Daily News and Calendar, Fri, Oct 10

Paul is one of the nicest, jovial guys I’ve ever met…and he’s one hell of an RD in New Zealand. I had no idea he struggled with depression, but I’m certainly glad he’s found a rad way to deal with it.

Here’s an awfully funny story about the Arkansas Traveler 100. Not a race report, but more more a story.

If you heard Ethan’s interview about his first hundred in ten years here, check out his story here.  So the lesson? Don’t try anything new on race day or you might barf up olives on your wife’s feet.

Didya see our review of the four big Montrail shoes? Tara gives the FluidFlex 2, Bajada, FluidFeel 2, and Fluid Balance a few months of trail runnin’ trials and reports back.

Jez Bragg writes about trail running for HuffPo UK. Cool!

How do you recover? Whatever distance, I force myself to run 2 miles and it usually helps. You?

What was the most popular sport of the 1870s-80s? Check out this podcast on pedestrianism.

Ellie tries out the Alter-G treadmill. Those look like so much fun.

Kinesio is suing Kinesio Sports Lab.  Does anyone still use that stuff? PTs, what do you think?

Really great Spartathlon report from Akyut, a URP listener, AND the race’s first Turkish finisher. Akyut finished both UTMB and Lavaredo Trail Ultra this year and picks Spartathhlon as his favorite (and toughest.)

If you’ve been following along with Sherpa John’s “how to be an RD” thread, today we’re on Race Day. Always interesting stuff.

When you have a minute, check out the diverse list of events going on this week in the ultra world.  How many activities can claim that amount of variation and still be considered the same sport? Trail, pavement, long, and longer, one from a brewery in a van, one from a brewery racing a freakin horse, from Maine to Hawaii and Montana to Florida, some are point to point, loops, out and back…

Wasn’t this Anton’s training schedule for most of 2008?

Let’s talk about blisters while running mountain ultras.

How about a new Five Questions? Meet Jill from Mass.  She’s signed up for a 50, but won’t be running it. Interesting…has that happened to you?

Jesse is a URP listener, recent TNF DNFer (d’oh!) and is working on a data science project that analyzes strava data and race results…then within training which methods are more effective.  He’ll then share that info with me and I’ll pass it along.  Click here and let him see your Strava data (public info only), will ya? I did it and it took me less than ten seconds.

 

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Weekend Calendar

compiled using ultrasignup and realendurance.com

• Skyline to the Sea 50k in SF Bay Area, CA.  Very popular race that looks like it’ll have great weather this year.
• Cumberland Trail 50k, a point to point on single track in Tennessee. Sounds beautiful.
• Peacock 50k/100k on the North Shore of Oahu.
• And on the opposite side of the country, the Farm to Farm Ultra. By the description, it’s one of the quaintest runs I’ve seen.
• The Bhatti Lakes Ultra. 135 miles in India on a tough course.
• Then there’s the Canyon de Chelly Ultra on Navajo Land.  Pics from last year were amazing.
• John Holmes Trail Ultra in Florida. I’m assuming it’s long and hard, right?
• The Tesla Hertz 50/50/100/100, a 10 mile loop on the Long Island greenbelt in New York. I can’t figure out the name reference though. Anyone?
• Man vs Horse 26.2/50k in east central California.  Held at a brewery, runners race horses on the trails for 26.2 miles.  Runners only for the ultra.  Yep, I’m fascinated.
• The Dirty Bird 12/24 hour in Tennessee on a 2.5 mile loop. Looks nice!
• Firetrails 50M in SF Bay Area, CA.  Another hugely popular race, this was started by Ann Trason back in the day.
• Can Lake 50/50 in upstate New York. The 50M is one big loop around a lake and has an incredible first-time finishers percentage.
• And say what you will about triathletes, but the Ironman Kona is legit.  Growing up, I used to watch and read about the epic battles between Dave Scott and Mark Allen and am still fascinated by the sport. Too much time and too expensive for me nowadays.
• New River Trail 50k in Virginia. USATF race, so probably some fast runners. Wardian running?
• Pioneer Spirit 50M in Cool, CA.
• Le Grizz 50M in Montana.
• Bizz Johnson marathon/50k in Susanville, CA. I’ve always wanted to run this…gotta sign up next year!
• Antelope Island 50/100k in Utah. Run partially on a lakebed, the description sounds like a fun time.
• Green Monster 25/50k trail challenge in Pennsylvania.
• And finally, oh yeah, the Bend Beer Chase. One van, a buncha friends, and running to eleven of the regions finest breweries.  Sounds dangerous.