Could elite marathoners, on the training that they do regularly, do better than any ultra runner has done on any ultra course?
Could elite marathoners, on the training that they do regularly, do better than any ultra runner has done on any ultra course?
no
I would think that anyone who didn't train regularly on technical trails and/or very hilly terrain would have problems in that kind of race. There is also the aspect of fueling and hydration through an ultra that take some experience to get right.
I believe that most elite marathoners could also excel in ultramarthons if they made an honest effort to do so. I don't believe they could dust the best ultra guys off of their typical marathon training regiment.
As much as many runners on this board love to bash Ultra runners, it would take a different type of training for an elite marathoner to take an elite ultra runner. The only place i could see a marathoner with no special prep taking an ultra guy is in a 50k because it is short as far as ultra marathons go. In the end you would need a longer long run and many hours of cross training to accomplish the task...then again ask alberto...he won an ultra
last year the 1996 olympic marathon champion from south africa i think his name is joseph thugwame who has run 20728 planned to run the first 30-35 kilometers of a 50k race and then drop out, but he felt good at both 30 and 35k and kept going passing the marathon in 214 and winning the race by a big margin.
Any of you remember Dan Held from UWEC? Ran the 96 trials in the marathon, 1500, and 5000?
Not sure how he altered his training but not long after 96 he won the US 100K championships and went on to be top US finisher at Worlds.
Details of Thugwanes performance here
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=6&click_id=174&art_id=qw1114250581270B234
As long as these elite dudes can figure out nutrition, hydration, and slowing down a little bit, they'd smoke us.
But many many ultrarunners don't give a damn about being smoked by a fast person. Good for the fast person! Seriously. Well done! For us it's about being out there. And frankly it would be pretty cool to have an elite dude out there with us.
I htink it depends on which country's marathoners we're talking about.....Hansen Bros. marathoners who do 16-22 mile long runs, or Japanese marathoners who might regularly do 5-6 hour runs at a slow pace. Rob DeCastella would do a hard 35 mile run several weeks before a marathon, and Ikaanga would also do a lot of loooong runs---I'm sure they would have done well at ultras on any given day.
Dan Held was successful at flat 100k races. There are basically 3 different types of ultras:
1) Short Ultras: 50ks
2) Championship Ultras: 100ks, Dan Held did well here.
3) Trail Ultras: 100 mile races in the mountains
Elite Marathoners could do very well in the short ultras and possibly the longer road ulras up to 100k.
Alan