Ultramarathon Daily News, Fri, May 12

Running ultramarathons as a newly-diagnosed type 1 diabetic. If you’re healthy and able to run, never take a day for granted.

Broken Arrow Skyrace is on! Snow, scree, prize purses, alphorns, and incredible views. Race management met with Squaw Valley officials and they’ve got a green light for next month. This is going to be awesome.

Comrades elite runners announced. Quick scan, I recognize Colleen de Reuck, Devon Yanko, Sarah Bard and Camille Herron. I’m not familiar with any of the fellas at first glance. Who should I be watching?

Though the term “marathon” is used incorrectly, guess how many days it’ll take to show every “Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood” back to back. Don’t peak.

Looking to increase your training mileage safely? Start here.

Increased mileage means increased hydration and nutrition. Here’s Camelbak’s current lineup of bottles, packs, and vests.

Chase realizes that finding and maintaining the parenting/training balance is much harder than any race. Dude, I understand. It can be done.

It’s hard to extract the part of yourself that needs to be looked after, when looking after yourself often means going for a run. At times, running is both my killer and my cure, my light and my darkness, my blessing and my curse.

Excellent essay about the mental health side of doubt, ultramarathons, self-confidence, and hard work.

Twelve favorite beer accessories. That IceMule backpack looks like the perfect crew/drop bag. Anyone tried it?

Oldie but goodie:

That awkward moment running near a friends house when you want to text them “hey, can I poop in your bathroom real quick?”

— Lauren Fleshman (@laurenfleshman) August 4, 2013

The LetsRun Academic Decathlon Team debates whether Walmsley goes sub 14 at Western this year. Good point: Is sub 14 on a possible snow course still “sub 14”?

Liza’s self-deprecating humor is spot on. That is confidence and strength.

How marathons and ultramarathons deal with the “finishing under your own power” issue. With thoughts from Thornley, Sage, and others.

Excellent: Seven ways to get your kids running. I’m struggling with this in a big way right now as Sunny wants to play soccer in the fall with her friends, but I’m afraid she’ll lose focus on cross country. I know, I know, let her make the decisions or she’ll be resentful, but dang, it’s hard.

Have a great weekend everyone. What are you running?

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16 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News, Fri, May 12"

Michael says:

May 12, 2017 at 7:00 am

I read a really good article on athletic scholarships, but the takeway was that in the race for scholarships, parents are asking their children to focus on one sport and play year round and it’s leading to: overuse injuries, flame out, and a DECREASED ability in the sport. Kids need to learn how to control every body part in different ways in order to later specialize their body in single sport movements, and then by having them do just the one sport, it no longer becomes “fun” and something to look forward to but becomes a job. As a father of a 4 year old, I’ll definitely do my best to lean her towards running, but will definitely be encouraging her to play sports like soccer to develop her athleticism even more, and then add in something like dance to help with her discipline and strength. (so long as she continues to be happy, she does all three now and loves them) Then eventually she’ll pick her own paths, my job is just to provide her with the opportunities.

Reply
1. SingletrackGuy says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 7:34 am
  
  With kids and running it’s a sticky situation. To excel you really have to run almost year round but you also want them to try other stuff. neither of my kids started actually “training” until they got into H.S. and I really don’t think they would be any better if they had started earlier. Until then they played soccer, basketball, baseball, etc. With a little Jr. High track (essentially glorified p.e.) thrown in. Lots of elite runners did not begin seriously running until high school
  
  Reply
2. Jennifer says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 8:51 am
  
  Good advice here. All I can say, Eric, is wait until she’s a teenager. You will wish you could go back to the things you’re worrying about now!
  
  Reply
  1. eric schranz says:
    
    May 12, 2017 at 9:56 am
    
    Wrong. SHe’s never going to be a teenager. I refuse to admit it. She’ll be going from about a fun and frolicking 9 year old directly to being an awesome 23 year old woman. #denial
    
    Reply
SteelTownRunner says:

May 12, 2017 at 7:14 am

David Gatebe who won last year, split 50 mi about 5 min faster than the official 50 mile WR.Reference

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Quinn says:

May 12, 2017 at 7:41 am

I would love it if you had some sort of callout for posts that are obviously just paid advertisements/endorsements.

When you post about non-running content, you preface it with “NUC”.

I’m sure your audience has some great suggestions, so let’s bring them out!

I’ll start off with:
GPtB: “Gotta Pay the Bills!”Reference

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 10:01 am
  
  Sometimes I use NUC, sometimes not. Pretty flaky with that.
  
  I’ll try a “sponsored” tag going forward.
  
  You’re not with the FTC are you?
  
