Race Reports

How do I top last year? Can I top last year? What if I don’t top last year? Those were the thoughts entering my mind as I prepared to race Strolling Jim this year. They are questions I’m sure a lot of people think about before a big race.  

After more than a decade of racing, I finally finished my first ultramarathon in the suburbs of my hometown of St. Louis. It’s true that you have to go away to come back, and perhaps you can’t fully appreciate the beauty of a place until you do.

Avalanches, white-out weather conditions and blocked roads were all par for the course at this year’s 6633 Artic Ultra Classic. The race is a self-sufficient, non-stop 380-mile foot race that race traverses the Yukon via Dempster Highway and Ice Road, finishing at the banks of the Arctic Ocean.

Running from Jacksonville Beach, Florida, to the Ponce Inlet Lighthouse just south of Daytona Beach, the eighth annual Daytona 100 took place December 3–4 along on a fast, flat and scenic ocean road course. Three weeks earlier, damage to this area of northern Florida caused by Hurricane Nicole—following on the heels of Hurricane Ian—triggered enormous stress about whether the race could proceed as planned.

Ultras remind me that the world is such a big and welcoming place, which was the case for Marshall and Heather Ulrich’s inaugural Route 66 Ultrarun. The race consisted of 140 miles across the longest remaining unbroken stretch of Route 66, from Seligman, AZ, to Topock, AZ, finishing at Topock66 on the Colorado River.

From the time runners checked in on Friday to when the music turned off Saturday night, we created something special at Pike Lake. This sacred 24 hours was not by accident; it was a direct product of the event staff, volunteers, park staff and runners—runners who brought their desire to race hard and fast on the technical trails of southern Ohio.