#ultramarathon

[deweydecimalchickens]

Endlessly refreshing the Barkley Marathons updates to see if my girl Jasmin Paris makes it onto loop 5. About 8 hours ago she was on track to be the first woman ever to finish the race.

You might remember her from previous ultra running achievements like "fastest woman to complete a Barkley Fun Run (3 loops, 60 miles)" and "overall winner and record-smasher of the Pennine Way Spine Race while expressing milk for her baby at aid stations".

For the uninitiated, Barkley is the most straight-up insane race that exists:

Limited to 35-40 attendees

5 loops totalling 100+ miles

Entrance requirements are...unclear, but include an essay section and a scavenger-hunt-type item

Course is unmarked and very mountainous; GPS navigation not permitted

Invented to mock James Earl Ray, who managed a measly 12 miles in the area during his prison escape

Most people don't finish the race, or even the Fun Run (only 10 people were left running as of last night, and that was a record high)

"Checkpoints" come in the form of finding a book that's been hidden on the course and tearing out the page matching your race number

Start time is whenever the organiser lights his cigarette

#Jasmin Paris #ultramarathon #Barkley Marathons #Ultra running #The sheer astonishing grit of the long-distance runner

[mostlyexcited]

Life update:

After months of working my actual butt off, ya girl won the non-elite women’s division of Run Rabbit Run 100-miler over the weekend. 15th out of ~430 total people who started.

Body and mind are still in shock, but heart is undoubtedly full ❤️

#runblr #runfam #fitfam #fitblr #running #health & fitness #ultrarunning #ultras #ultramarathon #100miles

[coolthingsguyslike]

#Barkley Marathons #Tennessee #ultramarathon #endurance #race that eats its young #Laz #running #distance

[tuulikki]

Ultrarunners are a kind of cryptid to me

They’re nice cryptids, and I love them and think they’re very beautiful and powerful. But I do love reading a newsletter that’s like “100 miles is the default, obviously, but have you heard that some people are running races that are less than 100 miles?!? Imagine that!” Crazy wonderful cryptids.

#ultramarathon #running

[nibsthefitmermaid]

We did it again, kids.

This was a phenomenal weekend to end my Spartan year. Ultrafecta, x5 trifectas for the year, and a final weekend medal. My first ultra was in Fayetteville and we finished in just over 13 hours. My goal this weekend was to finish in under 12.

It took 5:05:24 to get to transition the first time (15 miles). The weather was beautiful and the fall colors on the course kept me distracted while we wandered in the woods. We pushed through and managed to jog downhills and straights and walk the uphills. But by that point, my knee was hurting and I hadn’t eaten much on course so I needed to replenish some calories.

I spent just over 20 minutes in transition to refuel and take some ibuprofen. An uncrustable, two honey buns, a bottle of pedialyte water and a bottle of pickle juice - then I was good to go. Lap 2, I’m not sure what happened. The ibuprofen kicked in and my knee felt a lot better, and despite jarring my foot pretty good when i jumped down from a wall, I felt good. I kept pushing miles and running the places where I could, to the point that I ended up leaving the guys I was running with behind. I kept chipping away mile after mile, obstacle after obstacle. I walked where I had to and tried to eat more to keep my strength up, I think I ended up eating a honeybun and some sport beans.

It took me 5:05:51 to get from transition to the finish line. There was no way I was tracking that, so I only know because of the live tracking splits. I have no idea how I managed to do almost exactly the same time on the back half as the front. My fastest group of miles were 15mins, my slowest were 21-22mins, but overall I averaged 20mins.

A lot of those miles were with friends, some were with strangers just chatting, and a few were alone. We started in the dark and finished in the daylight. It was a beautiful course, well balanced with water stations and obstacles, nice rolling hills, and I finished at 10hrs32minutes. And then, I rounded out the weekend with another ten miles on Sunday.

#Spartan #ocr #ultramarathon #trail ultra #Spartan ultra #picture #fitness #personal #fitblr #me #running #runblr

[dirtanddistance]

