Ultramarathon Daily News | April 1, 2019

Justin Mock/IRF: All the trail and ultramarathon results from this past weekend.
-The women’s race at Georgia Death Race looked awesome, but according to this report, there may have been some unintentional wrong turns up front that drastically changed the course/outcome. Not sure how much RD Sean Blanton knows, but it’s an unfortunate thing to happen at any race, particularly one with Golden Tickets on the line. Hope it gets figured out.
Here’s our interview with 2nd place Liz Canty and while we’re at it, here’s out chat with 2nd fella Morgan Elliot.

World XC: Footage from the IAAF World XC Champs in Denmark make it look awesome. Now the big question…Will the event use the momentum from this year and look for an equally exciting course and format not year??? I hope so.

And here’s what makes our sport so different from road racing: Everyone starts at the same time on the same line, leaving the door open for a non-elite to win the race. With very few exceptions–and none at the top tier–the elite field can fall apart and some guy or gal who’s been working hard and running smart can stand atop the podium at the finish, earning ~~$100k~~ a belt buckle and a probably a beer for their effort.

Anton: Anyone notice this? 30 miles on trails at 7:44 pace…in the snow…with road shoes…and no gel or water?

Sorry: Portland State track headed to California for a track meet, stop for a bite in the Bay Area, and asshats break in and steal their spikes.

Fast Women: Alison runs down all the female-centric results from track, XC, road, and MUT from this weekend.

Beer: Is there anything it can’t do? Dogfish Head creates beer that can develop Super 8 film. No, this does not appear to be an April Fool’s Day prank.

Kevin Beck: Pretty solid rant mixed with biting commentary about the state of our society. How much does fame and notoriety drive us, and how much are we willing to exploit things to get what we want? Included as examples: Dean Karnazes and Suzy Favor Hamilton.

Politics: Laz and Blake Wood announce their bid for a presidential run.

Personal/TMI: I’ve been struggling with energy, kids, and time on a vegetarian diet, so a few days ago I started introducing meat (chicken and fish) back into my diet. No big changes, except I’ve been horrendously (enter every synonym for stank right here) gassy since then, and I’m assuming it’s because of the diet change. Anyone else experience this lovely side effect? When will this go away?!?

26 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | April 1, 2019"

James Jones says:

April 1, 2019 at 6:01 am

Re: GDR turn situation – do we have any Strava detectives who can analyze the flyby data and identify how big of a diffence it makes?

From seeing the course first hand, my guess is that it made little to no difference, but would love to see an actual analysis.

Also – the blog post is incorrect in that the flagging was on both sections of the trail (not just on the section the author took). You could either continue straight or take a right. The majority of people went straight.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 1, 2019 at 6:51 am
  
  I believe Flyby data exists. I wasn’t there, but by my read of her report, the section of the course that was unintentionally cut had some significant vert.
  
  Reply
Michael Emerling says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:18 am

From the flybys it looks like the vast majority of runners that uploaded to strava took the correct course. The difference was probably around 4-500 feet of vert at most. No more than 10 minutes time difference.

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Matt hawkkns says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:22 am

Feel like if a race is a golden ticket race (and western states qualifier), that there should be a certain level of oversight to ensure the golden ticket winners truly earned their entries and that course cutting by other runners is addressed. Recently did the course changed Bandera 100k and there was ample opportunity, if non-elite runner, wanted to dramatically shorten the course they could. It’s evident when I look at the results , there was some definite outlier finishes. Unfortunately they are some dishonorable runners out there and there always will be.

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scott says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:28 am

1.1 vs 1.5 miles, with the 1.5 being the eventual winners. However, as described, the people who were offcourse didn’t hit Payne or Gregory Knob.
It seems cut and dry if you went offcourse you don’t get the ticket. Especially if that exact spot had been mentioned in the prerace meeting.
Is Sean friends with all the podium finishers (not counting the Swiss)?

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 1, 2019 at 7:31 am
  
  Let’s not make those accusations.
  I’m having Sean on the show today to talk about the results and other things.
  
  Reply
scott says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:42 am

It came across bad but I meant it as an honest question that is potentially relevant to the topic since standard protocol for an RD who is aware of an issue mid-race would be to address it with the finishers at the end (at the latest).
And despite the persona, the Sean races I’ve done (including GDR) have all been organized well and executed professionally. This would be an outlier.

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Henry Bickerstaff says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:46 am

Eric,

Personally I am a big meat eater but listened about this Company on Freakonomics podcast and found it interesting. It might be the meat substitute you need. https://impossiblefoods.com/

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Michael E says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:52 am

I don’t think there was anything intentional here. I think it was a group that was rolling along and made an honest mistake. I also don’t believe that it had an impact on the eventual outcome.

