Next up is More Miles Last One Standing in Knoxville, MD. The race is structured as a backyard ultra where you run a 4.16 miles loop every hour with the winner being the runner who completes the most number of loops (or yards) and is the last man standing. The odd mileage is to let…
Upping My Volunteer Game
So I’ve participated in quite a few ultras over the decade plus that I’ve been in the sport. Sixty five to be exact. At first, it was easy to take for granted the amount of effort required to put on these events. Far too easy. You show up to a race, get your bib and…
Walking As The Ultimate Long Ultra Cheat Code
It’s been a while since I wrote about walking in ultras so I thought this would be a good time to revisit the topic. The stats from my last race showed that I walked for 38 hours and ran for 19 hours. I’m obviously moving faster while running so maybe about half the distance was…
How Long Does It Take To Recover From An Ultra?
I believe there are two correct answers to this question: The more ultras that I’ve complete over the years, the quicker I’ve been able to recover from them. Generally speaking, it takes me about a week to physically feel back to 95% or so of normal. Mentally, it takes maybe another week to want to…
Coast to Coaster Epic Photo Dump
I took a lot of photos during my journey that didn’t make it into my race report. Here’s what I left out. Check-in Selfies It’s going to be pretty obvious, pretty quickly that I need to up my selfie game. And Now The Course I’m thinking next year I can shave a couple hours off…
Coast to Coaster 232 Mile Race Report
Coast to Coaster is a 232 mile journey run from Sandusky, Ohio on the shore of Lake Erie to Kings Island outside Cincinnati. Journey runs are conducted on open roads with no course markings. Instead, runners are provided a GPX file that can be loaded onto their watches and phones to ensure we remain on…
Coast to Coaster 232 Preview
Ticket to ride, white line highwayTell all your friends, they can go my wayPay your toll, sell your soulPound for pound costs more than gold Melle Mel Coast to Coaster is a 232 mile journey run from the Cedar Point amusement park in Sandusky, OH to Kings Island in Cincinnati. The race has been lengthened…
Ultrarunning As A Continual Learning Process
There are a bunch of different ways to approach ultras depending on what you want to get out of the sport. Some runners focus on fitness and attempt to get as fast as possible. Some people only want to briefly experiment with distances beyond marathons. Some sign up and race every weekend or two. Some…
The Call Of The Open Road
One of the things that I love about ultras is the sheer variety of race formats that are available to choose from apart from the different distances. If you want a single loop course, that’s an option. So are out-and-back routes, eight loops, 5k loops, fatass races with no entry fees, backyards with no fixed…
Halfway To World Class Expertise
In Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers, he lays out the theory that in order to become an expert in a field you need to devote 10,000 hours of practice. Some people may quibble that practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect. Regardless, I think everyone will acknowledge that the more you do something, the better…