The phone rang and on the other line was John Medinger. “Hey Karl, so we’re thinking about selling the magazine and this is my first call. What do you think?” It was April 2013 and I was sitting in my office, looking for...
Articles by Karl Hoagland
Training for ultramarathons is hard work. It requires a huge commitment of time and energy to prepare yourself to run – maybe even race – up to 100 miles. Fifty-mile training weeks, punctuated with at least one long run...
Labor Day is more than a fun weekend, it is a date on the calendar with significant meaning around transition. End of summer. Back to school. Weather getting crisp and colder. Days getting shorter and nights getting long...
Transporting your body on foot for 100 miles in one go seems like an intensely personal and individual experience. And in many ways it is – only you can cover the miles, one step at a time. The physical pain and mental a...
THE LAKE SONOMA 50-MILER is an out-and-back on gorgeous but torturous single-track trails around Lake Sonoma, which is in the heart of California wine country at the head of the Dry Creek Valley. The race’s slogan is sim...
Time stops for none of us, and that is especially true in the sport of ultrarunning. Whether it is Wally Hesseltine trying to finish the last 300 yards of Western States in under one minute so he could become the oldest...
“When 26.2 Miles Isn’t Enough” is the title of an article published last month by British newspaper and digital media outlet The Guardian that explores the “phenomenal rise of the ultramarathon.” It is an interesting top...
My dad retired in his late fifties and has been having the time of his life for the past few decades. He turns 85 this year and is still doing his thing – playing tennis, hunting all sorts of birds and doing real yard wo...
Darcy Piceu has become one of the most accomplished ultrarunners in the history of the sport. She completed her first ultra, a 50-miler, in 2001 at the age of 26 and then less than a year later completed the Leadville 10...
Mistakes are gifts. When we screw up or face big setbacks, we can learn from those experiences and reset our resolve to achieve goals and live the life we want. Behind every successful and happy person are many big mista...
Recently my wife Erika gave birth to our daughter, Evelyn Rose. There is no way to fully describe the feeling and process of a new person coming to life. It is intense, transformative and beautiful. In my experience the...
UR: Congratulations on an incredible year, you accomplished so much it is hard to know where to start. Herron: Thanks, but to be honest last year was a real roller coaster for me, it had as many or more challenges and...
UR: How does it feel to be a two-time UROY at age 27? Walmsley: It is pretty nice, especially since this year I had some learning experiences and setbacks even though there were some nice races, more so in the first h...
This issue of UltraRunning is a new one – it is a “double issue” that combines both December and January. Previously we had a December issue that was followed by our big blast double issue – January/February with Ultraru...
Covering a lot of distance on foot is what ultrarunning is all about. And one of the best ways to do it is to just set aside a full day and pick an audacious route that traverses beautiful natural places. Recently som...
Without trails our sport would not exist. Sure there are road ultras and many “trail” ultras entail portions along fireroads, tow paths, running tracks and, gasp, even pavement. But if you look at the most popular and ic...
Many comparisons have been made to modern-day ultrarunners and the Pioneers who crossed the continent in covered wagons back in the 1840s and 1850s. The Pioneers risked everything and took on a massively arduous 2,000-mi...
Clare Gallagher and Brian Rusiecki have won the UltraRunning Race Series Overall Ranking for the 2016-2017 season. The Series applied a formula to score every ultra finisher at every ultra race in the 12 months ending Ap...
Let’s face it, ultrarunning is a really difficult activity. It requires a huge time and lifestyle commitment. But many people are attracted, like moths to flame, to the opportunity to do something epic. And often once th...
If you’re an ultramarathoner, chances are that you started with a marathon. An informal survey of ultarunning friends reveals that most of them did at least one marathon before moving up to ultras. Going 26 miles seems t...