Max King wins American River 50 mile race

Thanks for the link. Would that be Max King of Cornell University?

reg wrote:

Thanks for the link. Would that be Max King of Cornell University?

Yep, fresh off of worlds... and he has a 10 miler this weekend...

Here is his blog.

Tough Love:

Max you say in your blog that you've done xc, you've done road, you've done track, your bored and want something new.

Well Max try something new, try winning against tough world class competition not moving to events without world class competition.

Let the beating you took at world XC light a fire in your belly to be comeptitive at that level. How can you be bored after getting your butt kicked? Have you lost your competitive drive?

If you really want to move up to the ultra distance, try Comrades or Oceans to Oceans, this American trail drivel is for guys who can't cut it the world class level.

How does a 50 miler fit into spring track season or helping you compete against the top Kenyans or even the top Americans? Sounds and looks like to me you just wanted a ego stroke so ran in a fun run where you were the class of the field.

For God's sakes man, come up with a real comprehensive training plan that makes sense and builds upon itself that will help you run faster and be more competitive. I guarentee you these 50 mile trail races won't be on such a schedule.

40th at World XC is not taking a beating

I am not sure any of this makes sense for a runner wanting to run at a national level in track.

But query how long it takes for a national class runner like King to recover from 50 miles of 7 minutes a mile running?

I would think it would take some time. He has to feel fairly beat up.

I see Matt Lonergan (Husband and coach of Marla Runyan) finished 4th in this race! Nice work Matt.

Max is not cool wrote:

Tough Love...

Who the hell are you to tell someone what they should do?

F'ing loser.

Max has qualified for several US track championships in the steeple, the Olympics Trials in the steeple, twice gone to worlds in cross country, and recently won the Xterra world championship. Since he's running for himself now (dropped by OTC not too long ago), I think he's allowed to decide what goals he'd like to pursue. Sure he could spend the rest of his career trying to shave a few tenths off of his steeple time, but it sounds like he wants a new challenge. Good for him!

Winning the AR 50 is a huge accomplishment for one's first 50 miler race (it's Max's second ultra...he also won a 50k I belive). It's a tough, tough course (flat for 25 miles, ridicuously hilly for 25 miles), and he showed he's pretty tough. But you probably know what's best for him.

stringer - I see your points.

But that is why I queried just how beat up one gets with this kind of race. Obviously, it depends upon the runner, but I would think that he would be really sore and recovery would not be the same as with, for example, a 20k road race. This is not being critical - just seems like a direction where running on the track is no longer his thing. I can't imagine doing any speedwork for a while after hauling through a 50 mile race.

And I do concur that if the track thing is no longer his interest, then bringing his level talent to ultra races could be a new challenge that brings some pretty impressive results.

His time on the course would have put him fourth last year.

[quote]Max is not cool wrote:

Tough Love:

Sounds and looks like to me you just wanted a ego stroke so ran in a fun run where you were the class of the field.

quote]

My friend, Max King is not running for you.

He is not running for anyone because of this type of attitude. Not a team player.

I don't get why people here think that all good runners should do only what we think is right for them. If the guy wants to run a 50K, that's his business. If he wants to quit running entirely and join the god damn circus, it's up to him. Even if running a 50K isn't in his own best interest, it's his decision.

50 mile not 50k.

I truly thought he would run a lot faster than 6:04. Last year Krupicka ran 5:42. almost 30sec/mile faster than Max. Some thought Max would break the course record (5:33). King has run a 1:03 half and Krupicka a, wait for it, smoking 2:42 marathon. Maybe there is something to these long distance races.

Why, oh why oh why is it so hard to understand that road times do not transfer to ultras?

Anyone want to jump in and condemn Wardian for what he just did at Marathon des Sables [8th overall]? Surely that should have been faster.

In a flat 50 miler, Max might give Tony a run for his money. But the AR 50 is not flat. The climbs after the marathon mark are brutal:

http://www.run100s.com/AR50/AR50Profile.gif

When Tony ran his 5:42 last year, he was a seasoned ultra runner used to doing heavy mileage with huge elevation changes in almost every run. Max isn't quite there yet, but I think he will be successful if he sticks at this ultra thing.

Max is not cool wrote:

50 mile not 50k.

Whatever. My point still stands.

If Max King trained exclusively for 50 and 100 milers like the pure ultra runners do, then he would very likely have beaten Krupicka's time at AR. Now a 100 miler is a different animal, some are just not suited for the duration now matter how talented at shorter stuff.

And to the people who said the second half is "brutal" and "tough, tough", I've run it three times, and the second half is slow, but only the last three mile climb which covers a 1000 feet rise could be called brutal. What really slows runners down on the second half is the footing, meandering trail and short (some only 20 or so feet), but very steep rocky climbs. These factors make it really hard to keep rhythm over the second half of the course. I'm guessing a guy like Krupicka who spends all his time running trails like this has a big advantage on this kind of stuff. If King trains on this stuff for a year with a lot of multi-hour runs thrown in, watch out.