Ultramarathon Daily News|Monday, August 11

Hello URP World! Wake up, it’s Monday and the daily news is coming to you hot and fresh, like that cup of coffee you are standing in line to buy while you gaze distractedly at your phone.

As always, Justin Mock and irunfar breaks down the week of racing. Admittedly, I haven’t read this because I’m putting it together on Sunday evening, but I’m sure he did a bang up job. Fingers crossed the link works.

A new race by Lazarus Lake? That’s right. Vol State has become too popular so he created a sister event that runs from Memphis to Georgia via Tennesee, Missippi, Alabama. The First Last Annual Heart of the South is June 18-28, 2020, it might be your best chance to get in on an inaugural Laz event.

Through hiking…a city? This article discusses an inspiring idea to get out and experience more of the areas where we live and work. Reminds me of Ricky Gates’ #everysinglestreet project. Warning – Outside Magazine alert.

A lot of us struggle with pacing and figuring out how hard to start or push throughout a race. This guy figured it all out for us.

Many of us like running with our dogs. Many of us like racing. Why not do both at the same time? Check out this article on Canicross. Anybody run one of these?

And lastly, a shout out and thank you to Eric Schranz for doing the daily news day in and day out, almost without fail. I’ve done three while he was away, and these are more work than they seem. Looking forward to having him back at the mic, and excited to hear what sort of stories and ideas came out of his time off. Cheers buddy!

16 Responses to "Ultramarathon Daily News|Monday, August 11"

Jay D says:

August 12, 2019 at 7:47 am

I’m just going to go ahead and refer to Walmsley as the second-place finisher at Sierre-Zinal.

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1. Sean Ranney says:
  
  August 12, 2019 at 8:01 am
  
  Sounds about right.
  
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2. Barry Luck says:
  
  August 12, 2019 at 9:26 am
  
  Agree’d!!!!!!!!! It was one heck of a run on his 1st try.
  
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Jay D says:

August 12, 2019 at 8:21 am

Very respectable showing by Sage Canaday this weekend, too. Nice to see – he’s been pretty open about his recent struggles, and an 11th place at that race and against that field is pretty damn solid.

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1. Barry Luck says:
  
  August 12, 2019 at 9:29 am
  
  You and I seem to be on the same page today. It is really cool to see Sage set a 5 minute PR and do it the right way.
  
  Reply
John D says:

August 12, 2019 at 8:52 am

The First Last Annual Heart of the South is now sold out. Dang that went quick.

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1. Sean Ranney says:
  
  August 12, 2019 at 9:15 am
  
  Well, sort of. This race came about as a result of a registration snafu where too many people were accidentally let into Vol State, so the “extra” people on the VS list get priority, and there is an opportunity for people who are on that waitlist/race to have priority for the new race. So I think it’s still being sorted out, and getting yourself on the waitlist gets you in the mix.
  
  Also, this year (2019) is the first year that the waitlist hasn’t cleared by the time Vol State started, so I suspect there’s a very good chance that with two races, anybody who wants to run will ultimately get the opportunity to do so. Hate to put words in Laz’s mouth but that’s how I read things.
  
  There’s been a lot of discussion on the Vol State FB page here, and Laz is pretty open about his thought process: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1385790011550289/
  
  Reply
Will says:

August 12, 2019 at 9:47 am

It’s all fun and good to pretend that Jim finished 2nd, but he was 3rd. The biggest European mountain race of the year decided to invite several runners with a history of doping, and the European fans seem to love the fast competitive races facilitated by this moral compromise. And from the perspective of a fan who does not race competitively, it is exciting to see people run ridiculously fast in the mountains.

