100 miler is the hardest thing ever

On regular roads and sidewalks, I can average 15:00 pace with a modified walk (arm carriage high, as though I'm running) without too much trouble. It's fast, but not super fast. 14:00 pace is about my limit for 3-5 miles.

So: 15:00 pace is four miles in an hour. That's 25 hours, with no breaks of any sort. That's one hour over the 24 hour threshold.

That's tough. And that's on flat, smooth surfaces.

I'm sure that some race walker has broken 24 hours. Sure. But if I were going to do a 100-miler, I would much rather jog very slowly--which for me would be 11:30 pace--than try to walk it. I might put some walking breaks in there, but they'd surely end up being slower than 15 minute pace.

Let me just state the obvious: I take my hat off to you ultra guys and gals. I can't imagine doing what you do. Any young punk can talk trash, but that's just talk.

There is speed. And there is endurance. Great running demands radically different proportions of both, depending on distance. Even 100 meter specialists talk about endurance: taking that 40 meter speed and holding it as top speed.

At the other extreme are Yiannis Kourous and his ilk.

Pheidippides and Eliud are somewhere in the middle.

Not sure why the tribe feels the need to get quite so tribal about something as trivial and essential as the distance you specialize in and know well.

How did the Tahoe 200 give you eye damage?

I'm an ultra runner guy - 2:50-ish marathon and completed several 100 milers here, but I gotta call out the Tahoe 200 guy

To call Tahoe 200 a running event just isn't right. We're talking about a multi-day hike, not a run.

Actual Not Dean wrote:

I don't want to put in the hard work to run fast with more obstacles so I take the easy way out on run on perfect flat roads and tracks.

HUH YOU GAYUHHHHH SON

I don’t want to hurt and face real competition, so I frolic in the woods and mountains to make people think I’m better than I am.

Elongated dehydration and altitude. Yes, it's a real thing and it sucks.

SorryDude1 wrote:

I'm an ultra runner guy - 2:50-ish marathon and completed several 100 milers here, but I gotta call out the Tahoe 200 guy

To call Tahoe 200 a running event just isn't right. We're talking about a multi-day hike, not a run.

Yo, SorryHobbyJoggerChick.

Was there some walking in the Tahoe 200? Yes. Was there a hell of a lot of running? Yes. Just because you suck doesn't mean everyone does. 2:50 lol. HOBBY

I did the Bataan memorial death march and that was more painful than any marathon I’ve run. It’s 26.2 miles over the high desert with a long climb up a mountain with a 35lb pack. I did the team event and we shuffled along at 11-13:00 pace for most of it before one of our guys crashed.

Alan

I have not done a 100 miler but have done Grand Canyon R-R-R in a little under 10 hours for 48.3 miles. I am a 2:30 marathoner. I had come off 75 mile weeks in training but was no where near prepared for the altitude and the heat. ( I went in April) I was running solo and stopped at Phantom ranch twice to re-supply. Yes very difficult, rocky, hilly and way too many stairs. The descent destroys the legs, twice

A 2:30 in not difficult for 40 years old but this Ultra was horrendous, unbelievable I was 3.5 hours off the record.

Granted I could have done better if I wore a kilt, buff, Altra's and Hydration vest, which seems to be the standard uniform for Ultra runners.