by John Shepard, RD The days leading up to the 20th running of the Double Chubb 25 & 50k were filled…
We are on the cusp of summer and some of the hottest ultra races are coming up fast. I am going to review heat preparation and management strategies in this article, but the bottom line is you should try many things to determine what works best for you. You also need to know the red flag symptoms to avoid some disastrous consequences.
Somewhere around mile 45 two more runners caught up to me. They weren’t the first to catch me in this section. A few miles earlier I had gotten it into my head that my legs just couldn’t run anymore. I was slowed to a walk, or was “Miwalking”.
Race founders Stacy and Phil Sheridan greeted each runner with a smile and a hug.
When you do what we do, it sounds so easy. “I just need to cover a little more than three miles an hour.” Three miles an hour and just a little more, how hard can that be? It sounds so simplistic, so easy. Until you’re the one who has to accomplish it in the midst of a 100-mile event, then it becomes that monumental task.
Over at UItraRunningGuy.com we recently held a contest called “Top Ten Signs You Are Training (Too) Hard For Your Next Ultra”. There were so many entries that it became the Top 20 because, just like your mileage, ten simply isn’t enough.
Stories of canceled flights, food poisoning and illness have circulated as unfortunate reasons for a DNS (did not start). But never in my 16-year, long distance running career have I ever faced an obstacle while getting to the race start.
I wanted an Ice Age belt buckle. At 72-years-young, now wouldn’t be too soon. I expected to be on the edge, chasing the cutoff most of the day… if most things went right.
I began mentally rewriting song lyrics as a way to pass the miles, entertain myself, and poke a little fun at the absurdities and idiosyncrasies I see within the subculture of this sport I love.
A lifetime can be broken down into many, many individual moments. Those moments blend together as times passes and we often misremember past events, confuse memories, and forget large swaths of moments altogether. It’s rare that we can look back to a particular moment and mark it as a definitive one. But sometimes those defining moments do stick in our memory.
It was a perfect day for a race in the shadow of WWII heroes. Hosted by the Military Museum of Northern Florida, the race is held on a former WWII airbase and loops through magnificent cypress swamps around the perimeter of the old base. Remains of crashed aircraft and old bunkers are still visible.
As I make my way down the asphalt path I am conscious of the sound of my feet hitting the ground. It’s something I usually don’t pay much attention to but today is different. I am running with more attentiveness to my form. Is my posture good? Am I leaning into this short grade properly? Am I engaging my glute muscles?
A soft dual-purpose casual and activewear button-down constructed entirely from post-consumer products.
During the hour just before dusk, I was on a trail in the Columbia River Gorge trying to chase a cutoff during the Gorge Waterfalls 100K. Everything around me was already dark due to the tall Douglas fir trees and thick vegetation. My headlamp was at the next aid station which still seemed miles away.
There’s something about being applauded for not giving up when it includes 11 DNF’s. This past March, at the Badger Mountain Challenge, I finally finished a 100-miler. The road to get there was long, and took me four years and 11 attempts.
To remember the past is to respect it. Even the most independent of us in this most independent-at-times of sports, do not live in a bubble of rugged individualism feeding the fire of progression alone. We are all interconnected, and we all need each other.
Springtime socks have to be ready for anything: cold mornings, mid-day heat, sudden thunderstorms, or muddy trails. Here are some of our favorites from this spring’s sock bounty.
LEKI is excited to announce the LEKI Full Ride Scholarship to Timothy Olson’s Run Mindful Retreat taking place in Boulder, CO, June 7-10. The scholarship includes registration fees, air travel, lodging and LEKI Trail Running gear for one deserving trail runner.
“When 26.2 Miles Isn’t Enough” is the title of an article published last month by British newspaper and digital media outlet The Guardian that explores the “phenomenal rise of the ultramarathon.” It is an interesting topic for any ultrarunner.
If you spend any amount of time talking about ultrarunning nutrition, you are almost certain to hear the term “fat adapted.” The general idea is that a “fat adapted” athlete will be very efficient at burning fat and thus have an immense supply of stored fuel, eliminating the need to ingest large quantities of carbs.
A 90-minute drive from Los Angeles, Leona Divide is run mostly on the scenic Pacific Crest Trail among undulating green mountains and views of distant Lake Hughes.
Two new running packs from Orange Mud for 2018 made for fast and light movement.
In the modern world, decisions on what to eat and drink and when, can be as confusing as they are convenient.
Sometimes it takes a great loss to reach an all-time high.
This is the last text from the Sahara, my friends, after three days of cruel intensity. Magdalena Boulet won the race easy. She still looks amazing. Most of us survived it, struggling.
Wildfires scorched over 24,000 acres of the Deschutes National Forest just west of Sisters, Oregon late last summer. Thick smoke settled in the small town of just 2,000 people, delaying the start of school and forcing many to cancel their vacation plans. So when the Peterson Ridge Rumble announced that the only change to this year’s event was a shortened section of trail on the 40-mile race course, no one was complaining.
The sandstorm happened last night at midnight and was awful. But it also gave birth to the best day we’ve had so far. The Sahara… go figure.
Gaël Couturier, five-time Marathon Des Sables finisher, reports while running the 2018 Marathon Des Sables in the Sahara desert in Morocco.
Two leading entries in the newly emerging utility belt category, the Naked Running Band and UltrAspire Fitted Race Belt are mesh and elastic waistbands that are chock full of pockets and attachment sites to carry your essentials on the run.
