Ultramarathon Daily News | Wed, Jan 15

Treeline Journal: Mario Mendoza sets new treadmill 50k record.

UltraRunning Magazine: Get to know JFK champ Seth Ruhling. Anxious to see him at Lake Sonoma and Broken Arrow, but curious to know how he’ll do under pressure.

Industry chatter: Lauren Fleshman joins team Salomon.

The Times UK: Some Nike technology may be banned. I still haven’t seen a source mentioned, nor have I seen any mention of which shoes are being considered, so I’m taking all of this with a grain of salt. But what are we talking here? All carbon plates? Large stack heights? Just the Vapor Fly? So what if the rumors are true? The records will stand, but the shoe will be banned while World Athletics tried to figure out how to write a rule that prohibits technology? We’ll have shoe cops at races?
My guess is that this will not move forward and that the shoe will continue to be used and set records.

UK Daily Mail: Kipchoge responds to shoe drama.

John Kelly still leads The Spine, but UK’s Jayson Cavill is chasing him down and made up a lot of ground last night. Sabrina Vergee still leads the women with Brits holding the top six spots.

Gear Junkie: Rhonex Kipruto smashes the new 10k world record by 14 seconds, clicking off 4:15 pace.

TrailSisters: Seven important lessons for the injured runner. We’ve all been there.

Here’s how Ismael trained for and completed UTMB, making him the only Egyptian to have ever crossed the finish line.

Endurance Sportswire: And here’s all the data and metrics for the massive UTMB entry pool.

Let’s talk about UTMB and Western States, the two events that are each simultaneously described as “the Super Bowl” or “the biggest” or “the strongest field” of any trail ultramarathon in the world. I’m West Coast based, and if I asked 20 of my friends what was the most important race to win, I’d bet half would say Western States, while the other half would say UTMB.
And I’d guess that North Americans would overall skew towards The Big Dance, while most Europeans would skew towards the race in Chamonix. So what is the most important 100 miler to win? Which is most important on a running resume?

Blog on Running addresses something I’ve thankfully never had to deal with: Nipple chafing.

AJW says:

January 15, 2020 at 6:17 am

….and the winner of the easiest question to answer ever is….Eric! Western States of course!

eric schranz says:

January 15, 2020 at 6:39 am

That’s what I think too, but obviously have some North American/CA bias. I wonder what the overall feeling is if we polled MUT runners from across the world. And I wonder what sponsors would say.

Sabine says:

January 15, 2020 at 7:18 am

Spine Race: Jayson Cavill had to take a DNF at the last checkpoint, which is 26 miles to the finish – due to injury.
So it comes down to the question: Will John Kelly finish (looks focussed, but the cheviots have destroyed a lot of runners) and will he beat the overall course record of Jasmin Paris (83:12:23). In order to do that, he has 5:08 for 26 miles. A marathon in 5:08? Should be a piece of cake for John Kelly – but it’s the brutal Cheviots and after 240 miles of racing through cold and mud.
I’d rather guess that Jasmin’s course record will stand.

scott says:

January 15, 2020 at 10:18 am

To me, it feels like annually the most important win comes down to competition for that year. The last three years of UTMB have felt different each time while States has been strong during the Jim era.
I also feel like a 5th at UTMB goes further than a 5th at States. The non-podium spots matter more. We are still very USA-centric and it doesn’t really feel like you’re beating the world at States as much as you are beating the course. Maybe States is the Super Bowl and UTMB is the Olympics.
Is it that States doesn’t have the right sponsors to force the Euro or Asian racers to commit to competing here? It would be really wonderful to see the new Chinese runners or recent top Euros come over.

Luke Bateman says:

January 15, 2020 at 1:05 pm

If the question were phrased “would you rather win the most competitive mountain hundo or the most competitive runnable hundo?”, I’d take the former. The CR at each is formidable, and Francois ran 10:44/mi for the UTMB record vs. Jim’s 8:29/mi at WSER. However, that cougar statue would look really nice in my den…

eric schranz says:

January 15, 2020 at 2:33 pm

I struggled with how to phrase the question and agree with you completely. I’d be curious to know what sponsors are most interested in highliting about their athletes. What plays best across the globe?

Gary says:

January 15, 2020 at 7:23 pm

A tiny bit of perspective on the WSER v. UTMB question…In 2018 I ran the West Highland Way race in Scotland, which is a quite well known race over there. It is held on the same weekend as WSER. I honestly can’t remember anyone talking about WSER.

Nicolas says:

January 16, 2020 at 5:23 am

Gary, exactly. Nobody talks (cares) about Western States in Europe. A regional track meet for old white dudes more important on a resume than the largest and most competitive 100 miler in the world?

Tom says:

January 16, 2020 at 6:22 pm

Not much thought required on the Top 100 miler to win, UTMB. The level of competition has so much more depth that Western States. I imagine the gap will only continue to grow as US races face continued lottery and permit issues that limit the size and depth of the “elite” field.

TMB says:

January 16, 2020 at 6:58 pm

UTMB.

Ultramarathon Daily News | Wed, Jan 15

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