“For her, every run means something,” Ordorica said. “So you have to be on point all the time.”

Strong at the Finish

Earlier this year, Lickteig was hampered by a sore left hamstring and was worried about her fitness for the Western States 100-miler. In May, she decided to test herself by taking a “baby step,” which in her mind meant entering the Silver State 50/50, a 50-mile race in Reno, Nev. Lickteig ran conservatively and finished in just over eight hours, good for second place.

More important, she felt healthy when she arrived for the early morning start at Western States some six weeks later. The rolling course, which begins in Squaw Valley, Calif., climbs more than 18,000 feet and descends nearly 23,000 feet before reaching the finish in Auburn, Calif. But the race quickly went sour for Lickteig, who felt tired for the first 20 miles and ate a grilled cheese sandwich that disagreed with her at Mile 47.

She had managed to recover when Ordorica joined her at the 62-mile mark, as night descended and the course snaked along steep trails once traveled by gold miners. Lickteig was moving so swiftly that Ordorica did not have time to refill his water bottle at an aid station. He began to suffer.

“Don’t be such a weenie,” he recalled telling himself. “She’s got 62 miles on you.”

Lickteig, stronger at the finish than she was at the start, placed second behind Magdalena Boulet, 41, a former Olympic marathoner from Oakland, Calif., who won by about 15 minutes. For her efforts, Lickteig took home a belt buckle.

“She’s always stronger than she thinks she is,” Ordorica said. “She always goes into these races a bit tentative, and then she gets stronger and stronger — and happier and happier.”

Lickteig, who has been training for the Ultra Race of Champions, a 100-kilometer event scheduled for Sept. 26 in Auburn, has had to decline invitations to international races because she does not have a passport.

“I should probably get one,” she said.

After running so many miles, she finally seems to realize that she is going places.