Ultramarathon Daily News | Fri, Mar 4

What’s up in trail running and ultramarathon races this weekend?

iRunFar: UTMB, ITRA, and others ban Russian and Belarussian athletes from competing due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. I understand and fully support banning state sponsored federations, but individual athletes, many of whom speak out against the Russian belligerence? Doesn’t sit well with me but open to discussion.

Ultrasignup/Yanko: Ten ultramarathons you might not know. This post is definitely a sign of how popularity has changed for races. Miwok used to be such a huge race with top flight entrants and national (if not international) buzz around it. Now it’s considered iconic but obscure.
So what happened? Why the focus away from Miwok? It didn’t change hands or have any major RD issues, so how and why does our collective focus and interest wane from events?
(Great list, by the way.)

Kevin Beck unloads on David Roche’s coaching philosophy and wokism.

Well, yeah, I suppose losing an arm to a damn hippopotamus is pretty good training for Marathon des Sables.

Lia Thomas interviewed in Sports Illustrated Magazine. Meanwhile, Lia’s female teammates have been brow beaten and threatened to not speak up for themselves. Still, silence from those who regularly speak out about misogyny.

Trailrunner Mag: Using AI to come up with new trail names. Pretty funny article.

Wanna go viral? Run a half marathon while wearing ninety one shirts.

16 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Fri, Mar 4"

Doug R says:

March 4, 2022 at 6:37 am

David Roche is one of the finest people in the trail running and coaching community. I do not know him personally but have listened to his podcasts and appreciated his training articles for a long time This is one of the most dickish attack’s I’ve ever seen, because obviously someone is a thinly disguised alt-right troll with obvious pre-conceived notions, and an abrasiveness that belies the fact that the writer has probably never known the touch of a woman.
There are so many tells of what a sick mind state Beck has in his article. Repeat strawman attacks on “wokism”, sniping comments about Roche’s writing and use of the words ‘specific moment’, and straight up bs inaccuracies such as:

“Zooming back a bit from the specifics, my favorite part of the piece is Roche warning against rip-off artists (“anyone who says that there is a one-size-fits-all answer is about to ask for your credit card number”) while himself linking to his own paywalled article for Trail Runner—one inspired, like the one I’m reviewing, by Bakken’s freely available PDF.”

Just yesterday, I hit a paywall on David Roche’s 200 mile training plan. What do you know, before I emailed the dude, who is super cool and would’ve given it to me, I found it for free on his website. Beck – what you did in this piece was despicable. While people like Sage Canaday can have a constructive argument, you’re coming from a toxic place in this article, and it speaks to someone that has a lot of anger inside. To attack someone on several personal levels because you have an anti-trans opinion (I agree they have an athletic advantage, fine), speaks to an unhealthy mind.

Read David Roche’s work, and read the rantings of this toxic raging boomer, and you decide for yourself, is David Roche one of the best coaches and podcasters out today, or an ideological tyrant on a wokism quest. What a joke.

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Mike Schowalter says:

March 4, 2022 at 7:04 am

I’m beyond disappointed by UTMB, ITRA, and AJW (backer of their decisions – see his Twitter account) to ban athletes for holding a Russian passport. Many of these individuals are our neighbors, living in expat communities, and likely are very against this war. What the UTMB and ITRA did is like a restaurant refusing to serve individual Russians or Belarusians. Refusing to serve delegations from those countries I get. But let’s not start discriminating against ordinary people because of where they are born. ITRA and UTMB are on the wrong side of history here. And my opinion is coming as someone who called Ukraine home for more than two years. It’s been a devastating war to watch, with a lot of friends in hiding, fighting, or watching helplessly as their families face the consequences of Putin’s delusion.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  March 4, 2022 at 2:50 pm
  
  I agree.
  
  Reply
KS Petty says:

March 4, 2022 at 7:06 am

I can’t tell if Beck is primarily criticizing Roche or criticizing people who align with Roche’s writing. I don’t know how this is news, nor how it contributes to productive dialogue. Furthermore, I don’t know why he cares to amplify grievances he has with how other people live their lives.

When I read David, one takeaway is that he’s a positive, supportive guy. Even if he’s selling dreams I don’t have, I’m never offended. My takeaway when I read Beck? He is arrogant, bitter, and angry. His points are undermined by his fierce desire to be crowned king of the moral high ground.

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Will says:

March 4, 2022 at 7:24 am

“He can go on endlessly linking himself and his theories to great promise while offering no suggestion in all of his meandering that he has done anything besides read a lot and talk to his own reflection.”

Is Beck aware that David Roche is one of the most successful trail running coaches in the game? Whatever you think about DR’s politics, the performance of his athletes speaks for itself.

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1. eric schranz says:
  
  March 4, 2022 at 8:16 am
  
  “Whatever you think about DR’s politics, the performance of his athletes speaks for itself.”
  
  Agree completely.
  
  Reply
Ben says:

March 4, 2022 at 8:24 am

I’d love to see objective stats to back up claims that David’s coaching has contributed to his athlete’s successes. Are we cherry picking the elite level athletes that sought him out who were already elite or objectively comparing before and after results across his entire clientele?