King of Pain and Festival Ready: Diez Vista 50k 2024

10 years ago, I decided to run my first 50k. As all good running ideas are, it was a suggestion from a friend and running partner. While she did not end up on the starting line with me, it was the beginning of a path that would lead me to the start line on Sasamat Lake, far from alone this time. The 50k distance has always been special to me. It was the race that made me an ultramarathoner, it introduced me to trail running. Every 50k I’ve done has been so deeply impactful on who I have become as a person; from that first race in Florida, to the 50k I ran while I was in podiatry school in Ohio that showed me that I had no idea what a trail race actually entailed. The 50k back in my hometown, a repeat of my first that I signed up for because I knew that I needed it to force myself to keep eating, keep taking care of myself while my dad died right before I graduated. I can still feel how disconnected and lonely I was out there that day if I think about it for too long. How miserable, numb. I won my gender division and felt nothing. I didn’t touch a 50k for years after that. Partially because I was in residency and had no time for that level of training, but also because I just… couldn’t, not after I dragged myself through it just to stay alive that last time. It wouldn’t be until last autumn that I would tackle that specific distance as an event again, this time with a group of fearless friends in my local running club on their run around the perimeter of Burnaby, BC. While I never mentioned it to any of them, getting to run that distance with them, sharing the joys and the pain, helped put together a few little broken pieces I’d forgotten about deep down in my soul somewhere. And along this path, I was delivered at the moment when I would ask Elise if she would like to run a trail ultra.

Convincing Elise to sign up for a trail ultra was actually a pretty easy sell. We’d done some exceptional leaf-peeping trail runs earlier in the season, and a pretty spectacular group trail run up to Panorama Ridge the summer before. We’d gone backpacking together and determined we could wander around in the backcountry for days on end without it getting too weird. More importantly, we’d bonded over our mutual burnout for road racing. It was nerve wracking, worrying about paces and times, comparing ourselves to others and to previous versions of ourselves who we knew deep down shouldn’t be emulated but damn, they put down some good times. Trail runs were a chance to escape that. You’ve never run this course before so you can’t really decide what a good time for you is. It might be the same distance as another one you ran, but the terrain makes them completely incomparable. Only the top three people get awards, so as solidly average runners there’s no need to wonder if you could have nabbed the podium in your age group. Most importantly, it’s far enough of a distance over challenging enough terrain that simply getting to the finish line feels like accomplishment enough, time be damned. So on entry day, one morning in I think December, I woke up an extra few minutes early and texted my running buddy, and signed up for the 2024 DV50. Minutes later, I got a text back confirming it. We were both really in it now.

As an aside, there is nothing I enjoy more than getting to do someone’s first [insert race distance here] with them. Even better if we’re running it together; I highly recommend trying this strategy for joymaxxing your race. You get to turn your competition brain off. Your only job is to shepherd your companion along this journey that you’ve gone on before. You don’t really think about whether or not you can do it or how you are feeling at any given moment. You’re concerned about how they’re holding up, if they’ve got enough water or slept well the night before. Some of my most treasured running memories are watching a friend finally take a crack at a race. You know you can do it. And you know they can do it, and that you’re gonna do it with them.

Race day dawned without a raindrop to speak of. Apparently this was only the 3rd time in the 26 year history of Diez Vista 50k that there was ‘good’ weather on race day #luckygirlsyndrome. I was infinitely thankful for this, if only because I’d already spent hours upon hours trudging up and down Diez Vista completely saturated and covered in mud while training for this race and emotionally I wasn’t sure how much more of that I had in me. We arrived pretty much in perfect timing to park, apply face gems (one must be festival ready when your race falls on Coachella weekend) get our drop bags situated, hit the bathroom, and take a couple photos before the starting gun (except there is no starting gun. This is British Columbia not a Florida high school track meet). As we started to pick up our feet and cross over the starting line while AC/DC’s Thunderstruck blasted, it really, well, struck me that we were really in it now. 

First half of the race was well trodden ground after Run Ridge Run a little while back. We fell into a groove, the mass of participants still fairly thick as we crossed the bridge and started our ascent. We ended up near another run acquaintance I hadn’t had a chance to chat with since before Squamish last year, which broke up the first bit of the climb before we all became a bit too winded to do much more talking. The DV climb, which had been the bane of my existence up until today, went by faster than I could ever recall it passing on previous jaunts. There was nothing but the relentless desire to be done with it, to be over the (big) hill and on with the rest of the race where we could actually chat and enjoy ourselves.

Finally, we were past it and pulled up to Aid Station 2. AS2 had impeccable vibes. First of all, we ran into our friend Keri working as a course marshal on the way in, and seeing a familiar face is always a surefire morale boost. There was Dua Lipa playing on the speakers. A woman dressed up as a shark complimented our festival-ready face gems, and another volunteer told us we looked fresh (if anyone reading this has ever wondered what you should say to a runner when you’re volunteering at a race, anything along the lines of ‘you look fresh/strong’ is 10/10). We loaded up on snacks and headed back on our journey around Buntzen Lake. 

