Ultramarathon Daily News | Valentine’s Day Edition

Remember a few years ago when Kelly Agnew was popped for cheating by hiding in the outhouse near the start/finish at multiple ultramarathons? Apparently his dishonesty wasn’t limited to sports.

Parodies are especially funny when they really nail a specific element of truth. Read this about this old guy’s marathon training and you’ll see what I mean..

Jim may have his hands full with Run Yanqiao this weekend. He’s a fast trail runner (also with HOKA) who’s been focusing on the roads for the past few months. Sound familiar?

Does an “uplifting” song translate to motivation on the trail? If so, science says you should be listening to this song by Queen. ( FWIW: I’m pretty sure that Freddie burned more calories in one live show than we burn in a 50 miler.)

This was an interesting one for sure.  I’ve suffered in races before, but I don’t recall ever going into the depths like I did at this one and coming back with multiple strong sections in between… In fact, in these long events, with so many variables, most of them won’t go perfectly well–or even reasonably well.  Far from it.  But there is something empowering in knowing that you can survive–maybe even succeed–even when it seems like everything that can go wrong does. 

–-Dr. Jay’s report from Rocky Raccoon. Great read!

IAAF is planning on testifying that Caster Semenya is a biological male unless she takes t-suppresants. Such a tricky issue that has no answer that’ll appease everyone.

Or maybe not. IAAF denies that they’ll testify that she’s biologically male.

First time I’ve heard of it: Maxi pads in shoes to dry out feet during a race. I’d think they’d shred after awhile, right?

Excellent post about Magdalena Boulet and he background. Here’s our most recent interview with her.

For the ladies: Running with the Red Badge of Courage. Scotty and I interviewed Maggie Akyuz back in the day and she shared her story of having her period during her first hundred miler.

The USATF dumpster fire continues to burn bright.

Kenyans taking up sport of inline skating. Awesome! I skate during spring/summer and can’t think of a better x training regimen for running. h/t Adharanand Finn.

Western States RD Craig Thornley tweeted yesterday that the race will award five ITRA points this year, down from six last year. Apparently it’s based on the distance between aid stations, but that hasn’t changed since last year. Not sure many people pay attention to the ITRA points.

Trendy recovery tools don’t work. Or they do. Both.

Gabi wrestles with the identity of a “runner” and whether that’s a static label. I think most of us have been there.

Are you the type of person who just wants a list of things that’ll make them a better runner? This is for you.