Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, July 2

Koop/CTS: Why strength training will not make you a better ultramarathon runner.

Iron Mike: While most eyes were on Western and Lavaredo, Mike Wardian was setting a new record around the Washington Beltway.

Merrell: Yes it’s an advertorial, but it’s got some decent information. Only issue I have is putting Barkley in the same category as Spartan Trail races. (Fun stat: Barkley’s entry fee is 8% of what Spartan charges family members to watch the race.)

Meeeoooww: Montana trail runners and MTBers…be careful out there.

More on High Lonesome 100’s new entry policy. If the goal is to make two equal races (male race and female race) that run concurrently, then awesome. I really want to see more women racing, this is a great way to do it, and I expect other races will follow.

A few weeks ago I wrote about YouTuber Logan Paul challenging any other YouTuber to a race for $100k. The responses to his tweet were overwhelming (I dared him to race Nick Symonds in a steeplechase) and now he’s putting on a track meet–with big money–next month. As Mario smartly pointed out in his Morning Shakeout, how is it that some asshat kid can put on a well-funded track meet within a month, but the T&F organizing bodies can’t figure it out with far greater resources, time, and experience?

WS100 stats are in and despite plenty of carnage, the race saw the highest percentage of finishers in the modern era. The favorable weather certainly played a role, but what are the other factors? Better access to training information? Gear? More competition in qualifying races?

I’ve got a pretty great group of people who’ll be curating and compiling the Daily News for me when I’m gone: Different geographic regions, different viewpoints and different perspectives. If you’d like to help compile the Daily News, shoot me an email with DAILY NEWS in the subject line and I’ll get you on the calendar. Thanks so much everyone.

SCMP asks if elite runners should be required to carry the same mandatory gear as everyone else. (My opinion: No one should be required to carry anything, but I leave those rules up to the RDs.)

Magness: Did you just have a breakthrough performance? What now? Push harder to the next level, or ease off the throttle a bit?

AT FKT: Kristian Morgan joined Karel Sabbe during his FKT last year, and now Kristian is trying it himself with a goal of 40 days. Here’s his ~~SPOT~~ tracker.

Industry: Well this’ll be interesting. The former head of USA Triathlon is now leading the Iditarod which has had it’s own share of problems. Hope he’s able to bring the event back to where it once was. And yes, there’s a Susan Lucci reference.

Interesting: Nike pulls the plug on an American flag shoe, so Arizona Governor pulls the plug on corporate incentives for their new AZ factory. Who do you think will blink?

14 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, July 2"

Patrick Krott says:

July 2, 2019 at 7:28 am

Western States finish rate will continue to trend upward as it becomes more and more difficult to get entry into the race. People know their chances of getting in are already slim, and they’re less likely to half-ass their training and effort.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  July 2, 2019 at 7:35 am
  
  I think you’re right.
  
  Reply
David Nowaczewski says:

July 2, 2019 at 7:43 am

Hopefully neither. Nike should stand its ground and taxing authorities need to stop subsidizing corporations.

Reply
scott says:

July 2, 2019 at 7:54 am

Heads up, the High Lonesome article you linked is just a clickthru ad site. It just copy pastes other articles to its site to steal revenue.
Here’s the actual article:
https://www.womensrunning.com/2019/07/news/a-races-new-policies-target-gender-equity-and-inclusion_102661

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  July 2, 2019 at 8:53 am
  
  Dammit. I updated the link.
  Thanks for the heads up.
  
  Reply
scott says:

July 2, 2019 at 8:04 am

Re: Kristian AT record and Inov8

““The AT mountain terrain is notoriously tough on shoes, with the rough ground shredding outsoles and most runners using 10 pairs or more. Our pioneering rubber outsoles infused with graphene – the world’s strongest material – will give Kristian the toughest grip and the best chance at achieving his goals in fewer pairs of shoes.””

I get that this entire thing is just a publicity stunt fro their point of view, but this is suuuuuch bullshit. That is just blatantly lying.

