Why Do Lets Run Posters Hate Ultra Runners?

I run ultras and even I find ultrarunners insufferable.

Unfortunately for ultra running, races take hours and hours and hours. It’s also a watered down product compared to the top dogs. Whether you agree with this or not, it’s the perception that most runners have.

So it’s watered down and long.

Until someone notable gives them a shot (whether they win or get dominated doesn’t matter), people just don’t and won’t care.

It’s better than race walking though so I’ll give you that.

It’s a form of white flight. When the going gets tough, while people create sports that are cost prohibitive and/or require less athleticism.

Can’t make it in marathon distance - do ultra or triathlon.

Not good enough in a real strength sport- do CrossFit.

Boxing too tough- do MMA.

NFL is too big, too black, too strong-do soccer.

Typical.

when you concede your lack of athletic skill . Cant play football, b ball , sprinting et. Then end up in all day running events and pooping on the the trail .

I think some ultra people are huge narcissists. They all have blogs and insta and at times looks for handouts. Not really an athletic accomplishment to see who can run or walk the farthest. Competition is weak because no one else cares about this activity. There's barely any competition cuz so few people do it. And yet they brag and say their the top in the world but dont mention it's because no one else cares about this waste of time and energy.

It’s because they have no sense of direction. They only know how to run in circles.

Running ultras for a very long time.

But, I have to say that these young voices are not exactly wrong.

Ultra trail running has become a slog fest where people are trying to complete 100 miles in a flat 48 hour race. On the other end of the spectrum there is Jim Walmsley celebrated at the guy who makes ultrarunning fast. Last time I checked he was beaten at his own Hoka 100k race by about 25 minutes or so.

Most competitive runners are pretty obnoxious. So there’s that..

Adult runners who take running too seriously are grating and ultra-runners are basically by definition the worst offenders. Especially lame because rather than try to run reasonable distances faster, they jog for days and then revel in telling normal people that they "run" triple marathons.

What people hate is the ignorance behind the faux glory. Ultras are really just hated the same way “hobby-joggers” are hated. It’s a person with no talent, or refuses to do actual hard training and dieting etc., and then they shuffle through whatever distance to get a finishers medal just so they can post about it on social media - oh well. Then, the longer the race the more social media worthy for their followers to gush over and validate their existence. Which is great for what it is.

However, training to run fast is hard. The effort to train to run fast, while putting in the diet to get your body composition into race shape, breaking yourself down while building yourself up, it’s just a vastly different thing than an over-weight person who put in the “work” to jog a 4 hour marathon. That person will just never understand the huge disparity in effort required to run fast. Never understand the sacrifice of so many things.

I don’t hate on ultra runners or back of the pack runners. I think everyone should run, no matter how slow, and I like that people feel good about it. But liking that they run doesn’t mean I would ever feel the need to congratulate them for it. On the other hand, I definitely respect the runners who put in the work to run fast, I appreciate hard work and talent.

I don't think that people on Letsrun "hate" ultra runner.

But there is a genera dislike for the "performances". Some ultra runner act like if covering the most distance in two days was the best achievement in the history of running. It is not. Let's be honest, you said it yourself, you are doing ultra because you can't get PR anymore for other distance, you are not in your best shape.

The difference of level of athletic abilities between top marathoners and top ultra runners is enormous and people don't like that there are attempts to pass ultra records as equivalent as distance running record.

Love the mountains and trails, hate the beards and trucker hats

The world's strongest man and most power lifting records have all been held by Nordic or Slavic people for years on end so your point about strength competitions doesn't cut it. Is it black flight that we don't see any Africans taking part in Swimming at the Olympics or is it just that there are differences between the races that go beyond skin colour? Dumb post.

Trailrunners are some of the most egotistical people I've ever met. They seriously think they are Gods. Sorry, not sorry, Jim will not be anywhere close to making the Olympic team, nor should he be in the discussions. 27th at the Houston Half and 5th at Phoenix RnR sucks.

Forest Gump here wrote:

Running ultras for a very long time.

But, I have to say that these young voices are not exactly wrong.

Ultra trail running has become a slog fest where people are trying to complete 100 miles in a flat 48 hour race. On the other end of the spectrum there is Jim Walmsley celebrated at the guy who makes ultrarunning fast. Last time I checked he was beaten at his own Hoka 100k race by about 25 minutes or so.

Markus, you are slow. Go away and stop trolling message boards like you're an authority on ultras.

Is it because ultra running is strongly correlated with the vegan lifestyle and a lifestyle that involves not working but scraping by mooching off parents, sponsors etc. A lot of them set up go fund me pages and of course Rob Young was an ultra runner who turned out to be a fake.

Ultra runners are the ultimate narcissists and contribute nothing to society.

And they also wear those ridiculous fuel vests.

This is an easy one... because most runners live by the fact that fast>far but the average person in your office thinks far>fast.

This makes your average runner sad because they’re grinding out 10 miles or more a day with multiple hard sessions and Debbie from

accounts is more impressed with someone that turned up and walked 80% of a 50 miler.

I don't run beyond 10K/HM and agree with most on here. However, I'm reading Finn's Rise of the Ultra Runners at the moment and while most of it so far corroborates what people have written here, the section on Comrades is outstanding. It's different and much older than today's ultras, and has its own history. That chapter is really quite a read.