n attempting to create structure for this article, three questions entered my mind:
ikipedia gives as good a definition as any (see the full article: ):
|
An ultra marathon (also called ultra distance) is any sporting event involving running longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195
kilometers (26.2188 mi).
There are two types of ultra marathon events: those that cover a specified distance, and events that take place during specified time (with the winner covering the most distance in that time). The most common distances are 50 kilometers (31.07 miles), 50 miles, 100K and 100 miles.
Timed events range from 6, 12, and 24 hours to 3 and 6 days (known as multi-day events). Timed events are generally run on a track or a short road course, often one mile or less. |
hen I wondered just what percentage of the population have done an ultra, Answer.com told me: Approximately 15,000 runners in North America have done an ultra, which is about .005% of the population — a very, very small percentage. Conversely, 1% (200 times as many — about 3 million) have run a marathon.
Ted Corbitt has often been referred to as “the father of long distance running.” He was an early ultra marathon pioneer, helping to revive interest in the sport in the United States in the 1960s and 70s.
More recently, many of us came out on a chilly Saturday morning last month to run the Ted Corbitt 15K which honors Ted. In that field of over 3,500 runners I can say with a large dose of certainty that somewhere there was a runner who was running this new and uncharted distance beyond the 10K for the very first time. Likely this was someone relatively new to our sport, someone who might have woken up that morning with a mix of excitement and trepidation about taking on this new distance and testing their body and mind to go farther than they ever had, to satisfy their wonder and curiosity as their confidence and ability increased and their competitiveness grew.
Likewise, among the many of us who have completed a fair number of marathons, there are some who have asked themselves, “Can I go farther?” I can’t say if this was true for you or not, but it certainly was for me. And to this day, I’m both thankful and lucky that this became something to measure myself against — to continually raise the bar, to push the envelope and to keep trying to achieve more. There are no limits, as long as we can imagine and embrace our greatest possibilities.
It’s been said that running is our therapy. So then, can ultra running be regarded as our asylum, our “rubber room” — that special place where some of us think we truly belong?
This past November 20th, just 2 weeks after the NYC Marathon, a field of 209 runners lined up in Central Park for the Knickerbocker 60K (aka the “Knick”), a race that involves running 9 4 mile loops of the Park, plus a bit more.
Out of that entire field, 12 New York Flyers crossed the finish line. For some, running the 60K was a new and uncharted experience. For others, it was just another ultra event they had done before,
I want to share their thoughts on why they decided to take on a new and different challenge and what they thought of boldly going beyond the
marathon into uncharted territory — and if they would consider another ultra in their future.
eb Meyer has had a fantastic year of racing and after a couple of strong marathon performances she felt she was ready for the next challenge or progression in ability. With many of her friends getting into ultras, she became intrigued about competing in one and was looking for a 50K trail race in the November timeframe. Unable to find anything nearby, she opted for the Knickerbocker 60K since it was right here in Central Park and figured others she knew would be doing it.
Initially she thought, “Nine inner loops of Central Park — well, how hard could that be?” But then she soon realized that it was a 60K, 37.2 miles! As the race got closer she wasn't really sure what to expect, thinking, “could I even run 37 plus miles?” After trying to convince some friends to run the 60K and failing, she shifted into a different strategy and decided to assign them as “rabbits” to help get her through the distance. With her various rabbits pacing her loop by loop, and friends out there cheering as well as other Flyers running, she was overwhelmed by all of the support.
This led to an incredible first time ultra experience for her, and after the race she was excited to have reached her goal of 5:45 and coming in 5th female!
Deb had a better experience than she could have imagined. All of the support she received from Flyer friends that ran, cheered, and supported her was great and she remarked how it was a different experience than completing a marathon given the low key grass roots nature of the Knick 60K. Accomplishing the unknown and doing well led to another level of athletic achievement for her, and she would definitely do another ultra. Ideally her next would be a 50K trail run in Spring 2011. Anybody have any recommendations?
[Read Deb's blog posting on the race: ]
he November Knickerbocker 60K was not Fabrice’s first ultra marathon. He ran his first ultra in April 1999. Six months earlier, a fellow worker at BNP Paribas had the crazy idea to launch a challenge: running the famous Le Grand Raid de la Réunion aka La Diagonale des fous (the diagonal of fools). This race is 162.8km (100 miles) with 9,656m (31,682ft) of elevation gain. [See .]