  Reply
Jamie says:

May 12, 2017 at 8:15 am

Breaking 14 seems like a huge stretch. I guess I’m prepared to be surprised, but that is WAY beyond what he might have accomplished last year if he had stayed on course. So, the relevant question is probably just whether a CR is still a CR on a snow course. According to WSER’s treatment of Geoff Roes’ 2010 run, I think the answer is yes.

Reply
1. AJW says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 9:54 am
  
  Maybe, maybe not. The 2010 course where Geoff set the record was what is now called Snow Course #1 and has very little variation in distance/elevation from the Real Course. It was the 2011 course (Snow Course #2) that was, in many opinions, significantly “easier” and there, of course, Kilian did not break Geoff’s mark. Fortunately, Timothy Olsen put any debate to rest in 2012 when he set the current Course Record on the Real Course.
  
  And, respectfully, I think Jim was pretty close to 14 hour pace through much of the major checkpoints until the River Crossing. Of course, since nobody had ever gone that fast it’s hard to say what 14 hour pace actually is.
  
  Reply
Kara says:

May 12, 2017 at 8:37 am

Really great stuff today, Eric. Thanks for sharing.

About kids and running: I don’t know anything about your child(ren?), but a little story. My parents never explicitly encouraged running much, but when I was 8, they asked my sister and I if we wanted to try playing soccer. We said yes, and they supported us in playing and officiating soccer well into our teens.

My dad has been a casual runner for as long as I can remember. He’ll slip some during busy periods, but generally runs 2-3 miles a few mornings a week. No big fanfare–he would just get up at 6, stretch in the living room, and run down the road and back. He never made a big deal out of encouraging us to run with him, but the invitation was always wide open.

Growing up, I never felt like my parents were pressuring me to run, but I have always loved running. And now I’m training for an ultra.

So keep in mind that the soft touches do work too. 🙂

Reply
Rachel says:

May 12, 2017 at 9:37 am

Growing up, I had basketball teammates who were pressured into playing by their parents for several years. Looking back, I can see now that they didn’t play with joy, which probably explains why they all washed out by the time we were in high school. I’m not suggesting you would put that kind of overpowering pressure on your daughter, but I do think pressure from parents can take the fun out of it. And as my high school track coach used to tell me, “this is your free time. If you aren’t having fun, you’re doing something wrong.” (Lest you think that sounds lame, we won multiple state championships, so it’s not like we were goofing off every day. But we trained and competed with joy, and it was an awesome thing to be a part of.) this is a long way of saying I think it’s important to let kids find their own way with sports. I have a young daughter and like you, I’ve worried about what to do if she decides she isn’t into sports. (I’m less concerned about whether she becomes a runner than I am about whether she’ll choose not to play sports at all.) When I talked about this with my boss, who I consider a great mentor and who has grown children and is still an avid cyclist in his 60’s, he told me the best thing I could do is make sure my daughter sees me running and being active and how much fun and happiness I get out of all of it. That’s the way I’m going to approach it– fingers crossed it will work 🙂

PS- thanks for posting about this kind of stuff. as a parent, I really appreciate it.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 9:55 am
  
  I must’ve not been clear with my writing…ack!…I’m not pressuring her into running, I was just hoping she’d “follow my lead” and be into it more. She loves cross country, but is bored with track. Guess which of those are the same season as soccer? Yeah, XC. She wants to try to do both and we’ll see how that goes.
  
  Reply
  1. Rachel says:
    
    May 12, 2017 at 10:08 am
    
    For sure! And I didn’t mean to suggest that you are pressuring her… just recognizing how hard it could be NOT to do so when you really love something and want to share that with your kid. Honestly, looking at my post, I was probably writing more to myself than anyone else. Thanks again for posting about running/parenting “stuff.” And in terms of the XC/soccer double, kids are amazing little energizer bunnies, so I bet it would go well (And she’ll be the fittest kid on the soccer field too!)
    
    Reply
Brian says:

May 12, 2017 at 9:38 am

Thanks for sharing the post about the Ultrarunner with Type 1 Diabetes. As the parent of a child with Type 1, I wish more people had an understanding about the impact and challenges of Type 1 and the difference between Type 1 and Type 2.

If you are in the Sacramento area, check out the Coloma River Runs on May 20th http://www.colomariverrun.com/ This a great family friend event that includes burgers and drinks and benefits JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). My son with Type 1 has run the 5k for the past 3 years (since he was 6 years old).

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  May 12, 2017 at 9:52 am
  
  Living with it is hard enough, competing in endurance sports is even more impressive. I don’t have diabetes, but my late grandfather and long time friend do and I know how hard even normal days can be. I’ll miss Coloma this year unfortunately. I’ll be in Michigan Bluff. Have fun…and your son is awesome.
  
  Reply
Daniel says:

May 15, 2017 at 6:07 am

I could have used this at Dark Lord Day this past weekend.Reference

Reply

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