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Zoë says:

March 4, 2022 at 8:59 am

It’s pretty disappointing to see this ad hominem attack on David shared. Any attempt at an argument is undermined by how overtly personal and petty that piece is. The trail community is better than this, and I hope we can all move away from bad-faith attempts to undermine someone just because they share a different perspective. He’s a fantastic writer and coach who writes about difficult topics with nuance and compassion. I’m grateful for his impact on my life, and our community every day.

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Nicolas Delon says:

March 4, 2022 at 12:39 pm

What a disgraceful piece. Beck is one of the most uncivil (to put it kindly) members of the community. I’ve said it already and I’ll keep saying it again. Kevin, please get help.

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Scott says:

March 4, 2022 at 9:09 pm

Beck’s attack on David Roche is not only ugly and mean-spirited, it’s displays an astonishing lack of self awareness. He slams Roche for bad jokes, purplish prose, and long-winded commentary — all in the course of a rambling, 4,000 word piece that contains cringe-inducing dreck like this:

“And while I’m sucking my own dick—which I am, albeit tentatively and with protesting neck and back muscles; though neither Shakespeare nor a credentialed science whiz, the stuff I and other long-departed hobbywriters produced makes today’s class of running pundits look like victims of chronic bath-salts poisoning—I’d like to see more stories like this one and this one, where a writer tags along with a Kenyan road-whore for weekend or trains with a couple of soon-to-be-Olympians for a couple of weeks.”

I won’t be giving Beck any more clicks. I’ll take Roche’s giddy cheesiness over his toxic gibbering. Sadly, the only outlet that seems to take his stuff seriously is this one.

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Pete says:

March 5, 2022 at 3:26 pm

I can’t make sense out of your question. Hayden Hawks was having a rough time with races before he “sought him out” and then he started winning again. Is that “cherry picking” to you? One data point is not meaningful but the data you’re asking for is not reasonably obtainable nor is it relevant. Obviously if his methods weren’t working, his impressive portfolio of elites wouldn’t stay with him.

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Colin Chapell says:

March 6, 2022 at 7:45 am

Eric,
I really appreciate how you push me past my own bubbles with articles and perspectives that I haven’t thought about before. While I may not always agree, I do always appreciate that you start the conversations and keep people honest. It’s in that light that I’m not really sure why you link to Kevin Beck’s blog. I’ve read quite a few of the articles that you’ve linked to him and each time I come away wondering what the draw is. He seems out of spirit with what you so often do and encourage. Beck attacks with a viciousness and completely destructive spirit to his writing. Ad hominim attacks, impugning motives, and crass/foul writing without reason seem to characterize much of what he writes. While I know it’s completely up to me not to click on his links (and I’m going to be making the choice not to), if you’re comfortable, I’d love to know if I’m missing things that you see. I’m happy to learn, but having trouble seeming the redeeming qualities to his writing at the moment.

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Jacques says:

March 6, 2022 at 1:55 pm

There are only links to 2 sites that I refuse to click on in the URP news, which are LRC and Beck. I find both to be extremely toxic, immature, and inane. The link description to Beck’s rant and the comments here reinforces my decision. While there is occasionally some good content on LRC, the negativity of the boards overrides any benefits I can derive from the content.

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Rishi M says:

March 6, 2022 at 7:17 pm

In a 202 article Roche wrote: “Two athletes. Same age, gender, body dimensions. Same speed, VO2 max. Same job, stress levels. Together, they start the same high-volume, high-stress training approach.
What happens next?
One athlete improves massively, winning big races all over the world and the adulation of arenas full of dozens of fans. One athlete regresses massively, suffering health crises before quitting the sport entirely.” There are lots of us who worked with him who are in that second category…

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Ben says:

March 7, 2022 at 3:50 pm

Pete – yes, using one data point like Hayden would certainly be cherry picking in my book. Hayden is still up and down if we look at things objectively. Just like the vast majority of us. Is Hayden trending upwards though I guess is an important question? Show me the data, even qualitative, that can be attributed to Roche’s coaching and I’ll concede on this one athlete.
More importantly though how many elites have stuck with him? How many have not?
And why the focus on elites? Why can’t we also compare results before and after for his mid packers?
I’ve seen his training protocols first hand. It’s definitely a scale-based approach. Some succeed and some don’t.
There’s no judgement in my comments as his positivity is clearly something many folks are attracted to and that’s his brand. It’s a good way to live in this crazy world.
I just cringe a bit when we use anecdotes in place of data if that data is attainable.

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Pete says:

March 8, 2022 at 9:08 am

Ben, you can listen to Hayden Hawks’ post JFK50 course record conversations and hear where he credited the Roche system for getting him back on track. No coach is going to freely publish the type of data that you’re looking for, across all athletic capabilities, so that is a dead end. I agree with you that anecdotes don’t make a case but in many provider-client relationships (doctors, attorneys, PTs, hairstylists, contractors, etc.), it’s track records, testimonials, referrals, and repeated engagements that provide success indicators, and the Roche system certainly has those.

Reply

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