When Adam Popp explains what it’s prefer to run as an above-the-knee amputee, he factors out, “I don’t have an anatomical knee, so going uphill I’m doing twice the work with one leg after which going downhill making an attempt to brake or decelerate it’s like I’m doing it with one leg as nicely.” The Western States 100 has about 18,000 ft of elevation acquire and 23,00 ft of elevation loss, and Popp, who’s lining up for the upcoming 2025 occasion, says he’s most intimidated by the sheer pounding that his one full leg will take, particularly on the downhills.
However Popp, who misplaced his proper leg whereas working in explosive ordnance disposal in Afghanistan in 2007, is doing every part he can to toe the road as ready as doable, together with working carefully with fellow amputee and ultrarunning legend Dave Mackey, who may also be a part of his crew and pacer. It’s an audacious objective, but when there’s one through-line to Popp’s life, it’d simply be that he faces uncomfortable conditions head-on and comes out the opposite aspect a stronger individual.
Adam Popp, operating with a blade. All pictures courtesy of Adam Popp, except in any other case famous.
Shedding his capability to run wasn’t excessive on Popp’s checklist of issues when his leg was amputated. He by no means had a childhood love for operating — it was a essential evil for enjoying soccer in highschool. When his buddy satisfied him to enroll in high-school observe, it was solely underneath the promise that they’d solely compete within the excessive leap and lengthy leap, not any of the particular operating occasions. After highschool, operating within the navy wasn’t a lot better, nevertheless it was required for being in high bodily health for the job. Then, in 2007, a bomb exploded underneath Popp whereas he and his workforce have been clearing an space of explosives. In a cut up second, he misplaced his leg, navy profession, and sense of self. For a few years, Popp struggled.
Now, 18 years later, he’s completed 5 100-mile races, gained the 2024 Boston Marathon’s Para Elite division (T61/63), and has accomplished a full Ironman triathlon in 11:03:06. However Western States is a wholly totally different beast, with its mixture of warmth, elevation, and rocky path. All of that stated, Popp has by no means shied away from the unknown, and Western States is not any exception.
[Editor’s Note: This article depicts a violent injury. Reader discretion is advised.]
An Early Dislike for Operating
Popp grew up within the small city of Lanesville, Indiana, inhabitants 500. Like many youngsters within the space, he performed all of the ball sports activities: baseball, soccer, and even a little bit of soccer. In highschool, he centered on soccer, a running-heavy sport. However operating was one thing that needed to be achieved, not essentially loved, and in his phrases, “I hated it.” In his later years of highschool, a buddy satisfied him that they need to be a part of the observe workforce collectively, arguing that they may simply do the lengthy leap and excessive leap to attenuate the precise operating they’d need to do. It appeared like a good suggestion to Popp, and he says he was fairly first rate on the two occasions.
Popp graduated from highschool in 1997 and, realizing that he didn’t notably take pleasure in faculty, determined to hitch the navy after speaking to a number of members of the family who’d additionally served within the armed forces. It was pre-September 11 terrorist assaults, the U.S. wasn’t actively concerned in any main conflicts, and folks he’d talked to about navy service had pointed him towards the Air Power. When his recruiter gave him three choices for fields to enter, he selected explosive ordnance disposal. It got here with a signing bonus.
He says, “I had no concept about Improvised Explosive Gadgets. Once they stated terrorist weapons, like, what did that even imply? I took the paper dwelling to my mother, and he or she’s studying it, and it says, ‘You’ll work with weapons of mass destruction and terrorists and chemical weapons.’” Like all mother would, she questioned the knowledge of the selection, however Popp thought it sounded higher than any of the opposite choices. One should remember the fact that earlier than September of 2001, most Individuals weren’t intimately acquainted with the concept of terrorists.
Adam Popp throughout his time in navy service.
After ending boot camp and coaching in 1998, Popp’s first task was Misawa, Japan. He was a child from a city of 500 now out on this planet, slightly bit homesick, slightly bit scared. He embraced the state of affairs and says, “We actually pushed ourselves laborious in coaching, which means not solely bodily preparation but additionally doing the job and being ready for when one thing does occur.” He goes on to say, “We have been operating three to 4 instances every week. And once more, I hated operating, nevertheless it was pressured upon us.”
Army Service and Main Damage
Popp developed deep bonds along with his workforce and was stationed in Turkey when 9/11 occurred in 2001. Whereas he had the choice to depart the navy shortly after, however he re-enlisted and was deployed to Baghdad, Iraq, in 2004. Of the time, he says, “I used to be 25 years previous, main a workforce, and accountable for youthful youngsters in the midst of Baghdad disarming bombs.” Whereas a tough state of affairs, he calls it “an unbelievable studying and rising expertise.”
Popp clearing roadside bombs.