The toddle to the third aid station was uneventful; once more we were rewarded with a volunteering friend sighting (hi Clarence!) and the Big Fuel waiting in the drop bag - a PB&J and some apple sauce. This aid station had everything, and it was far enough into the race that I was starting to want exactly none of it. Fortunately, the PB&J went down the hatch without much protest and there was a real bathroom on the way out of the aid station to boot.

The next chunk of the race was a bit uneventful; these miles kinda just slipped by, along with aid station 4. We finally ran into another pair of pals course marshaling before the split to head out along the powerline trail, bright eyed and optimistic. We’d run this trail by accident before, not realizing it was actually part of the course. It had been pouring rain that day, in contrast to the blazing sun spilling over the undulating path ahead of us, visible snaking infinitely into the horizon. With no concept of what was about to happen to us, we plodded off in decent spirits. We got to the point in the course where we saw everyone ahead of us passing back and coming back; the quantity of ‘way to go’, ‘looking strong’, and ‘good work!’s that were offered to increasingly bleak-faced compatriots ticked up and up, punctuated with bursts of more heartfelt excitement when we saw faces we recognized charging back towards the finish line. It was during this trudge that I was asked by a physically unflagging Elise, ‘what do you do when the mental game goes south? Asking for a friend.” I realized I was deeply lucky to not be too deep in a psychological rut despite the never ending uphill trudge we were on. The answer to that question is that there really isn’t an easy way to force your way out of it when you have that much race left to run. I let my brain empty itself out and start offering me its very questionable Pandora channel, flicking between songs whose places in my brain I couldn’t even begin to explain. Sometimes it kinda works, but more often you just kinda hang out there and then it shifts. And soon after that conversation, the uphill trek shifted back downhill and the passers by in the opposite direction began to say, ‘you’re nearly there!’ with a sincerity that was not to be questioned. Two course marshals with more enthusiasm than an entire high school cheer squad were all the confirmation we needed before we turned the corner to the shouting and a massive “Swift Kelce 2024” flag. 

When I say that Aid Station 5 was a transcendent experience, I am not exaggerating in the least. I hadn’t been so excited to see more people I knew since the last time I’d seen one of our friends on course and the taste of the Sour Patch Kids and peach rings I ate out there will never be matched by any other candy experience in this world. I had no idea how far the power line trail went on before I got to that point, but finally could rest knowing that it did in fact have an end and that we could now spend the next few miles floating back downhill. Which we did, but maybe a little bit more stiff than graceful, filled with candy and lifted spirits. Spirits that were light enough to muster up a jump-for-joy when we ran past the course photographer again. Spirits that were ready for the final push to the finish line.

The final section of stairs before the finish line was definitely an insult but was certainly less than the 200 stairs that were described at the pre race briefing. At the top of the stairs, I caught sight of my husband parking his motorcycle (or doing his best to in the busy labyrinth of the Sasamat Lake parking lots) and remarked that he wouldn’t make it down before us as we made the final descent towards the lake, looking out onto the beach and holding back tears as I said “we did it, we made it!” to Elise. We dodged the children on the beach as we traversed that final gauntlet to cross the finish line together, hitting Gary with that double high five and reuniting with all of our run club friends.

While this was one of the less intensely-trained-for ultras I’ve completed, it was by far the most fun one I’ve done and mentally the strongest I’ve had. An emotional redemption of this distance, and an unforgettable experience with a beautiful friend. There is nothing quite like sharing months and miles together working toward a goal, and getting to cross the finish line with someone who knows exactly what it took to get there. With our sparkly face gems intact, we finished as the kings of pain, and also ever festival-ready.

#fitblr #fitness #runblr #running #exercise #ultramarathon #forest #nature #woods #trails #race report #trail race #race #marathon #trail running #trail run #outdoors #trail

[therunningphysicist]

Last big weekend of training is a wrap! It's officially taper time 🙌

PS - I think I'm gonna lose my first toenail 😬

#my runs #trail running #Amy runs an ultra #personal #running #ultramarathon

[everythingaboutbiotech]

5 Key Lessons from book "Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance"

These five lessons are following:

🧠The Central Governor Model

The central governor model proposes that physical exertion is regulated by the brain to avoid bodily harm. This model suggests our perceived exhaustion is the brain limiting exertion to prevent reaching dangerous physical limits.

💪Ultra endurance Athletes Defy Expectations

Ultra endurance athletes compete in extreme endurance events lasting 6+ hours. Their capabilities defy conventional medical wisdom about the limits of human endurance. Studying these athletes provides insight into how the mind regulates physical exertion.

👁️Mental Fortitude and Perceived Effort

An individual's mental fortitude and perception of effort plays a huge role in physical performance. The brain interprets and regulates signals from the body, so factors like motivation and focus impact endurance capabilities.

