Last year I went from running the odd marathon to tackling something altogether bigger, the Himalayan 100, a 100 mile multi day stage race at altitude. But what could I do to follow an event like that?
Well for me it meant looking at Ultra Marathons. The furthest I’d run up until this stage has around 30 miles (and that was largely downhill). An Ultra then will be something of a new challenge.
There is no real definition of what an ultra marathon is, other than being longer than a regular marathon. Common distances can be 50k, 50miles, 52 miles (double marathon), 100km or 100miles.
Ultras like marathons are becoming increasingly popular. There are over 125 Ultras here in the UK many of which can be found on ultramarathonrunning.com or a variety of other website. There are also some great online communities of ultra runners on sites like dailymile.com where you can get information on gear, training schedules and fueling stratergies.
While we tend to think of all of these distances as simply ultras, each ultra has a unique character of its own, with different terrains, with different levels of ascent and decent, taking part at different times of year and with different levels of support.
So the question is with so many different Ultra’s to pick from which would I choose as my first . Should I start small and work my way up. Should I go for something relatively flat or something a bit more challenging with more hills. Should I choose something nearby or make a break of it and go further afield.
In the end the choice was simple, as I didn’t really have to make it.
My roommate from the Himalayian 100, Paul Stoneley sent me an email saying that he’d been looking at a race called the Lakeland 50, a 50 mile race across the Lake District in Late July that you could run individually or as a team of two, and did I fancy running it. I didn’t even have to thing about it, the answer right away was yes. A couple of days later Paul realized that it was during his summer holidays and he couldn’t in fact make it, but my this time it was too late the idea was in my head, and I was going to run.
Over the next couple of weeks, I spoke to a few of the other runners that I’d ran with in India and both Iryna and Dianne said that they were interested in running the Lakeland, but they were more interested in the 100 miler than the 50.
Last year only 20 in 100 of those setting out on the Lakeland 100 made it to the finish line, but Iryna and Diane made the argument that with 14 checkpoints over the 100 miles, I could drop out at any point and I still would have ran further than I had ever ran before.
Its a completely crazy idea, not only to choose a 100 miler for my first ultra, but to choose one ran over grueling conditions and that will see us running through the night twice, if we stay the distance.
But for better or worse the choice for my first ultra has been made…and in July i’m running the Lakeland 100.
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How about the Bob Graham Round in the lakes?
Hi Chris thanks for the comment.
The Bob Graham round is probably the one big run that all fell runners (especially those that live within spitting distance of the Lakes) aspire to do at some stage in their running carrier.
Technically its less milage and less climbing than the Lakeland 100, but it has to be one of the toughest runs going with a 24 hour limit (16 less than the lakeland 100) and it covering all of the major lakeland summits (so its steeper than the Lakeland 100).
It is also something that requires a lot of planning and getting a support team together as there are no checkpoints or feed stations. So while its certainly on my bucket list it isn’t a race that i’d consider as a next step to a marathon…It could be my challenge for 2012 though (if i get around the 100).
Under 20 for a 5K. Nice work.