the Trapps started the Rotary 5-miler for Lehigh Acres runners before there was even the Fort Myers Track Club. That race became a 5K and lasted for more than 40 years.

Trapp was one of the very early women to run the Boston Marathon. She finished in 1977 with 3:52:33. She would run that prestigious marathon for several years and brought her time down to 3:00:42 in 1979.

First Ultra

After stacking up many wins during 1978 of distances from 5 miles to the half marathon, it was time for Trapp to try an ultramarathon. Her first ultra, held on December 30, 1978, was an unusual one. She ran with a field of 54 runners in the Florida Space Coast 50 km, thought to be the world’s longest beach run. At age 32, she was the first woman finisher and the tenth overall, with a time of 4:09:42. That impressive time on such a rough surface, ranked her 5^th in the world for the 50 km distance.

1979-1981 – World and American Records

In February 1979, Trapp went to run a road 100K in Miami, Florida, with a massive field of 88 runners. It was also the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) National Championship. They ran a 3.3-mile loop in a park 19 times. She was paced by two male members of the Fort Myers Track Club. During the race, she paused for a couple minutes to change out of her soaking wet shirt. The delay cost her the win. When she finished, she thought she had broken the American Record by an hour and a half, with 9:12:38, but Lydi Pallares (1938-) of Miami, Florida, won the race two minutes ahead of her. That race hooked Trapp on ultra distances. She said, “I just wanted to see if I could do it. Some people probably think I’m crazy. I am. It was such an exhilarating feeling. At 40 miles, I started feeling it, but something makes you go on. I’ve never had nine hours go so fast.”

Three months later, like most ultrarunners of the era, she made the usual pilgrimage to the 100K capital of the country at that time, the Lake Waramaug 100K, in Connecticut. Just three weeks earlier, she had run the Boston Marathon in 3:00:42. At Lake Waramaug, she went through the marathon mark at 3:30 and won the 50-mile version of the race with 6:55:30, just 11 minutes off of the world record. Continuing, she grabbed the American Record for the 100K in 8:43:14. Her time was also the second fastest women’s 100K performance in the world. (Christa Vahlensieck (1949-), of Germany, ran 7:50:37 at Biel, Switzerland in 1976). Also, as of 2024, she still holds the 100 km course record at Lake Waramaug, the longest-standing ultra course record on the books.

Cleary, Trapp had emerged as the one of the top female ultrarunners in the country. Marcy Schwam competed out west on the same day, running the Yakima 100K, finishing in 8:51:09 a few hours after Trapp’s finish. Schwam and slowed near the end of the race, believing she had the American record in the bag. It was several days later when she found out the Trapp ran faster and claimed the record. Schwam would break the record in Spain the following year.

In September 1979, she won the Michigan 50-miler road race in Copper Harbor, and claimed her first world record, with 6:12:12, which she held for two and a half years until Marcy Schwam beat it.

Nick Marshall commented on the state of women’s ultrarunning in 1979: “Although 180 different women finished one or more races in 1979, almost a threefold increase from the preceding season, these areas remain predominantly a male preserve. While six races each had at least ten women competitors in them, there were eighteen ultras that featured all-male casts, and numerous others had only a solitary female mixed in with the men. Parity is coming, but very slowly. There were enough women running fast enough, though, that most national records were blasted off the books.” For 1979, Trapp was named the best U.S. Female Ultramarathoner by Runner’s World Magazine.

Trapp ran her first 24-hour race in February 1980, on a track at Miami’s Tropical Park’s Grandstand Stadium. She discovered that she had world-class ability for that type of race. Marcy Schwam was the world record holder with 113 miles, but Marcy, still recovering from a serious Achilles injury, only ran 11 miles. Trapp reached 71 miles during the first 12 hours, and reached 100-mile in 17:45. “She chalked up the miles hour-by-hour until Marcy Schwam saw her old record go by the boards 21 hours and 3 minutes into the run.” Trapp went on to beat the 24-hour world record, winning with 123 miles. She was also the overall winner. After that race, she held the world records for both 50-miles and 24-hours. She said, “I was hoping for the record, but I had no idea what would happen. I had built up a lot of miles preparing for this, but I’ve been injured off and on since October. I was really worried about not making it. I didn’t know if I could last mentally. This is as far as I ever want to go though, I can’t see going past 24 hours mentally.” The press was amused that she ate Big Macs during her race.

In August 1980, Trapp went to Portland, Oregon to compete in another track 24-hour race. She was hoping to break the 100-mile record. She said, “I really think the first four or five hours is pretty much preliminary to the running later on. With all those miles to run, you can’t push at all in the beginning.” She reached 100 km in 9:40:02. But at mile 85 she broke down and had to quit.

