Help.. I have an unnatural hate of ultra runners

ugh just terrible, seriously -10000000000/10. Just awful.

Most of them can probably spell "extreme"

and "mere"...

Check out some of the elite ultra marathon runners. You might change your mind.

David Goggins does something like 120mpw running and comparable amounts of biking and swimming each week. He also looks like he could throw a VW beetle at you if he was angry. Oh, and he's a Navy Seal. I don't know how anyone could hate someone like that.

Is that you David?

Dean to the Karnazez wrote:

Check out some of the elite ultra marathon runners. You might change your mind.

David Goggins does something like 120mpw running and comparable amounts of biking and swimming each week. He also looks like he could throw a VW beetle at you if he was angry. Oh, and he's a Navy Seal. I don't know how anyone could hate someone like that.

I read the thread on that Goggins guy. Sure he is a tough son of a bitch, but I don't buy that "I hate every second of it" B.S. There are other, better ways to raise money. The guy was on the cover of Runner's World right? He could just model for exercise magazines and donate his pay. No one who hates running voluntarily runs 40 miles per week, let alone 120. He may hate getting up early, but when the sun just starts coming up and there is a cool breeze at his back he likes it just as much as the rest of us.

comicbookguy wrote:

I don't know why I hate ultra runners so much. Normally I'm a "live and let live" kinda guy, but for the love of god I hate to read, hear, or see the ultra folks yapping about their 150 mile "race".

Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but some where around the marathon distance it ceases to be a real footrace and devolves into a mear test of survival.

maybe it's because the people have lost the intent of running fast, maybe it's because it attracts weirdo's and hippy types, maybe it's because it's people taking the act of running to the extream rather than working on getting faster...

I'm doing the McNaughton Park 150 this weekend. I assume that you're hating on me. Weirdo? Yeah, that's fair. Hippy? No. Most ultra-runners are yuppies and professionals: scientists, lawyers, etc., looking for a new thrill after a lifetime of running (I've been running, off and on, for over 25 years, but I'm only 34.) It is a new challenge, seeing how far you can go.

As for not being a footrace, well, I can tell you after running down several people at the end of a 100-miler (running 8 minute miles towards the end) it definitely is. But you're right in that there is certainly a hiking element to some of these very long runs, or so I'm told. I'm going to do my best not to walk though.

I went through a phase in my teens where I would run a 5K every other weekend, and it just got old after a while.

I've never been what people on this board would consider to be fast, but I loved track in high school. I ran the 800 and 1600, and sometimes the 4 X 400 and the 4 X 800. I even long jumped once! Once.

Some of my best memories from running are from the track. Winning my district in the mile (in a pedestrian 4:40 something.) Fourth in a big regional qualifying meet. Running lead off in a 4 X 800 team at the state champs (and getting ever so close to going under 2:00.) That was a lot of fun, tremendous fun.

But there aren't too many of these races for adults where I live. I was never any good at XC/5Ks/10ks: 47th and 67th at regionals in Texas! 17:24 for 5K/10:42 for 3200 as a 16 year-old :( Tend to fade after two miles, I'm naturally better at the middle distances (53.2 400m speed back in the day.)

If it's any consolation, my next race will be a road mile in August, I just have a modest goal (I'm an old 34), to go under 5, which I haven't done since I was a teenager (not like I've tried.) There is a group of guys I train with around here who want to break 2:00 for 800m, and I think I'll train with them over the summer.

Also interested in running some trail 15/25ks at 6:xx/mile, and I'm trained for that pretty much. Not fast like some of the internationally-competitive guys on this board (or even fast local guys) but top 10th percentile (of the whole population), which is where I have always been -- that is the way running is...

I've got mad respect for fast long-distance guys, some of my occasional running companions run 14-16 minute 5Ks, and really, they only encourage me. I bet if you actually went for a run with me you wouldn't be hating so much. I'll try to keep up.

I don't know why I hate distance runners so much. Normally I'm a "live and let live" kinda guy, but for the love of god I hate to read, hear, or see the distance folks yapping about their 26 mile "race".

Maybe I'm just a traditionalist, but some where around 400 meters it ceases to be a real footrace and devolves into a mear test of survival.

maybe it's because the people have lost the intent of running fast, maybe it's because it attracts weirdo's and hippy types, maybe it's because it's people taking the act of running to the extream rather than working on getting faster...

And btw: I've averaged 80 mpw for the last couple of months, with high weeks of 100 and 116. The average runner (but not the local fast guys) look at me strangely and wonder why I would run so much since I'm not "elite" whatever that is in their little penguin minds. But in a race like this, if you want to actually finish, you have to train really really hard, most of the top three this weekend will average 100-120 miles per week. Yes, they are 2:50 marathon guys, not 2:04, but the level of commitment and dedication is very high, much more so than the casual Rock N' Roll 40 mpw/4:21 marathoner, who are the real waddlers. The mindset and workload is completely different.

Matt Carpenter and Scott Jurek are both cool guys.

And don't forget that there actually are relatively fast ultrarunners. Max King (9th at National XC this year, 3rd at National 1/2 marathon a couple of years ago, in 1:03) won the American River 50-miler this past weekend in 6:04.

However, the very hippy-looking Anton Krupicka (who was, by all admissions a middling DIII XC guy) ran 5:42 last year.

So...

if that is really you David, I must say you're a huge inspiration for me.

you go from being 280lb guy to ultra marathoner. and you did this literally over night!

david googins = bad ass ultra runner.

http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=96

http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=157

http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=203

http://www.competitorradio.com/details.php?show=224

This video will help you change your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGhG92ju11Y

PaavoNW wrote:

This video will help you change your mind.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGhG92ju11Y

That video has inspired me to be an ultra runner. I want to be just like Dean the bad ass.

You can't tell me that a 150 mile "race" should be considered the same type of event as regular T&F. It's just not the same thing, you're running for days on end.

Again, it devolves into some kind of survival contest, not running.

So where exactly does the race "devolve". Which arbitrary distance do you like and why?

as others have noted, those who run long aren't necessarily slugs. i'm certainly no great shakes, and i've not raced longer than 70 miles, but i have managed to achieve PRs within the past year at 5K, 10K, and 50 mile distances; all have been faster than age-graded standards times (45-49F). for some ultrarunners, it's about striving to finish (that's true also for just-off-the-couch 5K'ers, but a topic for a different, rant-inspiring thread); for others, it's about training hard, racing smart, and being the best one can be at the thing that brings joy and challenge.

danno wrote:

So where exactly does the race "devolve". Which arbitrary distance do you like and why?

Obviously anything over a marathon. 42.2K is a perfectly reasonable distance to race. 50K is just a nutty endurance test.

If the marathon didn't have the ancient historical status then we'd be racing 50K and we'd be talking about the 2:30 barrier and mocking those ultra runners who run 50 miles instead of a more normal 31.

comicbookguy wrote:

I don't know why I hate ultra runners so much.

Some good posts on here, but I'd like to get back to the OP's main point.

Comicbookguy, the reason you "hate ultra runners so much" is because you are an insecure person with low self-esteem who needs to look down on others to make yourself feel better.

There is no other reason for you to "hate ultra runners."