{"id":400,"date":"2018-09-27T18:33:16","date_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:33:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/?p=400"},"modified":"2018-09-27T18:33:16","modified_gmt":"2018-09-27T18:33:16","slug":"being-a-running-fan-spectator-part-five","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2018\/09\/27\/being-a-running-fan-spectator-part-five\/","title":{"rendered":"Being a running fan\/spectator part five…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In the first four posts about following running as a spectator it was emphasized that the longer the distance, the fewer races an athlete typically does per year. Also, you can make reasonable predictions on how runners will do based on past performances, the weather, meet\/event types, and in the case of road running, different types of courses. For ultramarathons, toss all of that out the window. It’s a completely different sport.<\/p>\n

Most ultramarathons (any distance that is longer than 26.2 miles) occur on trails. Years ago, I did my first trail 50K (31+ miles) in Virginia. Based on my marathon personal best of 3:11 (at the time), I figured that accounting for the trail surface, I would be done somewhere in the four to four and a half hour range. Six hours and twenty-six minutes after the gun went off, I crossed the line in 9th place overall. Fortunately, a veteran ultra runner had told me to be patient when the race started. I was patient, I felt good the whole way, and I finished strong. That’s when it hit me how different trail racing is from road or track racing.\u00a0There are some remarkable mountain runners out there who can cover the distances quickly. But, when you look at winning times of ultras on trails versus the world record for the same distances, you can see how the different running surfaces and conditions affect time. The course record at the Leadville 100 is 15:42 whereas the world record for 100 miles is 11:28 (Leadville time source<\/a>;\u00a0 100 mile WR source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

(Some ultramarathon runners measure their time in terms of how much elevation they gain over a period of time as opposed to minutes per mile. This makes sense, given that there are long stretches in ultras where you may be climbing for miles, or descending. You’re not going to have the even mile splits that you would find in a road marathon or a track race.)<\/p>\n

As I mentioned in an earlier post, most professional marathoners will do two per year, maybe three. By this logic, an ultramarathoner would only be able to do one or two. That is incorrect. Many ultramarathoners do a bunch every year. For some, it’s a lifestyle. The winner of the Western States 100 may not take 90-100 days of recovery time. Scott Jurek won the Western States 100 mile in 2005 and then three weeks later, won the Badwater 135 mile race (Jurek Western States source<\/a>;\u00a0\u00a0Jurek Badwater source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

How do you keep up with ultra news, events, and athletes?\u00a0Unlike some track or road events that might require a certain television channel or subscription package, many of them have webcasts which you can pull up on your laptop or device free of charge.<\/p>\n

The more difficult part, at least for having broad expertise with ultras, is that there are a bunch of them out there. While there are some marquee events, there’s not a nice set of several races\/meets where, if someone wins, they are generally considered the best in the world.\u00a0I attribute this to two things. One, as I mentioned, for many ultramarathon runners, it’s a lifestyle and I’ll discuss that more below. Also, many ultras don’t offer prize money. If there were a $100,000 check waiting at the end of races like Leadville or Badwater, the dynamics of the ultra world might be different.<\/p>\n

Also, not all trail races are created equally which can make them difficult to compare. The winning time for the Leadville 100 may be in the 16 hour range whereas the winning time for the Hardrock 100 may be 24 hours. The difference there is in the cumulative elevation gain\/descent. Both are held in the mountains of Colorado, but Leadville features approximately 26,000 feet of gain\/descent, whereas Hardrock features 66,000 feet of gain\/descent (Leadville source<\/a>; Leadville elevation source<\/a>;\u00a0Hardrock source<\/a>).\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Even converting the times if you’re familiar with the courses may not be rock-solid since some runners may be better at climbing whereas others may be exceptionally good in extreme heat or cold.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, even if you’re familiar with the events and the relative runners’ strengths and weaknesses, you may not know what they have planned and this is where the ultra lifestyle comes into play. A week prior to this year’s Badwater ultramarathon, Harvey Lewis, a past winner, finished running the complete Appalachian Trail. Only several days after this year’s Badwater, Pete Kostelnick, another past winner, set off on a 5,300+ mile run from Alaska to the Florida Keys (Harvey Lewis source<\/a>; Pete Kostelnick source<\/a>).<\/p>\n

