Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, Nov 5
I’ve spent a significant amount of my morning perusing through pics of “concealed outhouses”, vomit, religious “virgens”, lost animals, and random trashcans, all methodically curated and categorized on Rickey Gates’ latest website everysinglestreet.com.
IRF/Nichols: Do you have a mantra for when things get tough? New IRF contributor Alex Nichols writes about the importance of self talk right this way.
Newsweek: You’re running on the trails in beautiful Monterey, California, and you feel something in your eye. A freaking worm falls out, then another. Turns out it’s a bunch of parasitic Cattle Eye Worms. This is nightmare scenario stuff, right?
Backcountry.com trademarks the term “backcountry” and goes on litigation frenzy against anyone who uses it. I’m not familiar with the details, but it certainly seems like they created an unnecessary amount of drama for themselves. The story has similarities to the guy who trademarked “Grand Slam of Ultrarunning” and threatened to sue anyone who used it. That story is here.
LetsRun: XC geeks, what do you think about this? State meet takes top two teams, then top ten individual qualifiers not from those teams. Five of those individual qualifiers were from one team, and they ended up with the low overall score. Did they win the team event? I don’t have an answer, but I love the idea and the passion of the girls.
Didya listen to our latest interview with Sabrina Stanley? She overcame a LOT to stand on the podium at the technical and competitive Diagonale Des Fous…you’ve got to hear her whole story.
Japan Running News: Top Japanese Yuta Shitara makes it clear he’ll forgo the 2020 Olympics for a fat payday at Tokyo Marathon, saying this:
“That’s my priority. I’m running it for the money. The MGC Race didn’t have any prize money, and I’m living right now because I can run. It takes money to run.”
To put that in a bit of MUT context, watch as our community deals with these sorts of issues in the near future. Spartan has plans to buy up established trail/ultra races next year, and it’s my understanding they’ll come along with decent paydays–substantial payouts in a few instances. When those dates and races intersect with existing prestige races not offering prize money (WS, HR, Leadville, JFK), will athletes choose a buckle and small win bonus from their sponsor, or will they go for the big payday like Shitara is doing?
We interviewed Gary Allen a long time ago about some of his big runs in New England and my fascination with one of the races he directed, the Great Cranberry Island 100 miler. Then he planned a new race that he hoped would bring people to a freezing town in Maine that’s experiencing some serious economic woes. No entry fee, but instead, he asked runners to spend their money locally. Year two is coming up and the great experiment seems to be working. Cool story!
Yahoo: Turns out running is good for you and will help you live longer.
How fast is Kipchoge? A whole bunch of runners met on a track and ran individual relay legs of 200m to try to best his time.