🔥Heat Acclimatization Expands Limits

Heat acclimatization allows the body to exert more in hot environments through cardiovascular and sweat gland adaptations. This demonstrates the elasticity of the human body's limits when faced with extreme conditions.

👨‍👩‍👧Genetic and Biological Factors

Genetic, biological and physiological factors influence, but do not fully determine limits. The complexity of regulating exertion indicates there are opportunities to expand limits through training the brain and body.

Follow @everythingaboutbiotech for more informative stuff.

#self help #self improvement #endurance #humanlimits #ultramarathon #heatacclimatization #centralgovernormodel #perceivedeffort #mindovermatter #motivationmatters #expandyourlimits #mindbodyconnection #mentalfortitude #genetics #biology #physiology

[runnermd]

Unreal morning #running #trailrunning #ultrarunning #ultrarunner #runnersofinstagram #runnerslife #runnersofinstagram #instarunners #runnerlife #marathon #marathontraining #halfmarathon #halfmarathontraining #marathoner #ultramarathon #themarathoncontinues #marathonrunner #bostonmarathon #chicagomarathon #berlinmarathon #lamarathon #halfmarathoner #marathons #minimarathon #ultramarathontraining #parismarathon #marathonrunning #fullmarathon #marathonmonday #chimarathon #marathoners https://www.instagram.com/p/CoZv9fALvI3/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

#running #trailrunning #ultrarunning #ultrarunner #runnersofinstagram #runnerslife #instarunners #runnerlife #marathon #marathontraining #halfmarathon #halfmarathontraining #marathoner #ultramarathon #themarathoncontinues #marathonrunner #bostonmarathon #chicagomarathon #berlinmarathon #lamarathon #halfmarathoner #marathons #minimarathon #ultramarathontraining #parismarathon #marathonrunning #fullmarathon #marathonmonday #chimarathon #marathoners

[deweydecimalchickens]

SHE DID IT SHE DID IT SHE DID IT!!!!!!!!

With only one minute 39 seconds to spare, Jasmin Paris is the first woman to finish the Barkley Marathons!

THAT WAS VERY TENSE!

#Jasmin Paris #ultramarathon #Barkley Marathons #BM100 #My queen #The sheer bloody grit of the long-distance runner

[woolfpuppy]

BIL (bro in law) ran an ultra marathon this weekend and What A Delight.

It's just the most fun and human feeling to support someone doing something difficult.

Some stuff I want to remember:

the race director talking to the 100 runners at 6am: Alright, we love you all. Thank you for being here. There was one beaver spotted yesterday- very unusual to see! No bears or mountain lions in the last day, but they're out there. Three moose- the bull moose is of most concern, so if you see him in the path the next move is yours.

Jorge made boat sandwiches and they were delicious

Having the perfect (large) vehicle to haul around my friends and supplies for the day

S took so many sick pics (love the bottom left soooo much)

After 8 hours 4 of my cousins came up and joined us and it was a great boost of energy and morale

BIL married into my fam which is large and midwestern and v connected and sometimes I think it's kind of overwhelming, but then the flip side is stuff like this where cousins come out to support you and it's v nice

#personal #ultramarathon #family #cousin culture #colorado

[warrior-monk]

Finished my first ultramarathon today! One word... PAIN.

#fitblr #fitness #fitspo #motivation #running #marathon #ultramarathon

[telichintraining]

Couldn’t cram more trail miles into a 200 acre or so park if you tried. Ran the Forgotten Trail Race through Forest Hills Park that encompasses both Cleveland Heights and East Cleveland. The park is part of the old John D. Rockefeller estate. A group called Running Forward, Giving back put on the race to raise money for improvements. It’s an historic and beautiful area with meadows, cool water features, tiny single track trails with roughly 750 feet of climbing over the course of one 8 mile lap. I ran the course with my dog Scarlet. Neurosurgeon Dr. Richard Schlenk helped put on the race. One could run 50 K , 25k or just do one lap.

#trails #fitness #ultramarathon #running

[beastcoasttrailrunning]

Because the world doesn't have enough foot and toe videos...

#ultrarunner #runner #ultramarathon #beastcoastrunning #bibravepro #running #bibchat #trailrunning #Foot #Feet #Toes

[gymneska]

#girl #running #runner #fitness #ultramarathon #fitspo

[dirtanddistance]

Running and Identity: or, Coming Out to Your Road Runner Family as a Trail Runner (TW: eating disorder)

From the outside, running looks like a fairly homogenous pastime. It's not until you really get into things that you realize that 'running' means a number of things to different people, and what your running life looks like can change dramatically over its lifespan.

