Ultramarathon Daily News | Tue, Sep 15

Comrades might get pushed back later into 2021 due to Corona and travel restrictions.

What the hell, people? Some asshat cut the cable to the Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish for a second time.

Trailrunner/Roche: How to train for 200 mile races.

DumbRunner: Lab test reveal that local runner is actually a jogger.

This high schooler from Alaska has a 14:45 5k to his name and is the fastest prep runner in the country. Bummer his senior year is marred by the shutdown.

For so many hours, shuffling around that farm, I didn’t want to be doing, I wanted to be done, so that when I was done, I could say I did a thing. This is the opposite of the spirit of ultramarathoning, of distance running in general, which is in many ways about being “Out There,” caught up in a moment that divorces you from the world, from society, from anything other than self. Accomplishment happens in an instant. Accomplishment is awarded the moment the finishing is done. But being out there takes a long time, and if it is only done for the sake of accomplishment, then it feels like an even longer, more painful time. Our society offers up so much as reward, and yet rewards so little for the so-much of life.

–Holy hell, if you’e going to read one thing today, read this. Excellent and insightful (and relatable!) essay about the why of ultramarathon running. And how have I never heard of Farmdaze?!?

Newsweek: Hikers find a bear chewing on some human flesh near a campsite in the Great Smoky Mountains. Ack.

The social media outrage train picked up steam last week when a race announcer in the Czech Republic made an off-handed comment on the different body shapes between the pacemakers and the 1500m runners. My guess is that most of the hysteria came from those reading only the headlines and the social media freakout, but go ahead and decide for yourself, then decide if it’s worth the outrage.
Here’s the call (below) that was tweeted by Chris Chavez. Chris is a hell of an announcer–much better than the random guy announcing the race below–but I’m finding his relentless virtue signaling an unfortunate distraction from his otherwise great reporting and writing.


Here’s an article that calls into question the legitimacy and appropriateness of the call..
Here’s a post calling the outrage ridiculous and noting the prevalence of the double standards.
Here’s a post from ED advocate and author Lize Brittin where she writes that if we want to make real gains, we can’t lose our minds over tiny (and in my view manufactured) missteps like this.
Here’s a LetsRun thread on it. Some good points and of course some comments you’d expect from the LetsRun MENSA team.

So what do you think? Was this a major issue that needs to be addressed? And if so, does it help our sport? What will sports look like if we go down this path? Can we comment on what an athlete ate at an aid station or would that be inappropriate and “dangerous”? Since EDs are so common among men, can we comment on the size and shape of football players without it being “harmful”? Why would that be OK, but commenting (not mocking) the build of female runners is somehow verboten?

iRunFar: What’s Hillary Allen been up to recently? Looks like she’s living and loving life in France.

TrailRunner/Metzler: Should runners drink straight from streams? I’m one of those with an iron gut who’s never not yet had a problem. I’m pretty careful with sourcing water (El Dorado Creek? Hell yes), but something about drinking from the stream or waterfall helps me connect with the outdoors even more and I’ll take my chances.

I was bored on a run last week and started wonder if right or left-dominant footed runners have an advantage in middle/long distance track events. My totally and admittedly un-scientific mind figures that if you’re right dominant, you’d be stronger “pushing off” around turns, buy my wife (in a rare flash of willingness to entertain my silly whims) thinks that a left dominant footed runner would have a longer/stronger stride on the “inside” of the track. I posed the question on Twitter and Koop sent me this study that gets close to answering the question. Before I put this to bed, I’d love to see a list of 10k runners with a data point reflecting whether they’re right or left dominant. Maybe there’s a correlation, maybe there’s not. Whaddya think?

“Sweet Disgust” is something often used by athletes to rebound after a poor performance, driving passion and motivation to do better.

Yeah, I know it’s pop “science”, but I’ll take all the good news I can get right now: Saying “I love you” to your dog increases their heart rate by 46%.

Anyone ever tried this beer hack?

First day of “moderate” air quality in weeks! AQI is 87 and I’m heading out the door for a run and paddle before it gets bad again.

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I host and manage ultrarunnerpodcast.com, a site devoted to the Mountain/Ultra/Trail running world. We interview a wide range of athletes, conduct honest and extensive product reviews, and report on the daily happenings of the MUT scene.

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