For training, Trapp logged miles by running home from work each evening about ten miles, carrying with her a cassette tape deck for music. In January 1981, Trapp was the overall winner of a 100K in Miami and lowered her American record to 8:05:26, beating all the men in the race too. A month later she tried to compete in a 24-hour race in Miami and was leading at 50K but withdrew at mile 43. In October 1981, Trapp won the AMJA 50-miler in Chicago, Illinois, in 6:42:58.

Eight-Year Retirement

At the peak of her ultrarunning career, she retired from running at age 35. She said that during the past six years that she couldn’t count the number of times that she quit running became of life’s demands away from the road and track. “Life would be so easy without running. I wouldn’t walk around like a zombie anymore. I would have time to read. I just wanted to say, ‘Get off the road. I don’t even want to see you.’” But then she would keep going and admit that she probably would never quit. “I couldn’t really live without it.” Well, this time she did.

She ran a few half marathons and 10Ks now and then from 1982 to 1987, but mostly concentrated on her family and dental practice. She disliked the limelight. One can only wonder what ultrarunning achievements she could have accomplished if she had continued during these years. In 1986, now masters age of 40, she started winning in the masters division in short races and then ran marathons again. She ran one 100K in 1987, in Tallahassee, and won in 9:02:52.

Second Ultrarunning Career

In 1989, at age 43, Trapp fully got back into the ultra driving seat. She changed things up and competed on the trails for the first time. She ran the 1989 Leadville 100 and finished in fifth place with a time of 25:19:47. That was amazing because she came from sea level and had to climb to nearly 13,000 feet. She returned to Leadville in 1991, finished in second with 24:21:22. But after that she returned to compete on roads and tracks.

Sue Ellen Trapp running the 24-hour race at Flushing Meadows in 1989

In September 1989, Trapp again returned to one of her great strengths, the 24-hour race. She went to New York City to run the Sri Chinmoy 24 at Flushing Meadows, which was the national championship. At this race, she would race against young Ann Trason (1960-) for the first time. During Trapp’s running retirement, Trason had taken over the ultrarunning women’s world, snatching away many of the records Trapp used to have. Trason now held the 100K World Record that was nearly an hour faster than Trapp’s record eight years earlier.

In this 24-hour race, Trapp ran a steady race, always in second place to Trason and reached 100 miles in 16:04. She then went further and finished with an outstanding 136 miles, shattering the American Record at the age of 43. But Trason went even further, 143 miles, and was the overall winner.

1990

That accomplishment sent Trapp to compete at the 1990 24-hour World Championships at Milton Keynes, England, on an 890-meter loop in a mall with a slick marble surface. This was the event where Don Ritchie of Scotland set a world indoor record of 166 miles. Things didn’t go well for Trapp, she stopped after only 49 miles.

A couple months later, in May 1990, Trapp was back in New York City to run the Sri Chinmoy 100 Mile Road Race at Flushing Meadows Park on a one-mile loop. It would be one of the finest races of her life. She ran nearly all the race with her friend Sid Christie (1945-), also a dentist, who was using the race to train for Western States 100. They established a steady pace race strategy. At mile 40, Trapp developed blisters but pushed on. They hit the 50-mile mark in fourth place with 7:08:43. Still running together, they hit the 100 km mark in second place, with 8:58:35. At mile 66, they went in the overall lead. A couple miles later, at dusk, a couple of people walking in the park were oblivious that there was a race going on and ran into Trapp and Christie. Christie ran on ahead but was usually no more than by a half lap ahead. Christie was the overall winner and Trapp finished two minutes later with 15:05:51 as the women’s winner. She set an American Masters 24-hour record. She said, “I just loved the one-mile course and the people. I felt great.”

1991

Trapp competed again at 100 kms in February 1991 and won at Jed Smith 100K in Sacramento, California with 8:38. That put her on the USA 100K team, and she started to compete internationally each year at the World Championships.

In September 1991, she won the 24 Hour National Championship in Oregon at Megan’s Run, covering 136 miles on the 400-meter track with 49 runners on the track. In that race, she set American age-group records (45-49) along the way for all the ultra distances, 50K, 40 miles, 50 miles, 100 km, 100 miles, and 200 km. She reached 100 miles in 16:05:56. She had a rare win over Trason, who stopped at mile 84 due to stomach problems.

Trapp had her only problems. At mile 40, she developed bad blisters, and toward the end of the race, her neck was so sore that she had to run with her eyes pointed skyward. She said, “I felt like I had gotten whiplash.” Her friend, Sid Christie, said, It was inspirational. I thought she’d fall over backwards.”