But first he needed to run an ultra in the Lyon area, La Course des Hautes-Chaumes, as a qualifying race for that ultimate goal. It was a 64.5km (40 mile) mountain trail race with 2,500m (8,200ft) of elevation gain. This was physically and mentally very challenging. With La Diagonale des fous being his primary motivator, he trained very hard for it in order to make it into his goal race. Fabrice recalls that after the race he was really in pain, but too excited to think about anything else but running La Diagonale des fous. That same year in late October, he entered La Diagonale and finished it in just over 40 hours. Many didn't finish, but Fabrice prevailed and was actually the last one to cross the finish line and complete the event.
For Fabrice, and anyone willing to look past the marathon, running an ultra is all about mental and physical preparation. While the same philosophy can be applied to the marathon, Fabrice needed to think about his goal race months in advance, “carve” a map of it into his mindset, preoccupy himself with a lot of little details like pacing expectations, plan nutritional requirements required for the time he would be engaged, and lastly, make gear choices for weather variations or unexpected changes in weather.
And for Fabrice and so many others, there’s also the sacrifice. Not just the sacrifices we all make when we have chosen to train for our events and what kind of abuse we’ll be putting our mind/bodies through, but the larger and deeper sacrifice we put on our families. For Fabrice, when he’s crossing the finish line, he is always thankful for his wife Zineb. Although she might not be a big fan of Fabrice running ultras, she nonetheless supports him, and he can’t run without a picture of her in his mind.
For Fabrice, the Brazil135 lies next on the horizon. This is a 218km (135mile) ultra with 10,000m (32,810ft) of elevation gain.
Fabrice plans on traveling there with 72 Power Gels, 2 canisters of Gatorade powder, a Camelback hydration pack, 2 hand bottles, a lot of
anti-chaffing cream, insect repellent and &mdash a psychologist!
Well, maybe not a psychologist, but this is a “Badwater”-like event and he will have a crew supporting and assisting him.
remember reading Julie White’s forum posting “considering possibly running” the Knickerbocker 60K, making it her first and having some questions about it. [See: . ] “How much slower per mile should I figure to run compared with the marathon? Is a marathon a long enough “training run” for this, or am I not going to be able to make it, no matter how slow I run it? And finally, what kind of nutrition should I take in during the run?”
Julie has always been fascinated by people who are ultra runners, although she confesses that she always thought that they were eccentric, fringe types with abilities and drives above and beyond what she might be capable of. Her intrigue spiked after reading Born to Run, not only by the philosophy and mindset of ultra runners, but the science behind it as well. That book explained a lot in terms of our genetic/ancestral predisposition to be “born” to do this type of running, and she started thinking it might actually be doable for an “average type runner” like herself. She also spoke with some of the Flyers who had done ultras, and it sounded really fun, because you could take your time and actually feel better than at the end of the marathon. The final component in deciding to do the Knickerbocker this year as her first ultra, was that she felt that she had a mediocre NYC Marathon time and wanted to end her running season on a higher note. So she figured, why not give it a try and see how it felt?
She would have been happy to get any further than marathon distance at all, and amazed herself by not only going the full distance, but running it all the way (albeit slowly and relaxed!), and by how good she felt at the end...WAY better than at the end of the Marathon, and she recovered faster as well!
Her thoughts before were basically to take it SUPER easy, and just see how far she could get. She also planned her nutrition strategy and read a lot of blogs on both the Knickerbocker specifically and ultras in general.
During the race, she focused on staying relaxed, with a smooth gait and just tried to have fun. Once she had completed the race’s marathon distance, it was all gravy in her mind. When she had less than 10 miles to go, she started thinking that she might actually be able to run the whole way, if she maintained that easy “ultra” pace. On that final lap she realized that a sub 6:45 finish was doable and actually was able to speed up at the end, finish strong!
After the race, she was truly elated! She remarked to one of the volunteers: “That was awesome. I’d totally do that again”, to which he replied
(laughing) “but probably not tomorrow, right?”
This was certainly true, and she turned her attention to rest and refueling for the following week, much the same as after a marathon. Her post-ultra recovery wasn’t bad at all — it was better than she thought it would be — and she definitely would love to try one on trails next time.
’ve been wondering if Ray Sales is like “Hymie the Robot” from the 1960’s TV show Get Smart. Is there a place on his body where you flip a switch, wind him up and set him loose?
I certainly needed to hear what “drives” Ray’s engine and possibly learn or gain a new perspective given his energy and endless enthusiasm for pain and debauchery.
Ray’s first ultra encounter was registering for the North Face Endurance Challenge Bear Mountain 50K last year. He had been building up in the two previous years running marathons sometimes within 5 weeks apart. Then the next year. Ray did a twio marathons a week apart and he was able to PR in both of them, although he had dealt with injuries within that 2 year time frame at various points. It seemed like a natural progression to test his endurance limits by running a 50K in conjunction with marathons both before and after. He also preferred trail running and with Bear Mountain being local, it seemed like a reasonable plan — until he actually ran it and realized the course was unlike anything he could have imagined &mdash he was totally unprepared for it. Ray had never run such a technically challenging trail or anything remotely as steep and varied in terrain.
