What are the best ultras in the world? (Sponsored by HOKA ONE ONE)

wejo wrote:

jesseriley wrote:

Again Sage is on the right track with competitive & prestigious being linked. Also more runners of various abilities helps to form an unbroken pace line that pulls everyone forward. The faster the front of the line moves, the faster the middle & back move.

Prestige and competitiveness will always be linked. It's not a 1 to 1 relationship. The Boston Marathon used to say they were the most prestigious but they then didn't match the others and offer prize money. It became less prestigious and they had to start offering prize money.

The NYC Marathon let its standards drop at the start of the 2000s. We noted it. They could continue to have 40,000+ runners and be a great race for the masses but if they want to be one of the most prestigious races they need to attract the best and they have upped their game.

No matter what best runners will always race London and Berlin, not Boston or New York. The only race in my opinion that really lost its prestige is the Rotterdam marathon. It used to be the spring marathon par excellence with great history and reputation where the WRs were set. Nowadays its not part of the World Majors and consequently, out of the game. So its prestige came from the WR status that it had for a long time and when it was lost, the race lost its prestige.

Baltsu wrote:

If a billionaire invested a lot of money to create the most amazing cycling race in the world called Tour of America with all top teams and with all best riders, it still wouldn't have prestige because it's not Tour de France. General public wouldn't care who won the Tour de America mickeymouse jersey.

You misspelled Tour de Trump.

sqandrews wrote:

Also, I want to give a big shout-out to Pete Kostelnick. I don't know if he is the GOAT but his run across america was one of the best ultra performances of all time. Over 3000 miles in 42 days insane - plus he ran in hokas the entire way. You should definitely interview him! Not to mention, his run last year from Alaska to the Florida Keys was bonkers - pushing all his food and water in a baby stroller.

At least he saw different places. Pekka Aalto, a newspaper delivery guy from here Helsinki, Finland, has won the 3100 mls race held in New York 8 times. His course record is 40 days, 9 hours, 6 minutes and 21 seconds.

Rose Dorothy Dauriac Biography: Scarlett Johansson Daughter

Thanks lets run for the debate.

Some things that haven't being said are not correct.

Golden trail series have live transmission like utmb but golden have some athletes doing the race on bike with go pro (where possible like sierra zinal) or some kms done by a runner until another one takes his place.

Jason Scharlb is a good athelte, not as good as Killian or Jim but maybe a top 20 wordwide at 100 miles. They finished Hardrock together because Jason is probably in his best shape ever(field small size..), the race was long and lonely and where so much time with one and another...

Killian lost western because the heat (hipohydration) one year and then following year came and win.

Killian race 3 races in golden series and win the 3.

And he lost the final because was injured. Why?

Because race 2 difficult races in 2 days

Ring of steall 29k 2500d+ : killian 1- 3:04m. Bartlomiej 6-3:14m

Sage 18-3:31m

The winner of golden trail series final was Bartlomiej. The only time they compete was in ring of steall and was 10m behind Killian.

Day after was Glen coe skyline 32k 2700d+

Killian win in 3h37 and became with some injurie.

Yes, Killian lost( second place) Transvulvania to the currently tri time trail world champion Luis Alberto Hernando after came from the ski season without trainning running.

The following year he beat Luis and win.

Last year killian win Sierra Zinal and win 2m in the front of Robbie Simpson which do london marathon in 2h14m.

There he have beaten some african even more faster.

Goat killian: wins everything in mountain: kv, 20k, marathon or 100 miles tecnical or fast, ski fast or long,... Multiples records..

Goat street: Kourous but not so versatle

Fkt: cervino killian

Trail record: pikes peak ascent matt Carpenter

Street record: 48h Kourous

Most competitive street ultra: Comrades

Most competitive trail ultra: utmb and Trail world championships

Thanks Ricardo for some inside information!

What are the best ultras in the World?

This is an interesting question.

Quick answer: It depends.

It depends on so many factors. One of them is that most of us, race only in a certain area. That might be the US, Canada, one of the European countries, South Africa, Japan and South Korea, just to mention the most likely contenders for ultraraces.

There are three main race categories:

A) Everything from Marathon to 100k

B) 100 mile trail races and races up to 24 hours or 250k

C) Multiday races (Stage races or nonstop races)

Here is my list:

A) Comrades Marathon

No race is older and no race is bigger. This would be my top pick for shorter ultras up to 100k.

