Ultramarathon Daily News | Tuesday, Oct 16
Walmsley and Krar going head to head at a 100k in Hong Kong in February, then Jim’s prepping for marathon trials. Jim gets the nod for leg speed, but not many people can grind up hills like Rob. This should be good. (edited: It’s a 100k, not a 100 miler.)
Running Run Rabbit Run next year? Bookmark this page from Andrew Skurka...he provides updated course maps, gpx files, and everything else a good geek needs.
More on the “end of the season.” Do you think our sport has a season? Sure there are events every month of the year, but fair to say that we’re a spring/summer sport?
“I am very consistent which is something I am very proud of,” he says. “I think my biggest piece of advice is to not force it. If you don’t feel like going long, don’t. If you don’t feel like going hard, don’t. It’s OK to adjust your training schedule. Like life, running is a very up and down sport. I have years that I don’t run well, whether it’s due to injury or other things are just taking precedent. You just have to keep powering through. Down time is important!”
—More on Jim Sweeney, his running resume, and his recent 13:09 at Hennepin Hundred right this way.
More on that in this excellent piece by David Roche. Running is going to suck sometimes, and that’s OK. There are ways to adapt. Ultimate goal: Figure out why you’re having a good day running, then keep doing that.
If this guy were ever on URP and I asked him in the fartlek round what his scariest moment was, I suppose a good response would be “that time I was attacked by a grizzly bear, then I got sprayed in the face by bear spray and was totally blind, broken and bleeding for five minutes, not knowing where the angry sow was and when she’d attack me again.”
New 24 hour treadmill record set: 264km (165 miles) by Norwegian Bjørn Tore Taranger. (That’s 8:43mpm pace.)
Very cool! The first runner to get signed to Nike with CP went to my high school!
–I’ve been a fan of the Japanese distance scene for a long time and here’s another reason why. Check out this post that shows a comparison between their Hakone Ekiden qualifier and our D1 pre Nationals teams. The D1 course was 8k with some rolling hills. The Japanese course was 13.1 miles of net uphill. Here’s the kicker: Their tenth place guy had a faster pace than our 1st place finisher. Of course, the Ekiden runners were going for time while the xc were going for team scoring (place), but still…if the D1 winner could have sustained his pace for 13.1 miles, he would’ve finished in 14th place. Wow.
Gabi interviews Gina Lucrezi about Trail Sisters’ mission and future. I like reading about how other people in this industry make a living and about what it took to go full time. I also like that Gina doesn’t complain about any specific, overt barriers to female participation in the sport, but instead focuses on highlighting brands that actively support participation by all and avoiding brands that don’t.
And remember to bookmark Gabi’s page…she’s writing consistently good stuff.
More on Iron Mike’s recent FKT on the C&O Canal Path. Is there anyone in the ultramarathon world who has anything close to his resume of records and accomplishments? If so, who?