The weeks of rain leading up to the race and that race day morning made for excessive mud and big streams to cross. He miscalculated and decided not to bring a drop bag with another pair of shoes and socks, since he didn't want at the end for it to be brought back to the finish area. Had he known it was going to take him well over 8 hours to finish and that he would be wringing out his socks full of mud with the inevitable blisters, he would definately have changed out of them.
Towards the end of the course, he swore he would never consider running that course again. He figured it couldn't get much tougher than that for a 50K — until recently at the Delaware Water Gap — so it goes to show that for a lot of ultra runners, time does indeed heal many wounds and perhaps some bad memories!
And he is planning on running some longer races in 2011. In 2010 he ran his first 50 miler. Although he wants to improve on his times, he enjoys trail racing because he doesn’t typically set aggressive goals for them and many times just wants to finish the distance and make the cutoff times.
[See also Ray's Profile: . ]
ne Flyer who has impressed me and really embraced ultra running these past two years, has been Deanna Culbreath who was first female overall at the 2010 Knickerbocker 60k.
Deanna’s first ultra encounter was the 2009 Knickerbocker 60K which served as a training run for her first 50 miler. She had signed up for the 50 miler as a 30th birthday gift to herself and originally it was going to be a fundraiser for the Somaly Mam Foundation, until she then signed up for her first 100 miler!
Deanna hadn’t officially decided to run the 60K until about two days before when she realized that her body was pretty recovered from the NYC Marathon and it just made sense to run it as a training run for her 50 miler. She was really excited and just focused on running at a relaxed pace and finishing the whole distance.
During the race, she recalled “blanking” out for a lot of it. She just ran and a friend of hers had to keep her in check because she kept running faster than the pace she had originally told him she wanted to run. She got “into the zone” and didn't really think much other than listening to and responding to the random conversation with her friend and thanking all the volunteers who cheered the runners on lap, after lap, after lap. She remembers being really calm, and when she realized she had run farther than a marathon, it resonated within her that she was going to finish the 60K just fine.
[See also Deanna’s profile: . ]
ertainly one of the “premier” ultra runners on our club is Scott Martin who’s first experience with ultra running was the famed JFK 50 Miler in 2005.
Getting to the starting line for Scott was part of a half conscious process of seeking out new and different running experiences. In retrospect, he realizes that gearing all of his running around the road racing scene in Central Park was becoming a little “stale”. Scott wanted more adventure and not just the performance driven athletic experiences.
That process, the yearning for new experiences had led him into triathlons a few years earlier, and subsequently led him to discover trail running.
Scott feels that for him, trail running has led to ultras rather than ultras leading to trails. In the 5 years since that first JFK 60 Miler, Scott has gone on to finish in the range of 25-30 events with particular emphasis on 50 and one 100 milers (with more DNFs at that distance that he cares to remember).
Scott hasn’t run a road race in nearly three years (outside of a recent half Ironman), and he has always had an aversion to the crowd noise and ”hoopla” of large scale events. He prefers the experience of connecting with the solitude, and of finding the inner peace of being in remote pockets of nature that he finds in trail running.
Leaving behind the roads however, has not only cost Scott some speed but also some distance from his road racing friends, some of whom don’t fully understand the lure of the trails. But throughout this process, he has discovered and has come to cherish a wonderful community of trail runners.
So what began as a path towards the JFK 50 Miler and beyond, has become a wonderful experience and one that has transformed Scott’s sense of what running can be!
[See also Scott’s newsletter article: . ]
nd finally my own experience with ultra running started on a 17 degree morning in Central Park in 1998. I had completed several marathons with progressions in time and I too chose the Knickerbocker 60K for its locality, convenience and the opportunity to see friends in the park. My path has most recently led me to South Africa where I was fortunate enough to finish the 85th anniversary of the famed Comrades Marathon and leave with one of the greatest experiences I’ve had in my running life.
I think for myself and the other Flyers I’ve asked to help me with this article, the decision to get into ultra running has been borne of our own individual process to step out of what we might consider “the norm”, and discover our potential and determination and love for running, our need to discover, to overcome those dark moments always present in long distance running, to test, to trust our instincts and to act on them.
[See also Scott's newsletter article on the Comrades Marathon: . ]
And so, a new year is upon us, bringing forth new beginnings and opportunities to picture new goals. This might allow us to think big, to boldly go, and to add a new dimension and experience to our racing résumé.