Are most ultra “runners” just walking?

I never said I didn’t respect them. Moving your body 100 miles in 24 hours is tough. I just said it’s walking, not running.

Also I don't understand WTF this kind of logic is meant to be!! The discussion was about the difference between walking and running, pace and so on. Whether 15 min miling can be running dependent on slope etc. The videos are very clearly relevant! It's about the difference between walking and running...

You tell me how showing a video of someone running 11 minute miles up hill is relevant in determining whether or not 15 minute miles is walking.

That’s like showing a video of a 4 minute miler to determine that 7 minute milers don’t heel strike.

It’s apples and oranges. The video is irrelevant.

Who cares about whether it's running or not, the most interesting thing on this thread is how many people's self identity depends on the definition of the word run (and the wish to exclude or include others from the definition.)

Yes and they are the ones who are often the loudest on social media. I have a friend who walks (has actual video walking most of the way) then sprints the finish and talks about their accomplishments.

This person actually puts themselves in the same category of runner as our friend flirting with 2:30.

If Kipchoge raced UTMB he’d be so far ahead of Jim, Zach, Matthieu and Kilian he’d eat a full meal and take a nice fat nap and still beat them by hours. As for Sage, he could sit down and watch the entire new season of Sex and the City with a beautiful vegan meal and still beat him (in Sage’s prime.)

No, he wouldn't. He would sit shivering in a tent at mile 28 after the first rain.

Well he could do that. Stay warm for a while and still clearly win. Marathon results do translate. He just needs 6 months of training.

I agree in the sense that there should be a concrete definition and it isn't just individual specific.

Lile you can say for Jakob 5:30 pace is jogging, but clearly I don't think it's fair to say that's jogging. And for someone slow 8 minute pace is running but I dont think its fair to say that is running. I do agree that the difference is around 6 minute pace maybe a little higher. Someone can be terrible and 10 minute pace to them is running, but if we just think about that logically and use our instinct, we can all.agree that isnt running.

ANd although running is way cooler than "ultra running" i dont really mind them doing it or using the word, although it does take away from middle distance running in the populace

I think the difference might come from just growing up and observing the world. If an average decently fit person had to run to get something urgent, if they had a fast break in a basketball game, if their kid was in the middle of the street, im assuming they would go at something around 6 minute pace maybe slightly higher or lower for 20 meters or however far. They wouldnt go at 10 min pace unless they were extremely old or overweight

[Sarcasm] Nope. Go to any rock climbing forum and you'll learn that under 5.12, it's not actually climbing but scrambling, and under 5.10 it's not even scrambling, but just glorified hiking. So what's the consensus there in your exemple? Hiking for 7:30 the glorified-ly hiking for another 7:30. [/sarcasm]

Lots of paved-over, landscape flatlanders in this thread that seem to have no realistic concept of how much hills and "technical" terrain rocks, roots, mud, scrambling can slow running pace. Without specifying which 100 miler, it's useless. There are trail 100 milers won in under 13 hours. Others almost twice that long. (Or way more if you count Barkley.) I can see you guys wondering why Walmsley was so slow at UTMB, taking almost 20 hours. He must have walked most of it After all, Dakota ran a trail 100 in sub-13.

You seem to not understand what the word most means. What Walmsley does isn’t the question. What most ultra “runners” do is walk.

Just like most marathoners jog. lf Kipchoge runs 4:37 pace, it doesn’t change what most marathoners do.

You can watch/re-watch the replay of the entire UTMB start to finish on YT - it's broken into 3 segments. Mind you, that's 20+ hours of coverage, and you might learn a thing or two along the way. Like Jim throwing down what looks like ~6 min miles on some late stage flat/buff sections of road or trail. Breathtaking. Immediately followed by power-hiking up ridiculously steep/rocky trails on a wicked climb to a ski station before the final descent into town. And that he was the ONLY one that even tried running up parts of that final climb. Meanwhile, your guy Kipchoge got throttled the instant he encountered Heartbreak Hill - a terrain feature that would rate as one of easiest stretches of running on the entire UTMB course. Tell us you don't know sh!t about UTMB without telling you don't know sh!t.

So yes you *can* watch and learn, but we already know you won't. Because not only do you not have the cajones to actually attempt a mountain 💯, you don't even have the cajones to watch the awesome coverage of one. Prove me wrong.

Not just referring to you. There are several others trying to define running by pace only too, including newrunner3 above.

I'd say most ultra runners jog mostly like you say marathoners do. If not, they aren't going to make time cuts considering the other things that slow down the average pace from terrain to taking care of themselves. I think it's safe to assume the average 100-mile ultra runner is a couple tiers better trained than the average marathoner.

The reason I linked that Strava segment was to show that only the version top guys were doing 11 mun pace. Those Loon Mountain videos showed guys running down to 31st place, and I'm pretty sure more of them that were running were going more like 15 min pace than 11.

Sorry about the typos. You can figure out what I mean

Congrats to you on being good at one specific distance that only matters to track fans??

Killian and Jim would respect your track speed until you opened your mouth.

Lyles runs the 100 faster than you. You can likely sprint, but not keep up with him.

Chep runs the 10K faster than you. You might be able to run 10K, but not keep up with him.

Sage runs ultras, and walks at points when running is too difficult. You might be able to start but would have bailed long before he did. Same thing.