B) Spartathlon

The ultra of the ultras. Since 1983 the world best road ultrarunners gather for 153 miles with a tough overall cutoff at 36 hours.

C) Marathon de Sables

Patrick Bauer invented a whole new race category back in the 1986. An adventure stage race where you have to carry all your food and gear (exept water) for 6 days and 150+ miles.

The most beautiful course:

Difficult thing to answer if you have not done ultra trail races all over the world.

My pick: Hardrock 100. A beautiful remote high mountain course in the San Juan Mountains in Colorado.

Another contenter could be the Grand Raid de la Réunion a 162k races through the mountains of Réunion island, a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean.

Special races:

The Trans America Footrace

The classic format (Tour de France style) invented by founder of the Yankees CC Pyle. It was organized in 1928 and 29. Jesse Reiley Michael Kennedy restarted it in 92 for 4 editions. Until know there have been 11 races.

This is a stage race from coast to coast. Competitors average 45+ miles per day (daily cut offs are usually 3/5 miles per hour) more info here:

https://indd.adobe.com/view/671dbddf-dc25-4bf9-976c-4d38d19770ba

The Westfield Sydney to Melbourne Ultramarathon

This was a nonstop race from Sydney to Melbourne over approximatly 550 miles from 1983 - 1991

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sydney_to_Melbourne_Ultramarathon

There is an excellent Book from Phil Essam for download on this wikipedia page.

The GOAT ultrarunner

This is an easy answer to give. It has to be Yiannis Kouros. He dominated the road ultrarunning from 1983 to 2005 when he set his last world record over 6 days.

The best US ultrarunners would be Scott Jurek with 7 Western States wins, 3x Spartatlon and x times Badwater. Ann Trason with her 14 Western States 100 wins and her former WR over 100k.

Ultrarunning in the US

Since the “invention” of the Western States 100 the US ultrarunning scence is mostly focused on trail ultrarunning with pacers and crews which is unheard of anywhere else. Pacing like it is done in 50 and 100 milers is illegal almost anywhere else. This makes the US ultrarunning so unique. And my guess is that this is also the main reason why top US runners usually don’t do so well in other competitions world wide.

The other dilemma in the US is, that there is not one 100k or 24 hour race on roads which has a fast set up and attracts US runners. Not one. There are two small 100k races. The Mad City 100k and the Jack Bristol Lake Waramaug 100k. They attract less than 20 runners each year. There is also no sufficient 24 hour race on roads in the US right now.

Hoka’s sponsorship of this question at Letsrun.com and the sponsorship of this 100k race last weekend might be a good start to spark the interest in 100k running in the US. The course in Sacramento could be the next great 100k race with a 13 or 15 hour time limit. The US also needs a competitive 24 hour race on a road loop with a real aid station so the runners with out a crew don’t loose too much time. This could be a great opportunity for Hoka to sponsor. Also the US national teams for 100k and 24 hours are always in desperate need for some money to travel to oversea World Championships.

What are the most prestigious/most competitive ultramarathons in the world to win?

Comrades - the Boston of ultramarathons

Western States in US

UTMB in Europe

What is your favorite ultra? What is the most beautiful ultra? Is there a bucket list of ultras that most amateurs should aspire to run?

My favorite is a short ultra, Two Oceans in Cape Town, 56km (my permanent number is 181).

It would rank as one of the most beautiful but often can't use the original route through Hout Bay. For several years the road was falling off the mountain and not safe. Now the informal settlement in Hout Bay is threatening riots to protest against ANC failure to re-allocate lands in South Africa, so the route is not currently possible.

Hardrock or UTMB have to be in the running for most beautiful. But it's not a beauty contest..

Similarly a bucket list rather misses the point, to my mind. Ultras are found where you are.

*Who is the GOAT of ultra running?

Yiannis Kouros of course, for roads.

Bruce Fordyce gets a look in here, as multiple Comrades champion, Brighton champ, and 50 mile record holder 83-Walmsley.

Kilian on trails.

Ann Trason on the women's side, for both.

Camille Herron very much in the running here though.

*What are the hardest course/world records to break in ultra running?