Close to what would have been the pure finish of his navy profession in 2007, Popp discovered himself in Little Rock, Arkansas, with a deployment to Afghanistan to proceed to disarm bombs on the horizon. Popp nonetheless hated operating however knew he needed to be as bodily match as doable for his deployment, so he signed up for the Little Rock Half Marathon. It was the farthest he’d ever run, and he did so with little or no coaching. Unsurprisingly, he harm for 3 days afterward and informed himself, “For this reason I hate operating.”
Popp deployed to Afghanistan shortly after and began his work of disarming bombs, a lot of them on roadways, permitting navy and locals to have protected routes to journey. On December 7, 2007, whereas clearing an space, Popp stepped on an explosive that they didn’t learn about. It detonated and despatched him flying. He says, “I used to be awake by way of the entire thing, and my Air Power explosive ordinance disposal teammate and the Military medics and safety workforce that I used to be with have been simply scrambling to avoid wasting my life.”
They stabilized him the perfect they may, and a helicopter flew him to a close-by navy base, which then transferred him to a hospital in Germany. When he awakened, he was lacking a leg along with having a damaged arm and hip, and ache all over the place. He says there was “plenty of confusion and plenty of, What’s subsequent for me? I am going from actually peak health, able-bodied, main a workforce in Afghanistan, to counting on others to maintain me and simply caught in a hospital mattress.”
After arriving on the Walter Reed Medical Heart in Maryland lower than every week later, Popp underwent surgical procedure each two to 3 days for the next month to restore 11 fractures all through his physique and look after his amputated leg. It took two months within the hospital earlier than he might even begin bodily and occupational remedy.
Adam Popp simply after the bomb explosion through which he misplaced his leg.
Rehabilitation
For the subsequent 12 months, Popp needed to relearn do every part as an amputee and are available to grips with the fact of his new life. He says there was “plenty of reflection, plenty of second-guessing your self, which is a really harmful place to be.”
As a part of his rehab program, Popp had the chance to take part in a number of leisure rehab alternatives, together with a ski journey to Vail, Colorado, whereas he was nonetheless in a wheelchair. He says of those journeys, “I discovered [these trips the] most helpful since you’re going to the airport and also you’re leaving the confines of the hospital and the security of the hospital and being put in uncomfortable however regular conditions that you simply’re going to need to take care of ultimately. You’re coping with accommodations and lodge showers after which doing this actually cool occasion the place you’re snowboarding, or biking, or scuba diving.” The journeys left a long-lasting impression.
However whereas Popp was recovering bodily, he had emotional restoration to do as nicely, and in some ways, that was much less simple. The navy was his id, and whereas his teammates, with whom he’d had such shut bonds, continued their work, he was now on the skin. In an try and reclaim his previous life, Popp took a job as a civilian protection contractor, nevertheless it wasn’t the identical. He says, “I used to be simply type of working a job, and I wasn’t doing something bodily and simply lived in Washington D.C.”
Popp in entrance of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C.
For a number of years, Popp was consuming and partying, happening a path that he didn’t like, so on January 3, 2015, he left alcohol behind. 5 months later, in Could, he discovered himself operating the path run leg of the Bellingham Ski to Sea relay occasion on a workforce of navy veterans.
It was a serious life pivot.
Discovery of Operating
Within the years prior, Popp had been working with a few non-profits and had put collectively groups for the Ski to Sea in 2013 and 2014 — an annual relay race that has snowboarding, operating, canoeing, and biking legs. In 2015, the workforce wanted one other runner, and Popp reluctantly volunteered. He had six weeks to determine run with a prosthetic, beginning with a harness with the rope hooked up to the ceiling and operating round an indoor observe on the hospital.
He says, “My cardio is crap, my steadiness, every part’s only a catastrophe.” He hadn’t run in seven years and says as soon as he was set out on his personal, “I simply ran three days every week in a really distant non-public space so no one might see me fall and simply did that day in and day trip for six weeks.”
Popp completed third-to-last within the muddy three-mile path run and says, “I couldn’t care much less. I used to be like, ‘That is unbelievable.’” He goes on to say, “I left there and got here again and stated, ‘What’s subsequent?’”
Adam Popp on the 2017 Hat Run 50k.
He continued operating and rapidly transitioned into doing a triathlon later that summer time, an expertise he calls “type of a catastrophe.” He says that he “simply labored from this utterly couch-potato sedentary life-style” to finishing his first half marathon that 12 months, which he ran sooner as an amputee than he had in his health take a look at run on the Little Rock Half Marathon earlier than deploying to Afghanistan eight years earlier. He additionally says it didn’t harm as a lot. The half marathon was a turning level for Popp, sending him on the trajectory of turning into an athlete.
In November that very same 12 months, he ran the Richmond Marathon and says, “There was simply this seven-month interval the place I used to be like, ‘What else have I been lacking out on for the previous seven years?”
Trails and Ultrarunning
Popp had glimpses into the path operating world, however had no intention of operating singletrack as an above-the-knee amputee, pondering that it sounded horrible. Then, whereas at an occasion for the Pat Tillman Basis in July of 2016, somebody he was working with talked about that she was racing the Leadville 100 Mile. Popp says, “This world didn’t exist to me,” however he was instantly intrigued. On his method dwelling, he says, “I used to be on the airport simply looking coaching plans and races and what coaching for that appeared like. And by the point I obtained again to D.C., I ordered “Hal Koerner’s [Field] Information to Ultrarunning.”