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Leslie says:

April 1, 2019 at 8:05 am

The flyby for the Death Race shows that they were only 3 to 4 minutes ahead of her when they met back up with the course. And like someone else already said they did more distance. Although it’s hard to see it looks like they also did some climbing even though not as much. They then arrived at the aid Station 3 to 4 minutes ahead. This wasn’t drastic. More negligible considering how the remainder of the race played out. iIf she had finished near them then she would definitely have a case but considering this was early on in the race and they continued to gap her by quite a bit, it seems fair to leave the results as is. But I’m glad I’m not the one who has to make that call.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 1, 2019 at 8:13 am
  
  I sit squarely in the “everyone runs the same (and correct) course or they’re DQ’ed” camp. Intentional or not, and regardless of leads, it’s a—THE—basic tenet of this sport.
  
  Reply
Todd says:

April 1, 2019 at 8:51 am

The kid in me wanted one of the XC runners to hit that berm at the bottom of that hill while making motorcycle noises through it

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Ramon says:

April 1, 2019 at 9:02 am

Ha …. the gas thing is interesting. I wonder if its low acidity which a daily dose of apple cider vinegar could help with? Known to help break down and digest protein better and generally good for gut health.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 1, 2019 at 9:34 am
  
  I’ll speak for my wife: “Yes, Eric will try it. Otherwise I’m throwing his ass out.”
  
  Reply
josh says:

April 1, 2019 at 9:23 am

I’m a DNF back of the packer, but only one other runner in my strava flyby group stayed on correct route. I do remember this area and was able to turn a female runner around, two others continued on.

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scott says:

April 1, 2019 at 10:33 am

Something to note with the GDR Stravas is that the top male did the course correctly but all three top women went off course. The woman whose blog was referenced would/should be the winner.

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Matt hawkins says:

April 1, 2019 at 1:05 pm

I agree with Eric S’s stance. If you didn’t run the marked course, then it’s a DNF. If we’re playing the hypothetical card, what’s there to say that if the runners ran the marked course that they skipped, they could have turned an ankle or tweaked their knee in that skipped section. You either ran the course or you didn’t. Period.

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Steve says:

April 1, 2019 at 1:45 pm

There are only 6 rules listed on The Georgia Death Race Website for the race. #1 is no cutting the course. Intentional or not I do not see how the results can stand as is. What is the point of rules if they are not followed? I know it is a tough decision for a race director to make, but in my opinion, the only right decision is to award the runners who followed all the rules and ran the actual course.

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RBC says:

April 1, 2019 at 5:18 pm

It’s interesting that opinion appears to be so aligned with the sentiment that any off-course running results in a DQ, regardless of whether the deviation was material. This hasn’t always been the case. Rob Krar acknowledged going off course in his first win at Leadville several years ago, and the response was decidedly more mixed.

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MH says:

April 1, 2019 at 5:40 pm

Re: diet

That’s pretty normal. Your microbiome hasn’t had to process meat in a while. The bacteria that would normally break it down has shrunk in population. Suddenly getting food will cause some unpleasantness while the ecosystem adjusts. You should be sorted out in about a week assuming periodic meat consumption.

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Matt says:

April 1, 2019 at 5:45 pm

Can you explain how this incident is different from Xavier’s clear rule violation at Hardrock last year? Your response to that incident was “Lots to ponder here…could a different penalty have been handed down?” (https://ultrarunnerpodcast.com/ultramarathon-daily-news-monday-july-23/)

As always, I appreciate you sharing your perspective on this stuff and respect your right to an opinion!

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  April 1, 2019 at 6:10 pm
  
  Some ruled have no gray area…following the course is one of those.
  
  Reply
Michael E says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:35 pm

To me purposely accepting aid outside of an accepted area is worse than accidentally cutting the course. So are all rule violations not equal? If you’re in favor of dq for one shouldnt you be in favor for all? The funny thing is that I fully supported Dale’s decision, and I also almost fully support Sean’s. I don’t envy the people that have to make these decisions.

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Mikda Hueh says:

April 1, 2019 at 7:40 pm

Kudos to the women who ran the correct course. It shows carelessness in the flagging if so many runners batched it.

Despite the old section being a tad bit shorter in mileage those two climbs (Payne and Gregory) do make it a lot tougher and show off the full DRT. That’s why the course was suppose to be ran that way.

Not sure if it made a huge difference in the result but it could have easily been avoided with adequate markings.

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Ramon says:

April 2, 2019 at 2:07 am

I can identify with that … upshot is it sounds normal and there’s quite a bit out there on people’s experiences when re-introducing meat, e.g. https://www.collective-evolution.com/2017/11/27/what-happened-when-i-started-eating-meat-again-after-6-years-without-it/

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Dean says:

April 2, 2019 at 2:11 am

RE: Anton Lycan is a mountain running shoe. But impressive nonetheless.
https://www.sportiva.com/lycan.html

Reply

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