Ultramarathon and Trail Running Daily News | Wed, Feb 28

Popular road race opens up bib transfers and begging ensues. Image if a popular ultramarathon like Western States or Hardrock allowed this.

Update on Kaci’s trail to recovery. Looking good!

First consumer wearable that’ll track breathing as a metric. And yes, it connects to Strava.

If you’ve watched a cross country ski race, you’ve seen the competitors collapse and barf at the finish. Here’s why.

A tad snarky, but good points: Ten running articles we’d enjoy seeing (but never will.)

I may have to make the drive up to Southern Oregon for this race: Rainshadow’s inaugural Secret Beach 100k/50M (video). Looks awesome! Someone please remind me to tell the story about my wife and my time in Gold Beach…too long to share here.

ultramarathon trail running — New workout: Chasing energetic 8yo girls down hills.

I’m anxious to release the Adharanand Finn episode today, but embarrassed by how many times I butchered his name in the interview. On my run yesterday before the chat, I must’ve practiced saying it 100 times and all I ended up with was a sore tongue. Still failed.

Here’s his latest piece (I linked to it yesterday) in the Guardian about why Kenyans aren’t running ultramarathons. The comments section rivals the LetsRun boards for it’s pure idiocy.

Florida: Ladies, beware of a short guy with a running shorts fetish. Seriously though.

My playlist of negative thoughts played on repeat, nonstop, and at full volume. This playlist doesn’t exist on Spotify, it only exists in our minds.

–He started running to chase a girl.

Take a few minutes and watch this awesome video on Tor des Geants. It’ll almost make you want to sign up for the race. Still interested? Listen to our interview with Nick Hollon from his incredible 2nd place finish in 2014, replete with the craziest bonk and hallucination stories I’ve heard.

While plenty of ultramarathon and trail runners will be fighting the mud and slop at Way Too Cool 50k this weekend, Devon Yanko will be in Napa going after her 4th consecutive marathon title (and winning her weight in wine…again.)

This sport’s made up of a variety of characters, and Dakota highlights sh*t talkin’ Justin Lutick.

First review of the upcoming Peloton treadmill. Looks great, but four grand? Maybe if I lived in the snow.

How badly do you want to run some of these trails in Northern India?

Personal update: My dry January goal will stretch into it’s third month starting tomorrow. I still love beer and bourbon, but I just don’t want beer and bourbon. Has anyone else who’s stopped drinking felt this way?

15 Responses to "Ultramarathon and Trail Running Daily News | Wed, Feb 28"

Lucus says:

February 28, 2018 at 8:31 am

Went for 100 days dry and it went so well I didn’t stop. Rolling up on 888 days and I’d say it’s permanent.

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Nelson says:

February 28, 2018 at 8:33 am

If one gets past the obvious trolls and plain morons, the Letsrun boards are full of people passionate about running, former pro runners, some elite coaches, who are willing to share their knowledge and help other runners out. I’ve got good training and shoe advice there countless times.

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1. jg says:
  
  February 28, 2018 at 9:35 am
  
  I second this. Behind some of the handles are legends in the sport willing to offer the anonymous poster authentic advice. I get that there’s a lot of BS on there, particularly when the discussion comes to ultras, but it’s a gold mine for training advice if you’re capable of filtering through the weeds and recognizing what’s legit.
  
  Reply
2. DIRTY XL says:
  
  February 28, 2018 at 10:12 am
  
  +10
  
  Reply
3. kemibe says:
  
  February 28, 2018 at 12:46 pm
  
  I agree that there are gems on Letsrun, but unfortunately, the signal-to-noise ratio of those boards, which used to me merely troubling, is now so dismal that I can’t really spend any time there. And I’m not exactly the super-sensitive type. Saying “Once you get past the obvious trolls and plain morons…” now has the almost parodic flavor of “If you can set aside the iffy weather, Antarctica’s not a terrible place to honeymoon.”
  
  The trick is having someone with a strong constitution provide you direct links to the good stuff so that you can do a quick incursion and leave with your concept of humankind as a whole somewhat intact; random perusals are not recommended.
  
  Reply
KS says:

February 28, 2018 at 8:47 am

I still *want* bourbon, I just know I don’t *need* it.

