Ultramarathon Daily News | Thursday, May 31

The ultramarathon world has seen women dropping some serious performances over the past few years. Camille’s 100 miler at Tunnel Hill and Courtney’s Moab 240 win are just recent examples. Jade digs in to see if this is an overall trend or just a snapshot of a very special time. Do you agree with my assessment in the article?

I think Honnold would lose his mind as a competitive runner. He’d be glued to Strava and the FKT Boards and going after every record and KOM available.

Great saying and excellent points from Magness: Expecting easy makes things hard.

I realize some will take this as a violent affront to their humanity, but I think it’s pretty funny: Someone hacked an electronic road sign on an Ironman route to read “WARNING: AS*HOLES ON BIKES AHEAD.”

How to coach endurance athletes in a world of doping allegations and Instagram.

Good news first: I know why I’ve been tripping (literally, not proverbially) so much when I run on trails and can now be aware of it. Bad news: It’s an eye condition that’s slowly deteriorating my peripheral vision. Back to the doc next week for more tests.

In a related note…which shoes have the best toe protection?

Hakone anime? Is that what I’m seeing here?

More loss of faith in the LetsRun boards: This guy asks why Asheville, NC isn’t the ultra/trail Mecca of the (b)eastcoast, but never once mentions breweries.

It’s not a good reflection on our society, civilization, or species that the NPS has to start a campaign reminding people not to take selfies with dangerous wildlife.

Sven says:

May 31, 2018 at 7:13 am

“It’s dangerous. We’re up against thousands of pounds of cars and you got to stay as safe as possible,”

I find that sign about as funny as you’d find a sign that warns of trail announcers leaving after the top male finishers are done.

eric schranz says:

May 31, 2018 at 7:32 am

Chill out, Sven. It’s a sign. No one is encouraging anyone to mow down cyclists.

docreport says:

May 31, 2018 at 7:16 am

I’m glad I’m not the only trail tripper; but in my case I’m just a clumsy bad form running knucklehead. Hope all works out for you Eric.

Ben says:

May 31, 2018 at 7:53 am

I am a cyclist and trail runner. I agree, the sign hack is pretty dang funny. That’s a main reason why I enjoy trail running more these days, a lot of competitive cyclists are A-holes. Just sayin

eric schranz says:

May 31, 2018 at 8:06 am

You also seem to have a sense of humor. Thanks for that.

Tropical John says:

May 31, 2018 at 7:57 am

Your assessment (and Koop’s) is spot on. If you look at data with significant volume, you find that women are 10-11% slower than men across all distances. That would seem to be the physiological difference between the genders.

Historically, you will find a few outliers (Ann Trason 20-30 years ago, notably, which led to a lot of conjecture that women would do better as distances increase) but that’s what they are – outliers. The data simply doesn’t support Bearden’s theory. Camille Herron’s 100-mile WR is spectacular, but it’s right in line; at 12:42:20 it’s 10.8% slower than Oleg Kharitonov’s men’s record of 11:28:03.

JW says:

May 31, 2018 at 3:10 pm

Camille ran her record on trail instead of a track. A more accurate comparison is to Kouros’s road 100 world record, which is 7.3% difference. There’s a 5% difference between the men’s and women’s 100k world records, likely tailwind aided. Even Paula Radcliffe’s marathon world record is statistically the strongest shorter distance record. Anyone setting a world record is likely physiologically different, but seeing the gap close to less than 10% in ultras certainly raises an eyebrow. Is there some point where women physiologically catch or exceed men? Possibly. Jennifer Pharr Davis held the Appalachian Trail FKT (2,190 miles) until it was broken last year by Joe McConaughy, who ran D1 at Boston College. It took a D1 male to surpass a record held by a woman with no competitive running background.

AlwaysSeeking says:

May 31, 2018 at 9:26 am

As a cyclist I’d like to remind people that if you can’t laugh at yourself, I’ll do it for you. The sign’s funny, get over it.

Joann Helmus says:

May 31, 2018 at 8:45 pm

Hope your eye condition is diagnosed soon and treatable, Eric. My husband and I are eye docs and trail runners. We like your blog very much.

eric schranz says:

June 1, 2018 at 8:51 am

Thanks! I’ve got some serious Optic Nerve Drusen that seem to have grown rapidly over last few years. Can’t pass a field vision test to save my life.
(And yeah, I know there are no cures.)

Onward!

Ultramarathon Daily News | Thurs, May 31

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