Yiannis' records..

Trail records tend to be subject to conditions and course changes, so essentially meaningless.

The World's Greatest Ultras in the world:-

1-AC Milan - Gruppo Barbour

2-FC Brno - Johnny Kentus Gang

3-Delfin Sporting Club - Los fans del Perro Muerto (Fans of the Dead Dog)

4-Zenit St Petersburg - Music Hall

5-Juventus - Drughi Bianconeri

6-Genoa CFC - Vecchi Orsi Ramblers Crew

7-Maccabi Haifa - Green Apes

8-Fortuna Dusseldorf - Chevignon Fighters

9-FC Delta Tulcea - Smoked Brains

Ultramarkus wrote:

Also the US national teams for 100k and 24 hours are always in desperate need for some money to travel to oversea World Championships.

You have to do something that other people value to raise funds

reed wrote:

another good question would be:

What can we do to encourage elite road/track athletes to train seriously for MUT events?

Is it just about the money? I think that if Letsrun gave more attention to trailrunning/ultrarunning, then more competitive athletes would gain an interest in it.

Well said. Add to that, if USATF gave ultra running more attention, and even more media, there would certainly be more elite level runners considering this venue

Tristate wrote:

reed wrote:

another good question would be:

What can we do to encourage elite road/track athletes to train seriously for MUT events?

Is it just about the money? I think that if Letsrun gave more attention to trailrunning/ultrarunning, then more competitive athletes would gain an interest in it.

Well said. Add to that, if USATF gave ultra running more attention, and even more media, there would certainly be more elite level runners considering this venue

Maybe. There is also the fact that mountain ultrarunning is quite a different sport. If you don't live close to the mountains you don't have a chance to get good at it. I think even with high payouts at the finish line you would not see many road marathoners transition. One here and there, like Magdalena Boulet but it wouldn't be a lot of them because it is so different.

wejo wrote:

And also do most trail ultras allow pacers after a certain amount?

Why is that?

Steeltown runner generally is againt pacing in the road ultras but it looks like in trail ones you can have pacers after the start.

I'm against pacers period. I know rabbits been accepted since Roger Bannister, so I'll put that aside for now. The notion of pacers in trail ultras means something else entirely (which I'm also somewhat against). That's having a runner join a racer at some midpoint during the race to help with motivation, navigation, and general safety when conditions would otherwise be deemed unsafe to go it alone. They are not allowed in many European races, and I feel anyone contending for a win in an ultra should not be allowed to have a pacer. Part of the beauty of an ultra is dealing with the ups and downs internally. Some people balk at having non-paced awards, but if a runner gets help having an extra set of eyes look for trail markers at night, doesn't s/he have an advantage?

Most standard track and field rules were written specifically for standard distance, and many trail races love to thumb their noses at the USATF, etc. But for track and road ultras, pacing is illegal. Managing that from an officiating perspective when runner use the bathroom, get lapped, etc is a tricky issue.

YIANNIS KOUROS

Hands down. If you think otherwise you don’t know Ultra Running.

Has both World Record for Road and Track Records for 12, 24, 48 & Six Day.

His Most Impressive Record is 1000 Miles in 10 Days 10 Hours and 30 Min.

All the runners below have had World Records and/or Won Famous races with a long running resume.

Valmir Nunez

Ann Trason

Tomoe Abe

Bruce Fordyce

Scott Jurek

Don Ritchie

Jim Walmsley

Camille Herron

Kílian Jornet Burgada

I feel that Sage Canaday's course record at the White River 50 (6:16:10) is underrated. It beat Anton's previous CR by almost 10 minutes and since Sage set the CR, the closest anyone has gotten to it is a 6:26.

pnw_runner wrote:

I feel that Sage Canaday's course record at the White River 50 (6:16:10) is underrated. It beat Anton's previous CR by almost 10 minutes and since Sage set the CR, the closest anyone has gotten to it is a 6:26.

Oops, meant for this to go in the Best Ultra Records thread. Mods, feel free to delete please. :)

Ricardo Silva wrote:

Goat killian: wins everything in mountain: kv, 20k, marathon or 100 miles tecnical or fast, ski fast or long,... Multiples records..