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Garrett says:

February 28, 2018 at 8:49 am

I am moving to Oregon in May so I’ll have to look into that race (and get back to running more regularly if I’m going to do the 50M).

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Ben says:

February 28, 2018 at 9:11 am

I’ve always wondered why nearly all races don’t allow bib transfers. Especially if there is plenty of lead time. Any RDs out there who can educate us on why it’s generally not outlawed (beyond the “its a pain to allow it” or the ‘legal’ argument)?

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1. Myke says:
  
  February 28, 2018 at 11:27 am
  
  Not an RD, but one thing this article surprisingly didn’t touch on was scalping. Seems like the race itself handles bib transfers valued at face value and charges a small $15 fee to do so, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t side arrangements being made. If all of the sudden there becomes a secondary market for race entries you’ll start seeing people buy up entries early with the hopes of selling them at an inflated price later, like what happens for popular concerts or sporting events. If a race like Western or Hardrock would swap bibs on request how much do you think people would be willing to pay for an entry? Mount Marathon, which has a tight lottery, holds a pre-race auction for 10 spots which can reach up to $2,000-$3,000 per entry. And how many more people would enter the lottery process (making it tougher for an individual to get in) if there wasn’t the risk of committing to paying/doing the race and someone entering could end up profiting by simply throwing their name in the hat? Not saying some races shouldn’t do it, but it probably creates more problems than it solves.
  
  Reply
  1. eric schranz says:
    
    February 28, 2018 at 1:12 pm
    
    Excellent point with the scalping. There’d have to be some sort of initial bot-proof verification process for signing up in the first place.
    
    Reply
    1. Ben says:
      
      February 28, 2018 at 6:20 pm
      
      Great points Myke. I’d love to hear if that is the main RD rationale. However, if the races controlled the bib transfers and even charged a fee to do that they would benefit even more. This would be a win-win I’d argue. Races pad their pocketbooks and friends get to help friends (or folks on the waitlists) when they DNS for whatever reason.
      
      Reply
      1. Myke says:
        
        February 28, 2018 at 7:23 pm
        
        My guess is for most RDs it is simply a hassle, as secondary market scalping would mostly be an issue at larger or high profile races. But at the same time if it’s a high demand race that sold out quickly with a waitlist it seems unfair to swap in someone not on the waitlist who didn’t register on time. I’d say a refund from the race and your spot going to first up on the waitlist is a fair system, but it might be interesting to see a race adopt a system where they sell entries as assets (meaning no waitlist) and allowing them to be sold or transferred in some sort of auction system for a fee/cut.
    2. Myke says:
      
      February 28, 2018 at 7:30 pm
      
      But even with a bot-proof system to purchase it still changes the lottery odds. A while ago I put down $200 for four Nathaniel Rateliff tickets in Missoula this August not knowing if I’d be able to make the show or if I have friends that want to go with me. But knowing I could probably sell them for well more than the $50 face value it took the purchasing risk away. Had the tickets someone been non-transferrable I probably wouldn’t have bought them but now if I don’t end up back in Montana in August there’s a good chance I just took away an affordable opportunity from someone in Missoula more excited about or likely to go to the concert than I was.
      
      Reply
cb says:

February 28, 2018 at 10:32 am

I can relate to the beer thing. I used to enjoy drinking a couple beers per sitting 3-4 times a week. I stopped when I had a kid because I was so tired and sleep deprived much of the time and the beer just made me more tired. Now that my boy is older I could probably drink more frequently but usually find myself grabbing a glass of orange juice or cup of coffee instead. A six pack lasts me a month now.

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kemibe says:

February 28, 2018 at 10:43 pm

I stopped drinking two years ago. But I didn’t love anything about it except that regularly throwing napalm on my own life fed the fires of my own self-loathing. I doubt you stopped because you were at a do-or-die point, but I think I understand what you mean: you can instinctively romanticize the high points of your drinking life without wanting to take steps to reclaim them. I still tell myself sometimes, “This would be a great day to be a f*ckin’ drunk,” but it’s a wry acknowledgment of impulses unlikely to ever fade completely, not a craving in any meaningful sense.

Reply

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