Ultras

One of the traits that endurance athletes have is a true passion for the sport. In my experience this is often what separates the finishers from the DNFers. There are people who DNF because they sustain an injury and have a very good reason to drop — I’m not talking about those people (it’s happened to me). Then there are people who just don’t pull it through and drop out of the race.

Even if someone is running a race close to the cut off times an ultra isn’t easy. It isn’t easy to train for an ultra. There are plenty of days that I’d rather stay inside and watch some dvds. Days when it’s hot outside, days when it’s raining, or days when I’m sore from the workout yesterday. But when I look at the calendar and see that I’ve got a 50 miler coming up in three months — I’m not going to back down from the training. It’s hard to put in the necessary miles but endurance athletes do it because we’ve got passion fueling our desire.

It certainly isn’t easy to actually run the ultras. There are some races where everything just goes perfectly but for most of us that is rare. Even on those days it’s difficult to get through the course with the proper hydration, nutrition, and the usual challenges of the course.

More often then not the course presents it’s usually challenges along with a lot of surprises. It could be anything from dealing with having to crap in the woods to rolled ankles to dehydration to nausea to broken bones or whatever. There are race days where I feel like I couldn’t run one mile, let alone 31. There have been races where the rain was pouring down and lightening was striking throughout the park we were running in. Passion is what fuels me through any of those things.

What I love about endurance athletes is that we are passionate about our sport. That passion comes through in how we train, how we treat ourselves, how we run races, and even how we help others in our sport. We have passion to be our best and to experience the thrills of pushing yourself to the max with others.

I’m a little curious, why do they hate us? Seriously, I don’t have anything against marathoners. I don’t have anything against the elite who run spectacular races or against the bulk of runners who take over 3 and a half hours. Why do marathon runners have such a bad time with ultra runners?

I have a few thoughts on ultrarunners that might or might not be true:

• The elite are not nearly as elite as marathon runners
• This won’t change until there are major purses for winners of ultras
• This probably won’t ever change
• The field in ultras are better runners than the field in marathons
• People don’t go out and run an ultra on a whim like some certainly do in marathons
• It’s only just beginning for ultras. This is a relatively new sport and it’ll continue to evolve to better things.

To many of us who are serious crazy about running, the marathon is only the beginning. Ultra endurance races are where the fun really begins.

Forbes recently highlighted the endurance races (not just running) that it believes are the world’s most grueling. It includes races like the Marathon des Sables where 700 people attempt to run 150 miles through the Sahara desert. It also lists the Great Divide mountain bike race, the Badwater Ultramarathon, and the Western States. What races are they missing?

Currently there has only been one person to make it to Devil’s Thumb and he is Hal Koerner, 31 years old of Ashland, OR. He was running about 11 minutes ahead of  Lon Freeman at the Last Chance checkin point. In first place for females seems to be Nicki Kimball, 36 of Bozeman, MT (a fellow redhead!).

Alright, I just got back home, so I will have a little race report up soon. However, for anyone interested, I ran the 50K just over my goal of 6 hours. My unofficial time was 6 hours 30 minutes and 21 seconds. Now I’m going to go and run a couple miles to get my muscles working again.

This weekend is my first 50K. I’m really excited about it and want to do decently. Even though I ran 7 miles today, I think that I still have enough time to let my body prepare for the run. Tomorrow I might run a light 3 or 4 miles, Thursday will be a day off, and Friday will be about 2 or 3 miles.

I’m trying to decide whether to run the Cross Timbers 50M or a smaller race called the Doogies Run 50M. They are both here in Texas but the Doogies would be closer to me and probably an easier course. It would also give me an extra week to prepare. The Cross Timbers is a little larger, further away, and a more difficult course. I’m leaning towards the Cross Timbers. Any thoughts?

Good luck to all of you running the Rocky Raccoon tomorrow. I just ran a lap around the course and can tell you that there are quite a few wet spots. In fact, one area was nearly impassable without going through an inch or two of water. However, most of it is good and will be a fast course with great weather.

I will be out there from 6pm until midnight at the volunteer tent near camp site 174. Afterwards, I believe that I’ll be pacing someone on their last 40 miles.

See you on the trails!

I’m not sure if I have mentioned it here, but I am moving this coming weekend for a new job. The area is down towards Houston/Huntsville so I will spend a good amount of time running at the trails in Huntsville State Park. I was happy to see that the Rocky Raccoon, one of the 100 mile ultras, is coming up in a couple weeks at HS Park.

I wouldn’t be ready to run the entire thing by myself, but I think I could pace someone who is looking at a 30 hour pace. It seems like that would be a fun way to run 40 miles before jumping into a race without enough training.

Has anyone been a pacer before for anyone? Would you recommend it?

During my easy five mile run this evening, I started to think about what interests me in ultrarunning. It’s not necessarily the challenge of it all; although, that is part of it, but it’s that they are fun. I like to have fun when I’m running.

Having fun is part of the reason I have no interest in certain endurance races. Namely, I could care less about running the Badwater Marathon or the South Pole Marathon. Those races would certainly present a challenge, but I don’t think they’d be any fun.

What is fun about burning through multiple pairs of running shoes, getting dehydrated because of 120 degree temperatures, having the scorching sun burn your exposed skin, and battling hallucinations for most of a race? I guess that might be fun for Dean Karnazes and Scott Jurek, but I could care less about it. I’d much rather prefer to run with them at the Western States where you have an amazing challenge and some fun.
Also, what is fun about acclimating to freezing temperatures, 12K ft above sea level altitudes, and running with heat packs in your shoes to battle the frostbite? Just as an aside, the website points out one of the perks of the race is having breathtaking views. This is only true until snow blindness kicks in. Enjoy the views when you can’t see or concentrate because you’re thinking about how you’re going to lose the tips of your fingers.
Running should be fun and challenging. The two aren’t mutually exclusive but you can certainly have one without the other. If I am only going to take one, I will take the fun!

It was my first ultramarathon and I loved every minute of it! Unfortunately, the week before the race, I hurt my foot when I fell off a bridge while mountain biking. Leading up to the race, I did everything that I could to let my foot heal but it wasn’t enough to not feel the pain.

That said, I wasn’t about to let a silly foot injury stop me from my first ultra. I went to the hotel and signed up for it about the time the 48 hour runners were in their sixth hour. It was only appropriate that I sign up for the six hour run and bow in respect to the people running the 48 and 24 hour runs. I would have gone for the 12 hour but my work schedule conflicted with it on Saturday.

Saturday I went to the race site as soon as I was finished working. As I got out of my truck, I met a runner who was also running in his first ultra. As it turned out, he was able to demolish me pretty easily. I think that there were about 15 people who were running the six hour race and we seemed like a happy group as we gathered around the start.

Once I got into the groove of running it was clear that my foot was going to cause some problems, but I resigned myself to the fact that I’d probably have to walk a considerable amount. While the foot was fresh, I pushed myself for about 9 miles so that I could get some quick mileage. The asphalt was a little rough to run on but Grapevine Lake was a refreshing view so the 2.4 mile circuit didn’t become too boring.

It was probably around mile 10 that I really had to slow down my pace because of foot pain. I walked it a little and then would run another mile or two. The foot was the only problem as nutrition and refreshments were plenty. The race was well stocked with all the food and drinks I needed, so I made sure to keep myself pretty refreshed.

By the 5th hour, I was just enjoying the run and had learned how to handle my foot. I enjoyed running with a lot of people who I had either read about or heard about. My overall distance was only 25 miles but it wasn’t too terrible for a first ultra and not having an entirely healthy body. My goal for the next six hour would be to hit about 34 miles.