The guide had a coaching plan that the Popp determined to comply with carefully, deciding that if he was in a position to hit the prescribed miles for the primary a part of the plan, he’d race the Brazos Bend 100 Mile in December. Popp reached out to different amputee runners, together with Amy Palmiero-Winters, who completed the Western States 100 in 2010, and Chris Moon, who accomplished the Marathon des Sables in 1997 in addition to the Badwater Ultramarathon in Loss of life Valley, California, in 2012. Whereas each had totally different amputation ranges, they responded to Popp’s questions and gave him ideas for getting by way of the 100 miles.
Over the course of 18 weeks of coaching, Popp ran the miles of the coaching plan and completed the race in 26:35:04. Whereas Popp says of his run, “It wasn’t nice, however I completed,” he was now an ultrarunner.
Popp just a few years on, operating the 2021 CCC.
An Eye Towards Western States 100
Popp has accomplished 5 100-mile races so far, and he was the primary above-knee amputee to finish a 100-mile race in underneath 30 hours. He additionally holds 10 totally different Guinness World Data. His accomplishments span each operating and triathlon, however he readily admits that Western States, his large objective for 2025, doesn’t play to his strengths with technical path and plenty of elevation acquire and loss.
However Popp has a bonus on his aspect: fellow amputee Dave Mackey — three-time top-10 finisher at Western States, the 2011 “UltraRunning Journal” Ultrarunner of the 12 months, former quickest recognized time-holder for the Grand Canyon Rim-to-Rim-to-Rim route, and the prior holder of numerous different ultra-distance course data. In 2015, whereas operating on Bear Peak exterior of his dwelling in Boulder, Colorado, Mackey dislodged an enormous boulder that crushed his leg as he and it fell. A 12 months and a half after the accident, Mackey voluntarily had his leg amputated after a number of surgical procedures failed to revive his capability to stroll usually, not to mention run, with out ache.
Mackey (proper) returned to operating not lengthy after his amputation, and was a supply of inspiration to Popp.
Popp and Mackey related over having the identical prosthetist and each dwelling on the Entrance Vary of Colorado. Actually, Popp gave Mackey a few of his previous prosthetics to make use of. The 2 grew to become buddies and began operating collectively repeatedly within the hills exterior of Boulder.
It was solely pure for Mackey to change into a mentor when it got here to technique and race execution at Western States. Mackey says, “Even earlier than the lottery, I informed him I’d love to assist, simply on condition that I’d been there just a few instances, or possibly six instances.” Mackey goes on to say, “Amputees have all the identical challenges because the common two-legged runners do, and I knew that given my expertise there and having a leg lacking, I’d in all probability be capable of assist him with some subtleties of our challenges at Western States.”
Mackey had run Western States in 2019 as an amputee and needed to drop at mile 93. He says of the drop so near the end, “I made some poor selections earlier than then so far as what I used to be carrying on my good leg. My prosthetic was giving me issues. I had screw heads in my leg pushing in. It principally wore me down.” Of all the problems common two-legged runners face over the 100 miles on the race course from Olympic Valley to Auburn, California, most don’t put screw heads pushing into their legs on their bingo card.”
Popp is glad to have Mackey and his expertise supporting him, saying, “Clearly, he’s obtained a ton of expertise, so we’ll run two hours collectively and have conversations about every part, however plenty of it revolves round Western States. After which we’ll come again to his home and simply have a espresso afterward, and we’ll pull out his pc and he’ll simply stroll me by way of the course.” Mackey’s provided recommendation on every part from diet to hydration to pacing.
Mackey isn’t anxious about Popp’s capability to endure the ache inherently related to operating Western States. He says, “He’s robust as nails, and he’s skilled the ultras. He is aware of robust it out. He’s obtained the mindset, he can tolerate ache, he’s been by way of extra bodily and psychological challenges, simply given shedding his leg in Afghanistan.”
Popp coaching on trails.
However Mackey is real looking that there are additional issues that amputees need to take care of, together with pores and skin points. However he says that the warmth will in all probability be Popp’s greatest problem — the identical factor that most individuals operating the race concern probably the most. Mackey is fast to level out, “He’s going to have those self same trials as others.” In a race of 100 miles, as in life, nothing is assured, and the perfect anybody can do is present up ready.
No matter occurs on the 2025 Western States 100, Popp is wanting ahead to the expertise. “I believe probably the most thrilling factor is simply to go on the market to simply show to myself that each one the work over the previous 10 years has been value it.”
Name for Feedback
Had you heard Adam Popp’s story?
Have you learnt every other inspiring adaptive athletes operating ultras?
Adam Popp’s grit and willpower will stand him in good stead as he takes on the 2025 Western States 100.
