Zach Miller' Amazing North Face 50 Miler Finish

exaggeration and embarrassing finish....what a tool.

I suppose that none of you have seen the longer film of this particular race. You should check it out and perhaps you’ll realize that Zach was running hard the entire race. It’s a helluva’ video, amazing scenery and the camera man follows him and Hayden for quite a while. It’s really something to see. And his last 3 miles was about 16:30 as I recall and he joked that he didn’t run any faster than that in college.

His 5k PR from college was in the 15:30s or 15:40s IIRC. His 10k just a shade under 32.

Jwalmsey wrote:

His last three miles of 50 were under 15 minutes....

The section shown was clearly downhill.

He's coming down from mountains behind

If only Bekele and Geb could have pushed themselves like this....

I ran the race2 wrote:

Hey guys it was a good run but let's not get crazy here. Zach can't run sub 15 for a flat 5k let alone close out a 50 that fast. I ran there and this segment was more like 2.5-2.6 Miles downhill so no where near 15 min for 5k but still good for ultra guy. Can easily be debunked on strava as Hayden didn't run even 18 min pace for last 5k and just lost by a tad bit to Zach. This is old news, fake news on the sub 15.

Agreed. You can tell by watching the video that he's not running 12 mph or faster until the last 30 seconds of the race. Not to say that his endurance or effort is not impressive, but don't be one of those people that fudges the time/speed information to makes something more impressive. This is kinda like all the Marines that claim they were running 12 miles at 5 minute mile pace every morning in combat boots. It's still impressive, no need to exaggerate.

If only wrote:

If only Bekele and Geb could have pushed themselves like this....

(Your post might be sarcastic, but I'll reply as if it isn't)

The lack of appearance of fatigue in running form and faces is one characteristic of the real world beaters truly being the cream of the crop.

This was after 50 miles though not some measly 26....

All the videos and cameras overdramatizing trailrunning is exactly why people hate ultra runners. You don't see this s*** with road racers. They put in the work and race, period. The videos, social media, etc make us want to gag.

The longer version is basically one of my favorite running videos of all time. Incredibly gorgeous:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DCR03UDggA

Wellthen wrote:

exaggeration and embarrassing finish....what a tool.

This.

This is ultrarunning, so I knew this video would be pure cringe, but this is even worse than I imagined. What's with all the panting? What a clown.

50 milers? A contrived race for rich white people who can't hack actual track, XC, road racing.

what a complete tool!!!!

Zach is one of the nicest guys in the sport. Runs clean.

No doubt on race day he gets "in the zone" and usually time-trials. He is super tough at hilly 50-milers and even with his relative lack of leg speed (i.e. 31-min high 10km in college only compared to 28:50ish for Hawks) he can beat much faster guys at this distance.

His finishes are usually dramatic. This one time at Lake Sonoma he beat Rob Krar and myself by about 45 and 90 seconds respectively and he leaned at the finish line tape like it was a photo finish. He will also always "kick" it in. It's his thing. I wouldn't do that...for example, when I won this race in 2014 I pretty much savored the last 400m and "jogged it in" like a lot of guys would. Zach will run the last 400m as hard as he can even if he is winning by over 5-min. He does this every time.

For this old finishing section at TNF there is Strava data on this segment (Tennessee Valley to the Finish). A lot of it is downhill..esp from miles 48-49. There's not way he was splitting under an average 5:30-5:20/mile pace though. iRunFar was doing some "race update tweets" that day and someone had mistakenly mentioned a "15-min 5km" or something crazy wrong. The year or two before I believe they said Rob was coming in at "well under 5-min mile pace." Both were wrong and just people guessing at what looked like something fast. Even a close around 5:40-6:00 pace for the last few miles on this course is very good at that point in the race. When I ran 6:07 there on a muddy year i had maybe a 5:30-5:40 mile split on the big downhill...but for sure no faster.

Zach is still a heck of a runner and competitor in ultras. Just goes to show that track PRs at 5km/10km as well as road marathon PRs don't mean everything in hilly ultras a 50-miles and above. I believe Max King was also in this race. It is a tough race and has never been top 5.

Zach ran a well deserved effort and pocketed $10,000 (1st place prize). "Easy money" and open to all.

If this guy could win a marathon he would. But he can't. Would struggle to break 2:40. So he runs contrived mickey mouse races against like 6 other people.

Phantasy Star wrote:

If this guy could win a marathon he would. But he can't. Would struggle to break 2:40. So he runs contrived mickey mouse races against like 6 other people.

More like sub 7 min miles for 50 miles through tons of elevation and mud and rocks. Mickey mouse is running on smooth perfect road. Youre a faggott

Kudos to Zach. He's made an amazing recovery since his horrific injury:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVngrop5kSc

Phantasy Star wrote:

If this guy could win a marathon he would. But he can't. Would struggle to break 2:40. So he runs contrived mickey mouse races against like 6 other people.

Youre a loser.

awesome!

In all fairness I bet Zach could run at least 2:25 for a marathon if he trained for a couple months on the roads. One year at Mt. WA he also ran like 63-min on the climb or so. He's definitely a "long range climber" and best at 50-mile to 100km hilly races....so far.

I think some people don't realize this course has 10,000' of climbing....hence the "slow 7:30-min mile pace ave." for 50-miles

Some of the GAPs on Strava for the climbs are in the 5:40-5:20 mile effort pace.

Check out 4-min into this video for more course/race footage (this was from way back in 2014):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w56ZKHqST6s

True, ultra-trail races (esp in the US) are a lot less competitive than major road marathons (duh!). But I will tell you that it is pretty sweet to win $10,000 for spending 6 (painful) hours on some of the most beautiful trails in the country.