If ultras interest you, there is a ton of information to read out there. If you’re a casual observer, it can be fun to read up on the race results. Given the length of some of the races, the athletes have plenty of experiences and adventures out there. Or, you can keep track of one or two and enjoy it that way. The only one that I follow thoroughly is Badwater. Even for that, I only look at the list of the current year’s entrants (released in the spring of the race year) and check to see which of the top-ranked folks have competed in prior Badwater races to get an idea of how the race might turn out.\u00a0One website that has some ultra coverage is irunfar<\/a>.<\/a>\u00a0It’s not as comprehensive relative to the ultra world as LetsRun is to the track and road racing world, but it has good articles and news. Also, the individual races’ websites have lots of good information and you can find further follow-up online.<\/p>\n

This concludes my one-post-which-turned-into-five on how to follow running as a spectator. It takes some effort since the format is different from many other sports and you don’t get the 24 hours media coverage. Though it can take a while to get a deep knowledge base, it’s very rewarding. It was nothing short of thrilling to watch Kipchoge break the world record, despite the obnoxious hour of the morning. While it can always be exciting to watch a world record fall, knowing Berlin, knowing his running history, and knowing what he was capable of made it much more compelling. This is also the case for many other distances.<\/p>\n

A Chicago preview next week (unfortunately a couple of the elite American women have already pulled out) and safety on the run.<\/p>\n

Running food review of the week:\u00a0<\/span>(note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race):\u00a0Gu Vanilla Bean<\/a>.<\/span>\u00a0 Maybe it’s just me, but I’m weirded out when the term “bean” is used in conjunction with a flavor most commonly used to describe ice cream. However, this tasted just like vanilla and it worked well.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Sources used:<\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.americanultra.org\/news\/2002news\/23oct02b.html<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/l283s3pxq2ktw6gs37ski16ee.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Leadville-100-Run-thru-2016.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.wser.org\/results\/2005-results\/<\/a><\/div>\n
http:\/\/dbase.adventurecorps.com\/results.php?bw_eid=21&bib=&lastName=&firstName=&gender=&age=&wave=&country=&nationality=&bwr=Go&last=85<\/a>
\nhttp:\/\/l283s3pxq2ktw6gs37ski16ee.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/Leadville-100-Run-thru-2016.pdf<\/a>\u00a0 \u00a0http:\/\/hardrock100.com\/<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.wcpo.com\/news\/local-news\/hamilton-county\/cincinnati\/cincinnati-ultrarunner-harvey-lewis-finishes-appalachian-trail-in-less-than-50-days<\/a>
\nhttps:\/\/www.runnersworld.com\/runners-stories\/a22791879\/pete-kostelnick-alaska-to-florida-run\/<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the first four posts about following running as a spectator it was emphasized that the longer the distance, the fewer races an athlete typically does per year. Also, you can make reasonable predictions on how runners will do based on past performances, the weather, meet\/event types, and in the case of road running, different … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Being a running fan\/spectator part five…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[10,39,13,38,17],"class_list":["post-400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-badwater","tag-hardrock","tag-jurek","tag-leadville","tag-ultramarathon"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9W0ku-6s","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":268,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2018\/07\/19\/road-runner\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":0},"title":"Road runner…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"July 19, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The new menu item, Running Food Reviews, is up and live--check it out while you're here. 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My dad and I decided to take a trip to California for a few days and much of it was spent in Death Valley, along with some time right outside the park boundaries. We also stayed a night in Lone Pine,\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":353,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2018\/08\/30\/being-a-running-fan-spectator-part-three\/","url_meta":{"origin":400,"position":2},"title":"Being a running fan\/spectator part three…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"August 30, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Sprints are a lot of fun to watch. Some of the fun for me is that I was not a sprinter. I was put into the distance camp on day one and it's fascinating to watch how people race short distances. 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