Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, Nov 7 | Ultrarunnerpodcast

Oh helllllll yes. Zach Miller added to the North Face Championship list. Round two of this epic dual between he and the Mormon Marauder Hayden Hawks.

Women’s preview is equally compelling with some serious talent up front. My pick: Megan Roche.

To prepare for a 100-mile ultramarathon, I figured walking in the woods all day long and hauling out backpacks full of pork was the perfect training for the race.

—Perhaps not the traditional training regimen, but I appreciate his multi-tasking ethos.

Planning a big adventure and want free gear from Orange Mud? Check this out.

Anton, Foote, Nikki, Clare, and others answer the basic FAQs about Skimo. I still laugh at the first time someone talked to Scotty and I about it during a podcast and Scotty thought it was a type of music.

NYT: Has the running bubble popped? What will 2018 bring for road races, and more specifically, trail and ultras? Question: Are there more small races or more purely-for-profit MUT races in your neck of the woods?

Someone’s got a strong opinion about mandatory gear at ultramarathons. I do too. The number one aspect I love about this sport is the emphasis on self reliance, and mandatory gear checks in races detract from that in every way possible. Simple solution: I don’t enter races that have gear requirements. Currently it’s races that exist on the outside of “normal conditions for an ultramarathon” that have requirements, but soon event insurers will want every mom and pop 50k to require runners to carry pants, a poncho, and a freaking whistle.

Sarah was on this podcast recently talking about life and running.

Report from a tough ass fatass in Colorado.

Mario’s musings on NYC Marathon.

While we’re talking about marathons, let’s check in with the Kawauchi Counter.

Ashley Nordell sets new FKT on the 165 mile Ozark Highland Trail in Arkansas.

Then there’s this dude, who’s thru hiking from Argentina to Alaska. Whoa.

I recorded a compelling interview with Patrick Reagan yesterday. Stay tuned…it’s a good one!

13 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, Nov 7 | Ultrarunnerpodcast"

Ling says:

November 7, 2017 at 7:41 am

Of the 18 men they profiled on the irunfar preview for North Face 50, how many would you say is on PEDs if you had to take a wild guess? I’d say…4 of them.

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  November 7, 2017 at 7:48 am
  
  I wouldn’t venture to guess or assume. That wouldn’t be fair.
  The only think we know for sure is that Pat Smyth has (had?) a questionable TUE from the Nike team doctor.
  
  Reply
  1. Ling says:
    
    November 7, 2017 at 8:46 am
    
    I always had a bad feeling about that guy!
    
    Reply
Ben says:

November 7, 2017 at 8:21 am

I’ll predict Miller, Hayden, Smyth, and Freriks take it out hard. Two of them can’t hang but two battle until late. The winner comes from that group.

Reply
Sabine says:

November 7, 2017 at 8:41 am

Speaking for Germany, we also do see large shifts here. In Roadrunning, some smaller Events already went out of business, whereas the big ones (e.g. Berlin Marathon) continue to thrive.

In the off-road section we traditionally have a lot of small mountain runs (sometimes more precisely hill runs) that are cheap, small and were around for years. Now more and more trailrunning events take over. Often more or less on the same paths as the old events, it seems that you can earn more money by simply calling a mountain race “trail run”. And by the qualification point system of UTMB et al. we also see more trailrunners opting for the races which provide ITRA points. Example: While the servers crashed when the application for the Eiger Ultra Trail started, because more than 1000 runners tried to register within the first hour, the Zugspitz Ultratrail, offering 5 different courses and distances comparable to those of the Eiger Ultra Trail, is still far from being sold out. Eiger Ultra Trail is an ITRA member and offers qualification points for UTMB, while the Zugspitz Ultratrail discontinued to offer UTMB points.

I guess while we saw a huge growth of trailrunning during recent years, we now will see a consolidation period ahead. Hopefully quality and diversity will remain.