Going home to be with my family for the holidays put this into stark relief for me. I started my running career (?) as a very humble road runner. I had no speed to speak of, and would ensure that remained the case for years (thanks, anorexia) before realizing that maybe I could run some zippy times after all. Growing up in Florida, the opportunities to participate in 'trail running' are few and far between, and those few times contain a cumulative zero feet of vert. Running on a trail back home felt like a bad reprise of a cross country meet (in fact, my first ultra included sections of the old high school district meet route). And all of this was just fine with me. I had a mom who had gotten me into running who was an avid PR seeking machine who I've had to talk off a cliff when her times slowly stopped getting faster as time went on, and has offhandedly told me after a track meet that I just 'didn't look like I was trying that hard' at the end of my 1600m PR. Running on flat, fast courses and always reaching for a faster time was the standard; even if you never competed against anyone else, the clock was there to prove your progress or lack thereof. It didn't occur to me to question any of it. It would take years of experience and months marinating in a more active ultra community to realize that it didn't matter that my second 50k was over an hour slower than my first, not for the least reason because the terrain profile was completely different. This was the running world that I, my brother, and my husband (important side characters in my running saga) inherited.

With that background, you might imagine that morphing into a trail runner was quite the transformation. While it wasn't fully intentional, I wanted to run another ultra (see https://www.tumblr.com/dirtanddistance/727596212894793728/squamish50-race-review?source=share), and where I'd moved (British Columbia), that meant your race was gonna be on some actual trails, with some actual mountains thrown in for interest. Never mind the fact that my first trail run ended with me in actual tears at how hard running uphill was, I was determined to do it, ego about my pace be damned. I quickly learned that doing a trail race entailed less running than road racing, and, in my amateur case, significantly less pace consciousness. It was time consuming, and exhausting... and more liberating than I ever imagined going for a run could be. It reminded me of a conversation I had when I ran into an old (and very fast) track teammate in the local Target after we'd graduated, and he said he was savoring running as many ten minute miles as he wanted. I'd grinned and agreed - there was a joy and freedom in not having to be fast anymore. Trail running is that feeling, multiplied by a thousand.

Imagine trying to explain the ocean to someone who had never seen it before - they know that oceans exist, but they've never even seen a picture of one before. That is what trying to explain an alpine trail race to a Florida road racer who hasn't run much anywhere else is like. The responses you get are the spectrum you'd imagine. There are some who hear your description and find it completely captivating. Your mom, nursing a knee injury and accepting that her fastest times might be behind her, asks you if you don't have to worry about how fast you run at those races. You tell her no, you don't, because none of them are the same, you can't compare 50k to 50k in a lot of cases, and even then, to you they're so challenging that completing them feels like enough of an accomplishment. She smiles and says idly, 'that sounds nice, not thinking about how fast you're going'. You agree, realizing that life has enough pressures and arbitrary benchmarks and you don't need to be adding to them in your off time.

Others hear about it and it sounds like a foreign religion. Interesting perhaps, but not for them. For good reason; if trails aren't convenient for you, or you are starting to get really fast at road races, there's joy and senses of accomplishment to harvest in those fields. You can run slow up a hill later, after you've assured yourself that you can actually run a 20 minute 5k, or qualify for Boston (or not). Not everyone has that potential in them, but you'll never know if you don't try. I think about the road marathon I signed up for with my brother, wedged between this season's big trail races, and both wince at the though of pushing myself to run 'fast' and grin at the chance to get back to where this crazy journey started - can I run that far? And once I can, can I do it faster? Trail running is really just an extension of those questions - can I run THAT far? Can I run UP that far? Inside any runner, road or trail, is a quiet voice which asks them to see what they have in them.

Transitioning over to trail runs from road racing felt like a rebellion against the neurotic constraints of the sport I have come to love, but in writing this, I've come to the conclusion that it's actually just a transmutation of the same drive that was there from the start. The 17 year old blasting Florence + The Machine on her iPod under the canopy tent at the track meet before a second to last place finish at the 3200m is the 21 year old bumping FloRida in the car to the 5k, where she'd PR in the 5k and 50k in the same week, is the 30 year old zoning out to The 1975 on local trails and having nightmares about Matty Healy before every trail race that year, and all of them are just a manifestation of summoning the courage to, in the words of my sleep paralysis demon himself, 'give yourself a try'.

#fitblr #fitness #runblr #running #ultramarathon #forest #exercise #nature #woods #trails #road racing #contemplation #life