Goat street: Kourous but not so versatle

Fkt: cervino killian

Trail record: pikes peak ascent matt Carpenter

Street record: 48h Kourous

Most competitive street ultra: Comrades

Most competitive trail ultra: utmb and Trail world championships

Those are some really solid picks. Regarding the FKTs, again, here we might get onto the slippery slope (almost literally.. :)) of how much terrain difficulty do you allow. That Kilian's record is truly mind-boggling. I mean, look at this ridgeline (the one on the left):

. How the heck is it possible to run from a village, up that route, down again the same way in under three hours? Its graded AD III, at that point I would probably be scared to step on it without a rope and crampons, not to mention running up AND down in regular running shoes. Then there's also the Kilian's Everest record, which is even more otherwordly. But then, you might push it into even more technical terrain and consider the super-stout times of the speed ascents of north faces of Eiger, Matterhorn, Grandes Jorasses etc., all of which involved a little bit of running-like activity at some point, but which I guess have no business being discussed here :)

As per the actual title question, best ultras in the world: I would go by notoriety, restrict myself only to trail races (otherwise the Comrades are a obvious inclusion), races longer than 42 km (otherwise there are a bunch of notorious and highly valued races, already mentioned by Sage) and keep in mind this is an euro-biased perspective.

So here we go:

UTMB (above them all, by quite a big margin. Also has various flavours and winning all of them has merit - UTMB, TDS, CCC, OCC)

Western States (Its a shame it's so exclusive and doesn't get more international competition)

Trail world championships

Then in no particular order:

Transvulcania

Lavaredo

Madeira (MIUT)

Tromso (various races)

Glencoe (various races)

Trofeo Kima

Hardrock (again, way, way too exclusive)

And I'm sure there is a bunch of important ones I'm forgetting about.

First, I live in Sacramento, close to the finish of the WS100 and first ran it in 1978; I am a 3X finisher there. I have also run Comrades....and London to Brighton on the WORLD stage. Of course I have also run many of the 50k to 50 mile distance events in the general Northern California area, e.g. American River 50, Jed Smith 50, etc.

For me, no doubt the most impressive/outstanding ultra is....Comrades with over 11,000 starters and almost that many finishers. The history, challenge to run fast and not just finish, and the NATIONAL ATTENTION that event gets in South Africa make events like the WS100....small cult experiences.

As an example of a difference between Comrades and US/California/Sacramento attention to the "ultra scene," in the recent Hoka One One 100k/50 mile record challenge here in Sacramento which was an amazingly well-staged event by the way. I did my own morning training session near the finish area and then did a "cool down" going backwards on the final look section of that course. Our local newspaper DID NOT COVER IT WITH EVEN ONE(1) COLUMN INCH !!!!!! It did not get major local TV coverage here.

Comrades, on the other hand, once tried to reduce the NATIONAL LIVE TV COVERAGE from 12 hours to 11 hours, and there was a MAJOR PUBLIC NATIONAL OUTCRY!!!! I have been out for lunch in Durban the day before Comrades and the waiter asked, "What brings you to South Africa?" When my wife and i replied that we were here to run Comrades, he KNEW THE SPLITS/KM to hit the various cutoffs for the 85-90km distance of that event (varies by starting/finish direction). Try that TEST OF PUBLIC INTEREST ANYWHERE ELSE IN THE WORLD for a nearby ultra !!!!!

In South Africa, you virtually do not dare wearing a "runner's shirt/shirt from a running event" if you have not run Comrades, as you WILL BE ASKED...."How many times have you run Comrades?" Not "whether," but "how many?"

I'm sorry to disabuse those of my local friends of their WS100 passions; they can rightly worship at whatever alter they choose. I count Norm Klein as a good friend; Greg Soderlund really learned his race directing from working with me; he rented a room from me during our mutual "single days." Greg met his wife through me. Yes I have GREAT respect for the WS100, as I did for London to Brighton (before it...got cancelled). But Comrades is on a totally different and higher level in so many ways.

Oh, and I wrote the chapter on "training for Ultra Marathons in one of the Runner's World general training books (edited by Hal Higdon), and my chapter was reprinted as a training guide for Comrades at least once. I have run under 7 hours on the American River 50 Miler and under 6 hours for 50 miles on a straight road course (Jed Smith) and twice broken 24 hours at the WS100.