Okay, I'll bite.Here's what happened at the UROC 100km (race was 66 miles long and mostly at around 10,000 feet elevation ave.): It snowed the night before and the first mountain pass climb (12,000') had over a foot of snow on trail (it was also like 20 degrees up there).I totally blew up and got my butt kicked by guys with a non-traditional running background (Killian, Dakota, etc) but it wasn't before I saw Krar make this move on the last 4 miles of the slightly downhill Vail bike path...he pulled away from Dakota, me (dying), and Killian. It wasn't the move that won the race though - as that happend in the last 10 miles.. The thing is on the way up the "speedy" pavement section of the course I had the the fastest climb on the road. This killed me and I never cracked 7:00min mile pace. The mechanics are totally different and unlike the marathon where you hit the wall in an ultra you have to learn to "ride the bonk." You mess up and you'll crash and burn epically. The other thing is when you're 30 miles deep into a 100km and have already climbed (read powerhike, NOT run) over a vertical mile in the snow weird things can happen. If it hadn't snowed that would have been a totally different race (not that I would've placed any better as I was shot), but the times would have been a good 30 to 45min faster. Take into account how Wardian did at JFK (even after his double marathon stunt the week before) versus how he did at Speedgoat (28th place) and UROC (23rd) this year...totally different races.Throw in variables like altitude, feet of climbing, type of trail, weather, distance, aid station distances. etc. and there are a ton of things that can go exponentially wrong (or right). So with the more extreme ultras (search "Sky running") your road marathon "speed" doesn't always translate really well. Cardio power and Vo2max and a well trained LT help, but the mechanics are different...your running economy will be different...and you must be really efficient at burning fat as a main fuel source! Even at a "short" ultra race like the Speedgoat 50km where I was forced to powerhike (I hate powerhiking!) for like 2 miles, Krupicka (2:30ish marathoner) was reeling me in. Things change.But then again, I was only 43rd at the 2012 Olympic Trials Marathon...we can only imagine what a few of those sub 2:15 guys could do (well we know what Max King has been doing)...but with more numbers in the sport, more course records will fall...
some faster miles in there wrote:
all kinds of training wrote:Krar won the UROC 100k this year and averaged 9:02 per mile. The course is mostly run around 10,000 altitude and has 13,000 ft elevation gain and loss. The FINISHING rate was only 55%.
Funny thing is there was roughly half marathon worth of flatter road on that UROC course and Krar used it to drop probably the best current traditional ultra runner(one who doesn't train or care for speed on flat ground). So even on a course like that doesn't have any correlation to track/road times, it does still however make a difference for winning.