Ultramarathon

Duncan Larkin of EliteRunning.com has a fantastic interview with ultra-runner Scott Jurek, Spartathlon champion and former winner of Badwater and the Western States.

Read it here.

On January 6, 2007, I ran my first ultramarathon, the Red Rock Fat Ass 50k. The “Fat Ass” series of races is a series of low key ultramarathons. They're usually put on by local ultrarunners who want to be able to race, but don't want to go through the hassle of organizing a big race. Generally speaking, they have no advertising, little or no aid, no entrance fee and no prizes. In this race we kept track of our own time, there were two aid stations which we passed 3 and 4 times and it was run in the Red Rock National Recreational Area. One advantage of these races is they can often be run in areas where it would be impossible to get permits for an official race. There were 18 runners this year. The race's website is found at http://www.ultrarunner.net/redrockfa50k.html.

I'm going to kick of my blog with a blog entry I wrote following this year's Leadville race.

August 20, 2006 -- 10:00 am, 3 hours after finishing.

I am one sore puppy today (and that will of course only get worse for the next 48 hours).

So, my goals for the race were:

1) Finish
2) Break into the top 100
3) Break 25 hours (and net the big buckle)

Final time was 26:47 ... only remarkable because I had such a difficult time with the double crossing of Hope Pass. I've run this double crossing several times in test, but yesterday my HR was 15 pts higher than normal and I could not get air in to power my legs.