Road Marathoner’s reflections on first ultramarathon

Which race wrote:

Which race did you do?

Many on the Genny 40 Miler.

Pets the Dragon wrote:

So, what was harder a 2:41 marathon or a 40 mile trail ultra?

Of course a 40 miler is harder than some stupid 240 marathon. Is that even a question?

Popopopopp wrote:

I hate auto correct......

Basically, tldr, everyone should try an ultra before criticizing it . I think most of these faggott track stars would be so humiliated to have to forcibly walk due to burning out after 20 miles on trails. They are just a bunch of bitchess for not trying it. I mean you live 75 years and to not try an ultra one Fuckking time is pathetic. It just shows that they don’t want to go out of thier comfort level like a bunch of faggotss

I won't do an ultra for the same reason I won't do a 50k race walk. Just because something is hard doesn't mean it's not stupid.

If you haven’t run 50 miles in under 8 hours than you shouldn’t be called a runner,

YESSSSSSS wrote:

If you haven’t run 50 miles in under 8 hours than you shouldn’t be called a runner,

This is so true. No WALK but RUN 50 miles. If you can’t do that you aren’t a real runnner or man

Typical track weakling: “ultras are hiked and walked for losers”

Reality: U;tras are ran by men for men. You are just a loser.

Purveyor of Perspective wrote:

The point is though that both the fast runner & the ultra runner will be going out of their comfort zones, it's just the person doing this on an ultra has never had the bottle to push themselves to an uncomfortable pace at a real running distance.

That's actually an interesting idea. I reckon your typical hobbyjogger marathon runner who progresses on to ultras probably has no concept of the mental focus / pain shut out required to run, say, a sub 15 minute 5k. When they're running 7:00 min mile pace 21+ mins, they probably just think that's it, the fast guys just find it easy...

But once they've done a few ultras and have built up that mental toughness - got a bit of mind over physical shutdown - about them, it would be interesting to see if they could then significantly improve their 5k times.

I bet they could. Only problem is that a lot of the ultra guys have come from that background of failure and kind of use trail / ultras as a mental defence system against trying short distances again - you know, the "no way I'd go back to road racing, trails are so much more of a challenge" brigade. I think it's the same defensiveness which causes these guys to troll on here a lot - just trying to find some justification for themselves, whereas the fast guys just don't really care because they've already proven their mental prowess.

Lol. Yeah right. The dedication and focus required to run a half decent 5K is the same as some hobbyjogging ultra "runner" getting over a tough spot and walking through the 35 mile "pain barrier".

Moran!

RastaMon wrote:

Also goes to show how different road and trail are, I am sad that Camille Herron didn't run Western States because I think on paper she is the best runner in the field without question or it being even close, but I think she would have faltered and failed again. But Courtney Dauwalter is just a different breed of tough and you cannot really get that running in Oklahoma as opposed to Colorado.

I'd pick Courtney over Camille 9/10 times for Western States. Even last week I would've said the same thing.

And living in colorado doesn't make you any tougher than living on oklahoma. I'd say the opposite in fact as you have to do much more monotonous runs and have to try hard to get in hills. It's not tough at all to go run beautiful trails every day, no matter how hilly they are.

Camille is better than Courtney at many types of races, but WS100 isn't one of them.

reed wrote:

Camille is better than Courtney at many types of races, but WS100 isn't one of them.

Exactly right.

The Scoop wrote:

I want to point out here that this was my first ultra and I had no idea the creek was coming up. It was never previously mentioned.

One thing I found odd was all the folks wearing camelback vests. Just grab a handheld bottle and run. I did notice some beardy hipsters and I laughed. For the most part everyone was cool and much nicer than any marathon ive done for sure. Although there was a fair share of hippy looking dudes on the whole everyone was decent. I didnt get a sense of deuchyness that people told me about.

So, hippy looking dudes and dudes with beards are deuchy and you are not? Who told you that you are not deuchy? Just checking.

Ultra runner come from failure??? Reallly dude? Are you stupid. Most ultra runner I know never even ran track in thier youth. It’s not like they tried for 10 years at 5k and then just said “fuckk it, I mine as well run ultras” lol. You’re world view is fuckked up.

Ha ha. I love the fact that you replied to:-

Fun Lovin' Boyz wrote:

I reckon your typical hobbyjogger marathon runner who progresses on to ultras probably has no concept of the mental focus / pain shut out required to run, say, a sub 15 minute 5k.

With this:-

Wtf are you smoking wrote:

Ultra runner come from failure??? Reallly dude? Are you stupid. Most ultra runner I know never even ran track in thier youth. It’s not like they tried for 10 years at 5k and then just said “fuckk it, I mine as well run ultras” lol. You’re world view is fuckked up.

That dude was actually trying to trying to defend ultra runners (and already got shot down for it!) but you're so gone frothing at the mouth that you're just spewing absolute rubbish without reading what people are actually writing. Seriously dude your ramblings all over this thread are just crazy. I think you need to check your meds!

Disagree. Camille has beaten Charlie Ware at UROC on the Western States trails and is faster than Ian Sharman for fast trail 100 miles. She would have been top 5-10 for sure and will get the course record, if not the first woman under 16 hours.

You sound like a bitchh

No yoiu wrote:

Not the full shilling wrote:

Ha ha. I love the fact that you replied to:-

With this:-

That dude was actually trying to trying to defend ultra runners (and already got shot down for it!) but you're so gone frothing at the mouth that you're just spewing absolute rubbish without reading what people are actually writing. Seriously dude your ramblings all over this thread are just crazy. I think you need to check your meds!

You sound like a bitchh

Nice one! You really showed him!

grade school logic wrote:

No yoiu wrote:

You sound like a bitchh

You do too. Ultra runner aren’t failed road runners. Ever stop to think that ultra runners just enjoy thier races more??? It’s a different sport you dbag

Nice one! You really showed him!

OP here. If you don’t try an ultra you can’t critisize it. I learned that the hard way, /end of my thread.

I'm a hobby jogger turned trailrunner, turned back to hobby jogger. Ran 5ks/XC for a few years seriously and progressed to 15:20s for 5000m. Then did a marathon in low 2:30s. So I definitely have been very uncomfortable during races. Then I moved to ultras and have run 4 50ks so far. While training for a 50 miler I ran a couple 5ks. Once, at the beginning of my 50 mile training cycle, I ran 16:32ish. A couple months later I ran 15:55ish when in peak 50mi shape. Those were road races so not a perfect comparison to my 15:2X PR but probably worth 20 seconds slower than my best. I was doing much less speedwork and intensity obviously and that's the main reason I ran slower. Training for marathons and ultras certainly didn't make me any faster at 5k, but it didn't ruin me either.