Sue Ellen Trapp and Roy Pirrung, champions of the 24 hours in Oregon

The Oregonian wrote, “Trapp, who averaged a sub-10-minute pace, kept up a slow jog over the last half-hour of the race. Ron Pirrung walked beside her. Only when she stopped at the finish line with Pirrung, and staggered a couple of steps, did her exhaustion show.” A few days later, she said, “I enjoyed it. I probably have forgotten a lot of the pain already. You always blank that out or else you’d never run again.”

1992

In 1992, Trapp put aside her dental practice for a few months to train and then went to Spain. At the World Championship, she was the third American to finish. She said it was “a fantastic experience.” She would continue to compete at Worlds in Belgium in 1993, where her team won the bronze medal, and in 1994 in Japan. She continued to run marathons and shorter races as way to train for the big events.

1993

On January 4, 1993, while running home from her office, wearing a reflective vest, an oncoming car forced her off the road and into a ditch. The driver drove on. “Trapp, 46, a world-class ultramarathoner, suffered a dislocated shoulder and a gash on her elbow that required stitches. For the next month, Trapp’s shoulder was in a brace. It didn’t stop her from running.” Four weeks later, she ran a half marathon with her shoulder still in a brace. She was determined to run the New York Ultimax 100K in Central Park on February 27, 1993, to again qualify for the U.S. World Cup 100 km team. She said, “If I run 20 miles, I get sore and tired.” Still, she put in 100-mile training weeks. She finished the 100K race in 8:31:44 and qualified for the team going to Belgium. In Belgium, in August 1993, at age 47, she ran the second best 100 km time of her life, with 8:17:03, and finished in 13th place.

Trapp returned to the 24-hour race in September 1993, at Olander Park 24 Hours in Sylvania, Ohio. She broke Trason’s American Record and ran 145.28 miles for the overall win. Trapp now held American Records for both track (136 miles) and road 24-hours. After breaking the record, she said, “I feel really exhilarated.”

In the years to come, she ran at Olander another seven times, coming away with five wins. For almost a decade she dominated in 24-hours and won an unprecedented seven national 24-hour run titles (most of the time finishing among the top 5 men in the race).

When asked about her training for 24-hour races, Trapp said, “I really believe if you’re not prepared to do a 24-hour race, you shouldn’t do one. I would always know if I was ready. I would look at races about three months before the event. I think it’s important to really be in shape for three months. I would lead up to a race with 120-mile weeks and hold it there for three weeks. Then, I would feel confident and ready.”

48-Hour Race Dominance

Trapp once said she would never race beyond 24 hours, but in November 1993 she competed for the first time in a 48-hour race at Gibson Ranch in Sacramento on a one-mile flat loop. She set an American Record with 223 miles, shattering the old record by 16 miles, and set a world women’s masters 48-hour record by seven miles. It was only 3.5 miles short of the women’s track world record and was the second furthest ever in the world up to that point, and a world record for a road 48-hour race. Her mark is still the W45-49 American age-group record as of 2024. She vowed that she would never run another 48-hour race. Because of this record-breaking year, Trapp made it on the cover of Ultrarunning Magazine in 1994. She was also named the National Female Ultrarunner of the Year (1993) by USA Track and Field.

Norman Klein (1938-) wrote, “The 48-hour race can basically be described in three words, Sue Ellen Trapp. Knowing how tired she had to be, we were all impressed by her continual smile and most pleasant demeanor. If ever someone displayed grace and dignity during the heat of competition, Sue Elen managed to do just that. Ron Trapp stayed awake for her the entire time, provided information to her regarding her pace and splits, made sure she fueled properly, and gave her encouragement when the going got tough.”

When interviewed in 1994 about ultrarunning, she said, “It’s the same for all ultrarunners. Everyone thinks you’re absolutely crazy. Everyone is aghast and you end up not talking about it. I’m kind of a different species. I don’t have a lot of speed, but I seem to be able to keep going. It’s just something I do.”

In 1996 Trapp continued her 48-hour career by running at the World Championship in Surgeres, France on a 300-meter track. Yiannis Kouros was the overall winner with 294 miles, but Trapp, age 50, won among the women, raising her American Record to 225.8 miles. She became the oldest woman to set an American Record in running. She missed the World Record by only two miles, but set a world record for the W50-54 age group. She never took sleep breaks and only stopped to rest twice, once she put up her sore feet for 25 minutes, and another time for 15 minutes. “Anybody can stay up for 24 hours, but in 48 hours, you have got to still run well. You need a little rest. It’s hard to balance that. You go through a lot more periods of death and recovery than you do in any other race. You go down and think, this is it, I’m going to be lucky to stand upright and then something comes over you and you get that other wind. It goes back and forth.” She had the reputation of rarely walking in a race.