Reply
Pete K says:

July 2, 2019 at 8:53 am

Kristian Morgan was recently on the Pain Cave podcast to talk about his FKT. It’s good listen, with a lot more detail than the inov-8 link. https://www.gunksrunner.com/paincave/2019/6/13/episode-39-assault-on-the-at-with-kristian-morgan

Reply
Todd says:

July 2, 2019 at 9:34 am

I dunno if you’ve ever used any products that contain graphene, but it’s pretty awesome stuff
It’s been in bike tires for years, and they’re infinitely superior to ones I’ve tried without it

Now, will these miracle shoes be the end all, be all FTK killer?
This dude could probably do this challenge with a bucket of Chuck Taylors and fend just fine

Reply
Clinton Zirk says:

July 2, 2019 at 7:47 pm

I think Western States finishing rate will trend consistently upwards as you require year after year of qualifying races to stay in the lottery. That leads to a lot more experienced runners racing it.

Reply
Doug says:

July 3, 2019 at 6:38 am

Bro, please don’t bring Logan Paul into my happy place!

Reply
Nick says:

July 3, 2019 at 12:18 pm

Good grief! The High Lonesome lottery is not “fair”, as if there is a gender disparity in the percentage of lottery applicants, there will be a gender disparity in the likelihood of entry into the race. For example, if 75% of the applicants are men and 25% are women (which is approximately the reality for the High Lonesome, according to the article), a 50/50 split in entries means it is three times as likely that a woman gets in through the lottery as a man. If the lottery were blind to gender, you would expect 75/25.

Quoting the article:
“We have historically a 20 percent female entry rate. We wanted to think about why this is happening and what we could do as race organizers to close that gap,” Banaszynski said. “We came up with a lot of ideas, but the 50/50 was the most immediate splash in the bucket we could be making.”

I think fairness is always a good goal. I’m just trying to understand how a biased selection mechanism enhances fairness. Fairness, to me, means equal treatment. You know, you all throw your number in the hat, you all have the same likelihood of getting in – no one has hard feelings, except toward chance itself.

To others, it seems that fairness means equal outcomes – which is baffling, as it requires never-ending tinkering and bias to engineer. What about single fathers caring full-time for their kids? Should they not get a similar leg-up in the lottery, especially compared to married women who at least have a partner to help shoulder the burden of child-rearing? What about people with jobs that only give them certain vacation availability, like seasonal workers, such that they can only run certain races?

I like to treat people like individual humans with their own challenges and advantages, most of which cannot easily be known by the labels affixed to them.

Reply
gunksrunner says:

July 4, 2019 at 2:42 pm

Thanks for the plug, Pete! Both you and Kristian were really fun guests. Kristian’s got a great outlook and I think a real shot at the FKT, hoping to join him for a day when he’s in NY.
https://www.gunksrunner.com/paincave/2018/12/5/episode-29-epic-adventures-with-pete-kostelnick

Reply
Luke Bateman says:

July 5, 2019 at 8:58 pm

@Nick – You are essentially setting up the 1970’s philosophical debate of John Rawls vs. Robert Nozick. Rawls would argue that a certain group (women, in this case) was less represented in the lottery because of certain difficulties that adversely affected that group, while Nozick would argue (your point) that applying selective criteria discriminates against other groups (men, in this case) who as individuals likely had no involvement with any past situation that led to the situation in question.

We will all have our own views about which of these brilliant minds is correct in this case, but more importantly, we should all be able to agree that the RDs of High Lonesome are private operators who are free to choose for themselves, and whatever they decide should be final.

Reply
Nick says:

July 9, 2019 at 9:34 am

Luke,

I’m not Rawls or Nozick. I’m Nick!

More importantly, your statements are not exclusive: I actually believe women are less represented because of certain adversities, and also believe selective criteria discriminates against other groups. It doesn’t seem like either of these factual statements are at odds.

If you want to minimize the amount of discrimination in the world, adding more discrimination is a loser strategy.

But I agree with you – the RD’s absolutely have the right to appear discriminatory.

Reply

Please use real name. Anonymous comments will be deleted. Thanks. Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.