Ultramarathon Daily News | Monday, August 5
Your guest contributor today is Pete Kresock, back again to serve up a healthy Monday dose of ultramarathon goodness.
The weekly rundown from Justin Mock/iRunFar. At age 55, Rupert Romero continues to run strong and outlast some solid competition at the AC100.
It’ll be exciting to see Jim and Killian go head to in a sub-ultra distance next weekend. No doubt Killian, with his six wins, has the edge at Sierre-Zinal, but this will be an exciting race regardless. While the media eye will mostly be on these two, there’s loads of U.S. and European talent on the men’s side, including Max, Sage, Andy Wacker, and Matt Daniels. Admittedly, I’m not too familiar with most of the top women names. Can anyone fill me in?
Ultrarunning is perhaps the only sport where competitors can defy age and compete with athletes much younger than themselves. Sharon Gayter, also age 55, just broke the women’s fastest known time from Land’s End to John O’Groats, running 800+ miles north to south across Great Britain.
More FKT news: For those of you following along, fellow guest contributor Laura Parson just bested the supported FKT on the Collegiate Peaks Loop, according to her Facebook post. Congrats Laura!
A local paper did a nice profile on my friend Scott Parr. A father of five with a full-time job, Scott’s been running ultras for only two years but has quickly excelled in the sport and won his 100-mile debut. He’s also one of the most humble and selfless runners you’d ever meet and an incredible ambassador for the sport.
Insane footage from this past weekend’s Tromsø Skyrace, complete with straight-up scrambling, precipitous ridgelines, and butt sliding down the side of a mountain. This looks more like OCR than a trail race, and it’s no surprise that Jonathan Albon took the win. It’s great to see Brittany Peterson back in action (after her close second at Western just over a month ago) taking fourth for the women.
LA Times: Why we’re flocking to OCR and ultramarathons. Pretty good account from a non-endurance sports publication, and kudos to the writer for not once using the cliché descriptor “grueling.”
The health benefits of watermelon. Maybe this is pop science, but watermelon has always been my go-to food at aid stations.
Today’s news was again compiled by guest contributor Pete Kresock. Pete lives and runs in Ithaca, NY, where he works as an x-ray tech at a college health center. Pete blogs about MUT running at runningthegorges.blogspot.com. Find him on Twitter and Instagram: @UltraRunnerPete.