In 1997, at age 51, Trapp wanted the 48-hour world record very badly. She trained about 130 miles per week, leading up to the race of her life. She arrived again at Surgeres, France, ready and determined. Yiannis Kouros again was the overall winner with 262 miles and Roy Pirrung placed second with 243 miles, but Trapp placed third overall with a stunning 234.8 miles, claiming the 48-hour world record by about seven miles. She broke the record with 1:15 to spare. She said, “I really struggled. It was so intense until I got the goal. Then it sort of freed me. I moved better than I had in hours.” After the race she said, “I feel just exhilarated. Each race has its own personality.” But she added, “I’m glad it’s over. I’m happy to have gotten this (world record) off my back.” She was crewed by her husband, Ron, and only rested for 20 minutes during the race. She celebrated by vacationing in Paris but was pretty sick for a while.

Trapp’s 1997 48-hour record of 234 miles was broken in 2006, but stood as an American record until broken in 2014, when Traci Falbo (1971-), of Indiana, reached 242 miles at Six Days in the Dome in Anchorage, Alaska. Trapp still holds the W50-54 age group world record as of 2024.

In 1999, Trapp tore an ACL when her dog ran into her. She had that repaired and came back to run one more time at Surgeres, France and covered 206 miles in 48 hours, which still is a W55-59 age group America record.

Final Running Years

Her last 24-hour race win came at Ultracentric in 2002 with 133 miles. Her 100-mile split at the age of 56 was an outstanding 17:31, an American age record. Her 133 miles is still a W50-55 age group world record as of 2024. Then her ultrarunning career started to wind down. In 2003-2004, she was troubled by stress fractures in her foot. She said, “I’ve been hurt the past couple years. It will be OK if I never come back, I have no regrets. The fun is training.” She still had dreams of returning to France and competing again in 48 hours. She came back to ultrarunning briefly in 2005-06 but no longer had the speed she once had and was just out there for fun.

In 2005, she was inducted into the USATF Masters Hall of Fame and in 2009 she was inducted into the American Ultrarunning Hall of Fame. In about 2009 she underwent spinal-fusion surgery. She ran her last ultra in 2011 at the age of 64, and covered 91.31 miles in 24 hours, for an American record for the W60-64 age group. When asked why she was still running, she replied, “Things are better. Things smell better, they taste better. There is nothing like being in shape, even at my current level.”

In 2014, at age 67 she still ran about six miles a day but needed another knee surgery. She liked to talk about her two St. Bernards and llamas. She had taken up CrossFit because as she said, “I’m such a weakling,” showing off her “twiggy arms.” She said, “I’d love to do another ultra. I don’t care what I do or how I do really, I just want to be in the game.”

Trapp held 25 American records in ultrarunning and three world records. In 2024, she was 78 and living in Fort Myers, Florida with her husband Ron.

Personal Bests:

Marathon – 3:00:42
50 km – 4:40:11
50 miles – 6:12:12
100 km – 8:05:16
100 miles – 15:05:51
24 hours – 145.2 miles
48 hours – 234.8 miles

Sources:

The Orlando Sentinel (Florida), Jul 26, 1964
News Press (Fort Myers, Florida) Nov 3, 1971, Jul 1, Oct 15, Nov 17, 1973, Jan 15, 1974, Apr 20, Oct 12-13, 26-27, Dec 28, 1975, Mar 20, Aug 29, Oct 18, 1976, Apr 21, 1977, Jan 28, 1979, Mar 3, 1980, Oct 10, 1991, Feb 11, Sep 30, Dec 9, 1993, May 26, 1996, Jul 17, 1996, May 5-6, 1997, May 24, 2005, Jul 27, Aug 13, 2014, Nov 23, 2016
The Tampa Tribune (Florida), Dec 23-24, 1975
Nick Marshall, Ultradistance Summary, 1979, 1980, 1981
Florida Today (Cocoa, Florida), Dec 31, 1978
The Miami Herald (Florida), Jan 28, 1979, Feb 24, 1981
Edmonton Journal (Canada), Jan 4, 1980
Oregon Journal (Portland, Oregon), Aug 4, 1980
Chicago Tribune (Illinois), Oct 5, 1981
Daily News (New York, New York), Sep 19, 1989
The Oregonian (Portland, Oregon), Sep 30, 1991
Tampa Bay Times (Florida), Oct 24, 1994
South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), Jan 2, 2011
Trail and Ultrarunning, “Sue Ellen Trapp: Interview” http://trailandultrarunning.com/sue-ellen-trapp-interview/
Ultrarunning Magazine, Dec 1993, Mar 1997, Dec 1991, Jan/Feb 1994

164: Sue Ellen Trapp – Pioneer Ultrarunner and Legend