Can anyone run an ultra? (Read 1035 times)

 If my fat carcass can run them, most anyone can I suppose.  50k and 50 milers seem easier to me than flat road marathons.  I just can't run that bloody fast... and all that pavement is brutal!

Now, I've always wondered this, when people sign up for a 50k, or a 50 miler, or a 100 miler or what have you, do they run every step of the way, or do they take short, like 5-10 minute breaks for things like eating/drinking/bathroom etc?  It seems like it would be really really really hard to run 100 miles without stopping for a bathroom break at the very least. 

I walk most, if not all, of the uphills in long moutnain ultras.  The old saying is "if you can't see over it, walk it".  I'd guess I walked about 25 miles of the Leadville 100 last year (my first 100) and still finished pretty well.

  - Chris

I believe that you are asking the wrong question...

 

It isn't Can someon run an ultramarathon - it's Should someone run an ultramarathon?

 I'm curious, Runstowin-- why do you think someone shouldn't run one? Other than obvious medical problems that would be dangerous. 

 If my fat carcass can run them, most anyone can I suppose.  50k and 50 milers seem easier to me than flat road marathons.  I just can't run that bloody fast... and all that pavement is brutal!

 

 

I walk most, if not all, of the uphills in long moutnain ultras.  The old saying is "if you can't see over it, walk it".  I'd guess I walked about 25 miles of the Leadville 100 last year (my first 100) and still finished pretty well.

 

  - Chris

 You weigh 200lbs and run ultras?  You are my hero dude!

Did it as an add-on to marathon training program.  Basically 40-50 mile weeks.  Ran it 3 weeks after goal marathon.  Loved the first 18.  Bored the next 26.  Anguished the last whatever.  Knee did something weird last few miles where it half-locked when I took walk breaks, so I had to keep trotting.  I remember saying, and writing: Horrible, will never do it again.  The promised "high" from finishing never kicked in.  Just relief that it was over.  Couldn't run again for 6 weeks.  It's an idiotic endeavor.

I have the application for this year's JFK sitting on my desk, all filled out and ready to mail. 

Go figure. 

it's easy to run 800 meters; the hard part is going fast. it's the same, in my opinion, for any other distance. if you ran a marathon this week, you could run a 50 miler in six months and then a 100 miler six months after that. it's just a psychological thing. a few long back-to-back weekends and fiddling with what nutrition works for you, and you're good to go.

if anything, they're easier -- you do away with the pressure to run all the time and to go fast. if just finishing is the goal, it's not that hard. if you want to go 8 minute miles for 24 hours, then it becomes the same challenge as 2:15 marathons. not many people (ok, just one person) can do it.

but as far as just completing ultras, a lot of really normal people do them. if you go to an ultra you'll see a lot of people who wouldn't fit your preconceived notion of ultras. not godlike creatures at all. just really patient.

if you follow runner's world, it's clear that the masses are about to descend on trail ultras in the same way they did with marathons a few years ago. no longer is completing a marathon sufficient for bragging rights in the office; they're figuring out that ultras aren't that hard and carry the new mystique. and if runner's world is pitching it, that should be a clear sign that pretty much anyone can do it.

bottom line (iMhO), just try it. remember when you ran a 5k and swore you'd never do a 10K and then ok maybe a half-marathon and then oh well maybe just one marathon? just another in the progression.

blah blah blah sorry

 You weigh 200lbs and run ultras?  You are my hero dude!

Yeah, and was 255lbs when I started...  I prefer to think it makes me "durable". 

if you follow runner's world, it's clear that the masses are about to descend on trail ultras in the same way they did with marathons a few years ago. no longer is completing a marathon sufficient for bragging rights in the office; they're figuring out that ultras aren't that hard and carry the new mystique. and if runner's world is pitching it, that should be a clear sign that pretty much anyone can do it.

I have a hard time believing that... though I keep hearing and reading it.  It's one thing to take up the new hobby of the year (mountain biking, rock climbing, kayaking, etc), but it takes a LOT of work and a LOT of time to run trail ultras.  I just don't think most people have the intestinal fortitude to do the training required.   Sort of like how a lot of people rock climb...but they all do easy stuff...cragging, sport climbing, top roping... things that don't require much investment of time.  There still aren't huge masses of folks trudging into the mountains to do mixed alpine climbs (thankfully).

Maybe they'll all do 50km races or something... those don't really require much beyond normal marathon training.  Then hopefully the next fad will come along and take their minds off our little sport

i guess the practical concern is that the max numbers are SO much smaller than marathons out of necessity. couple hundred vs. 30,000. so it will just become harder and harder to get into races.