As hard charging, fiercely driven, superhero ultrarunners, we love to pile up the miles, train until we drop and skimp on rest days. But one of the great ironies about …
Author
Gary Dudney
Gary Dudney
Gary Dudney writes the “Running Wise” column. A native of Kansas, he followed his Polish wife to a job located in Monterey, California in 1982 and signed on as a Technology Project Manager at CTB/McGraw-Hill. Unbeknownst to him at the time, he had landed in the center of prime Northern California ultrarunning territory. Over two hundred ultras later, he still finds every race a fresh and unique experience, evident in the dozens of quirky race reports he’s submitted to UltraRunning over the years. He’s also published a raft of short stories in magazines such as Boys’ Life, Highlights for Children, Boys’ Quest, and several lit magazines. He's also the author of two running book The Tao of Running: Your Journey to Mindful and Passionate Running and The Mindful Runner: Finding Your Inner Focus available on Amazon or at Barnes & Noble online. Visit his website at: thetaoofrunning.com.
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Ride the Wind is a desert race through and through with cactus, kangaroo mice, wadis, coyotes, painted rocks, lizards, one hundred percent exposure, and a UV index that could strip …
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The San Francisco 100 pits you against the elements of nature but at the same time reveals all Nature’s glory in the hills and coastlines of the Marin Headlands just …
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How you handle aid stations can have a significant impact on how well your race goes. If you are speeding through a 50k looking for a PR, the emphasis at …
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There’s truly gold in them thar hills and it ain’t the shiny kind. It’s the super-efficient, multi-faceted, demanding workout kind that hills deliver. Lifting yourself up the slopes is strength …
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The lottery for the 2015 running of the Western States 100 Mile, the granddaddy of this country’s 100-mile trail runs, will be held this month (12/6), but as most entrants …
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I could see the plank was tilted. I could see the slip marks in the black mud on the end of the board. I could see the footprints next to …
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You’re in Virginia running through a dark forest on a ridge above the Shenandoah Valley. You’re exhausted. It’s about 24 hours into the race and the first hint of dawn …
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Ultrarunning is an endurance sport and as such it requires you to push yourself up to your limits. As you approach these limits and work to overcome them, you will …
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Whoa, whoa, chill out. First, don’t be messin’ with my tunes. Second, don’t ever be messin’ with my tunes. Lots of ultrarunners plug into music while they’re training and while …
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Ultras don’t always go as planned; in fact, they seldom go as planned. Overcoming the unexpected hurdles during an ultra is half the fun and a lion’s share of the …
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One great thing about our sport of ultrarunning is the variety of places and conditions that we have to choose from when we sign up for a race. Running 50 …
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The Bighorn Trail 100 is Wyoming’s signature ultra and well worth the trip out to the uniquely beautiful Bighorn Mountains. The race begins in narrow Tongue River Canyon with weird …
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The surprise isn’t that ultrarunners get lost once in a while. The surprise is that they’re not all lost all the time. Imagine marking 30 to 100 miles of remote …
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The Miwok 100K is a longstanding ultrarunning classic for good reason. It draws a big field (450 entrants) and it’s competitive (past winners include Scott Jurek, Nikki Kimball, Hal Koerner, …
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One way or another, we all face the need to reconcile our running passion with what is going on in the rest of our lives. We have to find a …
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Like anything, practice makes perfect, and perfecting your rough trail running skills will lead to better racing and might just save you an unpleasant trip to the hospital.
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Ultrarunning is full of intense and vivid experiences. Think of padding down a trail through a foggy drizzle all alone, deep in a redwood forest. Think of pushing yourself up …
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Sooner or later most ultrarunners hear the siren call of the 100-mile run. It seems to be the distance that defines ultrarunners. It sure is the distance that elevates us …
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January is always a good time to figure out your running goals for the coming year. One thing to think about while you’re fiddling with your New Year’s resolutions and …
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Newcomers to our sport often find that their enthusiasm for ultrarunning knows no bounds. They happily contemplate years of nothing but running. They’re spinning in a positive feedback loop like …
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One of the great joys of ultrarunning is arriving at a long-anticipated aid station. It can be salvation, pure and simple. Friendly voices and helping hands reach out to you. …
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Ultrarunners are an idiosyncratic bunch. They practice the sport in a thousand peculiar and individual ways. But on any given weekend, a high percentage of them will all be doing …
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