Reply
Des says:

November 7, 2017 at 10:42 am

I started ultra running in the US and then moved back home to NZ. I did UTA100 this year and was astounded at the amount of crap we had to carry, including a freaking firestarter and matches. This race is one of the larges ultras in the world. There are literally thousands of people on the course which is not mountainous or remote. I kinda moaned about it a little but found I was very much in the minority. Most think along the lines of the guy in your link. Australia in particular is very strict, the country is even more litigious than the States. I prefer the US approach to racing, Hardrock doesn’t even have a mandatory gear list! But, at the end of the day, if you want to enter a race you gotta follow their rules, I don’t have a problem with that.

Reply
1. Alan says:
  
  November 7, 2017 at 1:16 pm
  
  This guy has some funny ideas sometimes. Like the time he surveyed his followers about doping and asked if we’d used a banned substance during a race. Five percent of us responded yes, even though he never separated weed from epo etc. So that time he called 1/20th of his followers nasty names for getting high at races I wasn’t even running to compete.
  
  Reply
  1. djbleakman says:
    
    November 7, 2017 at 1:27 pm
    
    Hey Alan and Des I’m that guy, nice to meet you both. With regards to mandatory gear here in Australia, yes we do have some pretty strict regulations and most are imposed upon race directors. We had an incident a number of years ago when four runners were severely burned in a bush fire during a race and that changed the game for everyone, mainly due to an organiser who shall we say was left wanting somewhat. So that’s the deal I’m afraid with mandatory gear.
    
    As for drugs in sport, well again, attitudes are different in different countries. Australia, unlike some states in the US hasn’t decriminalised the wacky backy yet, and last time I checked, it was still on the banned substance list… did I call people nasty names? Not really in my nature buddy… hope you weren’t too offended 🙂
    
    Reply
Zach says:

November 7, 2017 at 11:38 am

Wasn’t Nick Arciniaga on the record as being an entrant at TNF50? Curious why he’s absent from the iRF preview. Either way, looks like a hell of a race both women and men.

Reply
djbleakman says:

November 7, 2017 at 1:35 pm

Yeah I agree with you in many respects Eric… if you don’t want to carry the gear, go off and do another race or run on your own. I do think the best form of understanding your own abilities and judgements is to make those judgements yourself and to learn. BUT… trail and ultra running is a growth sport and with that comes large swathes of people who are now running and haven’t taken the time to understand what it is they need to take with them. Australia is a pretty conservative and regulated country and the attitudes of our Parks Authorities are to be risk-adverse and look at every potential liability – that is just the inherent nature of the country we live in. It’s not race directors being arseholes, it’s just them playing by the rules. We may agree or disagree with the gear lists of some races, but this is just a fact of life down under and ultimately we have to respect that. People who choose to ignore it are placing race directors in an impossible position as a result of their own selfishness. That said, there are plenty of race here in Australia where gear requirements are very low, such as a water bottle and snake compression bandage. Thanks for the share mate and keep up the good work.

Reply
Arvid says:

November 7, 2017 at 2:03 pm

Regarding the mandatory gear, the ‘freaking whislte’ might just have saved my life a couple of years ago when I went off course, in the dark, in the mountains, and another runner heard my whistle, and blew his own whistle, until I managed to find my way back to him and the trail. If ONE of us didn’t have that useless piece of mandatory gear, I would have been in real serious trouble. You never think you will need it until you do ( and it might be someone else you are saving, not just yourself).

Reply
1. eric schranz says:
  
  November 8, 2017 at 4:37 am
  
  First, glad you’re OK.
  Using the “it might save my life one day so it should be mandatory” model is a slippery slope I don’t think fits into our our sport.
  
  Reply
  1. Arvid says:
    
    November 8, 2017 at 11:24 am
    
    Yup, I hear you and agree for the most part, but for me, I have a small zip lock bag ( about the size of an 8 track, like that doesn’t date me) that has a whistle, compass,matches, space blanket, emergency poncho, 1 gel,1 cliff bar, very small flashlight and light cap. It weighs next to nothing and goes with me on every trail run. Didn’t even open it this season, but I would never go without it,race or not.
    
    Reply

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