Was the steroid era good for interest in baseball? (Short term yes, long term probably not)
Was Lance good for pro cycling in cycling? (Probably yes both short and long term)
Will the doping era be good for European mountain running? We shall see…

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SCottieB and Tucker says:

August 12, 2019 at 12:17 pm

I’ve not entered a Canicross event, but there are some trail ultras that allow dogs. I ran with my dog in the Oregon Coast 50K last October (Rain Shadow Running allows dogs at a few of their events), the Antelope Island 50K last March, and the Orcas Island Trail Festival marathon distance. We were the only dog/human entrants at Orcas, so I had his photo taken on the podium at the end. We were also showered with swag after my dog finished second at Antelope Island (I think other dogs must have dropped out because I am slow).
My dog was always on a leash except for parts of the Orcas Island run when we were close enough to a pond so he could soak (it was unusually warm). I started at the back of the pack for each run and tried hard to be cautious when moving up from there. Oregon Coast and Antelope Island offered drop bag service, so I could have small packets of food for the dog at each stop.

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1. Sean Ranney says:
  
  August 12, 2019 at 3:47 pm
  
  How did other racers react? Any comments, from them, good, bad, or indifferent? I love having dogs around but have on occasion gotten tripped up during runs, wondering if a race atmosphere exacerbates that at all?
  
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Nick says:

August 12, 2019 at 7:46 pm

Are people implying that the second place runner was still doped or that he will never ever deserve any place even after his ban because he did cheat in the past? The argument for why his second is place is undeserved isn’t clear to me absent evidence of actual cheating. If rules are rules then his ban should not last forever.

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Eric says:

August 13, 2019 at 12:26 am

Thanks Sean. And big thanks to you and the rest of the news team for the past month. It’s a lot of work, but it’s also a lot of fun to dig up fun and interesting stories about this silly sport. Like training, you get in the groove, do it day in and day out, and it becomes a good habit.
Thank You again.
Heading home in a few days and can’t wait to get back to writing and recording.

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James H. says:

August 13, 2019 at 6:42 am

What happened to Laura Parson’s post from last Thursday 8/8/19?
Why was it taken down?

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SCottieB says:

August 13, 2019 at 12:23 pm

Sean Ranney – Nobody complained to me about my dog during or after the race and I’ve gotten no feedback afterwards from race directors. Of course, that is not to say we were universally accepted and loved. During the run I approached all interactions as if the other runners absolutely did not want a dog on the trail and I did everything I could to avoid dog to human contact unless the runner obviously engaged my dog first. Tucker is part Golden Retriever and loves people, so I did have to stay on him to not greet every runner. The funny downside of that was he came to expect we would instantly pass anyone we came up behind. I bet I said ‘Tucker, Slow!’ about a hundred times during each race.
I am not fast, so my interactions were with mid to back-of-the-packers for the most part, and maybe they were more forgiving and tolerant? I did feel some anxiety at the fact that I would pass folks going into an aid station and then because feeding the dog took some time those runners would leave ahead of me and I would end up catching some of them and need to pass them again. It know it can be a momentum killer to have to stop or move over to let someone pass you, especially when the trail narrows or becomes more technical. Each encounter then became this calculation of Should I try to hang back and not pressure them until it’s easier to pass? Is it more annoying to them to hear a runner and panting dog behind them that I should push and pass? I found myself saying both ‘thanks’ and ‘sorry’ when it happened. That’s the same without a dog, but having a dog means I should err on the side of caution and not trigger dog hate if I can help it.
On the plus side, there were plenty of people who were happy to see a dog out there and did let me know. A guy doing the 50 mile distance on Orcas came up to me after the race and thanked my dog for giving him a boost when he was going through a real low point. That was nice.

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Wade N says:

August 13, 2019 at 3:40 pm

Perhaps the Laura Parson’s post disintegrated due prolonged contact with the overflowing cesspool of bile from the comments section and eventually disappeared.

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James H says:

August 13, 2019 at 6:43 pm

Precisely. She was attacked with vicious misogynistic comments by a bunch of mental keyboard pigs.
Of course, what kind of discourse from Komrade Konrad.

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