Is ultra-running a sport?

renamerequired wrote:

3. It's not really ultra-RUNNING, there's quite a bit of walking involved (and plenty of sitting).

4. More emphasis on finishing rather than time - more of the "everyone wins" mentality by surviving.

My 2cents -

I counted more than 2 cents...

By that logic you're saying most marathon's aren't sports either. Which is fine. Plenty of marathons have large numbers of people who walk/run, and are really only in it to prove they can finish. Often there's not even a hard time limit. Do you need 7 hours to finish a marathon? Oh you need more than 7 hours? well, you can start an hour early!

At least in Ultramarathons there's no "Sag Wagon" which allows people to still get medals and official times (all RNR races do this now, seriously). And the time cut offs are usually hard; 30:00:01 gets no buckle in WS100.

Chicks dig the long run.

I've yet to see a "virtual " ultra.

NO. It is the DEFINITION of hobbjogging.

bored troller wrote:

the time cut offs are usually hard; 30:00:01 gets no buckle in WS100.

Right. If you sleep too much during the competition you won't get a buckle.

All I meant was that at an ultra there might be 3-4 people really racing, a dozen more running fairly hard, and a bunch of people basically trotting along.... exactly like 99.9% of races at shorter distances.

Also, that there are some people running ultras who are/were competitive at other distances, though obviously ultras don't attract real talent. More often, people like me who could run a 9:04 steeple, etc... decent but nothing to get excited about. But to call that glorified hiking is just stupid. I went through the marathon split at at the IAU/IAAF 100km WC in 2:41 and change. Not fast for a marathon, but there was another marathon still to go and then 10 miles more. It was hard.

My theory is that there is exactly the same amount of trial in every race over the mile, you just roll it out at a different rate. Anyone calling 50k a glorified hike has never raced the distance and is speaking from a position of ignorance, just like someone who does not know what it feels like to have 5 to go in a 5000, or to wonder how the hell you're going to get over the barriers in the last 600 of a steeple.

really? You mean to say a 5K - Marathons don't require strategy?

...and why is race walking not a sport? b/c you can't relate to it? a 50K was just race walked in the 3rd fastest time ever in about 3:34:xx. In what way is it not a sport?

To clarify - running 13.1 or 26.2 miles is not an arbitrary distance but 100K is? You don't think a competition that could produce a Yiannis Kouros is a sport?!

Get off your ignorant high horse.

At the very least you can say it's a sport in early stages. Road ultras have been competitive for a long time though that's taken a hit since some elite trail runners won't touch pavement. But there were quite a number who could consistently log sub 5:30 for 50 miles (Park Barner, Frank Bozanich, Rae Clarke, Barney Klecker - just a minute of WR in 4:51, etc).

When would you posit that marathon running became a sport? The beauty of most distance races off the track is that you have serious competitors and participants in the same field.

and trying to not beat a dead horse

ultra does not mean trail and trail does not mean ultra. Yes you can have ultras on trails, or off trail, or on any kind of surface. If it makes some of you feel better, you can call Hardrock a hiking competition. I wouldn't begrudge that remark, but to say it's not competitive?! Gosh, that's ignorant. Try hanging with Kilian and Co for a day.

It´s no use trying to talk sense into all the immature basement dwellers on this site. They are frustrated because they suck at running, so they will always find something to bash.

steeltownrunner wrote:

Road ultras have been competitive for a long time though that's taken a hit since some elite trail runners won't touch pavement.

I bet those "elite" trail runners won't touch pavement because they know they can't compete in 100km road or Comrades. So they move to more obscure races where they can be the top dogs. Clever self-marketing.

mary im webster wrote:

All running events are competitions. They don't really qualify as a sport.

False. Running is one the only true sports out there. Football, basketball etc. are just games.

Like most road races you have some guys who are athletic actually racing the thing. The majority are there just to finish.