UltraRunning Magazine today announced the launch of the UltraRunning Race Series (“URS”), a North American ultrarunning series that scores every North American participant in every North American ultra. Scoring is…
Articles by UltraRunning Magazine
On Labor Day Weekend, the Fred Deadman Park in Manchester, Tennessee will play host to the greatest field of American ultramarathon runners ever assembled…. 30 years too late. In a…
Gunhild Swanson crosses the finish line of the 2015 Western States 100 6 seconds before the 30 hour cutoff to become the oldest finisher in the history of the race.
I decided to examine the question whether women are superior distance runners by consulting the world records. (I assume that the world records give close to the best human performance under ideal conditions.) In order to make comparisons more valid I used records set on the track to eliminate possible uneven performances due to grade (such as the net 490 foot drop at the Boston Marathon) and potential aiding by wind (70% chance at Boston).
How good is Yiannis Kouros? Put it this way: He is the only runner for whom an accusation of cheating eventually became an honor. The quality of his run in the first Spartathlon was so far beyond what anyone thought possible that the only way to put his performance in perspective was to assume that he had cut the course. And so he came to Austria on Easter weekend of 1984 as the object of sincere suspicion.
Four ultramarathoners occupied a $200 /month, rundown apartment. They shared one bathroom and one dream: They loved to run the long ones, the ultras. They pooled every thing they had – food, Nikes, part – time jobs, friends, and trails. Life was simple because there were no non-essential personal possessions to care for or to use.
It was Easter Sunday in March 2008, and he was unable to fit into the restaurant booth at a family gathering. Bill Clements was nearly 30 years old, and this was his wakeup call. He had always enjoyed being in nature and the idea that he was physically fit and able to enjoy himself on various outings and adventures, but now, with 250 pounds on his 5 foot 9 inch frame, he knew that something had to change. Two years later Bill completed his first 50k
Paralyzed from the neck down, his head supported by a stainless steel band with pins penetrating his skull, Richard Dinges sat immobilized in a wheelchair last year still planning to run in the 1984 Catalina Marathon and Western States 100. “The doctors were pretty noncommittal,” Dinges said. “They just didn’t know what the outcome would be.”
The article by Sally Edwards ( Ultramarathoning A Dying Sport?) in the September issue of Ultrarunning elicited considerable response. Some of the letters follow; additional comments on the subject or on other aspects of ultramarathoning are always welcome.
Any running event which exceeds the marathon distance of 26.2 miles is called an ultramarathon. In this country the sport of ultramarathoning really began in 1867 when Edward Payson Weston became the first professional pedestrian: he walked 1,132 miles, from Portland, Maine to Chicago, winning a prize of $10,000. The newspapers of the day followed him daily; Harper’s Weekly said that “this walk has made Weston’s name a household word.”
Frank Bozanich. No other name in modern American ultradistance running conjures up such a perception of perseverance and toughness. At 36, the former Marine Captain and Viet Nam veteran continues to demonstrate his prodigious talent at these grueling distances.
Here are the 50 Mile average times based on age group and gender.
After last weeks chart, we had some requests to look at average finishing times based on age group. Here are the 50k average times based on age group and gender.
A look at the average finishing times for 50k, 50 Mile, 100k and 100 Mile distances across all age groups for 2014.
Q: First of all congratulations on consecutive UROY awards– how does 2014 compare to 2013? It’s a huge honor for me to be voted Ultra Runner of the Year. It…
Q: First of all congratulations on your third UROY in four years– how does 2014 compare to 2011 and 2012? Winning UROY in 2014 is different because I have raced…
Ellie Greenwood Ellie Greenwood is the female Ultra Runner of the Year. It’s the third time she has won the award in the past four years. After missing most of…
Max King Max King checks in at number 2 in our Ultra Runner of the Year balloting. King won the World 100K Championships in Qatar in November, setting a new…
Stephanie Howe Western States champion Stephanie Howe checks in at number three. 2014 was a banner year for the Bend, Oregon runner as she won Western States, completed her PhD…
Dylan Bowman Dylan Bowman is the fourth ranked runner for 2014. Bowman started the year off with a win at the Sean O’Brien 50 and finished a strong third at…
Magdalena Boulet The number five woman for 2014 is Magdalena Boulet. A 2008 Olympic marathoner, Boulet made her ultra debut in December 2013 and ramped it up this year with…
Brian Rusiecki Brian Rusiecki finished sixth in the voting. The South Deerfield, Massachusetts based electrical engineer set a new course record in winning the Vermont 100 and won the Bull…
Larisa Dannis Larisa Dannis had a breakthrough year to place seventh in the voting. She nailed a spot at Western States with a strong run at the Ice Age Trail…
Zach Bitter Zach Bitter comes in at number eight. The Wisconsin middle-school teacher posted the fastest 100-mile time of the year and was also consistently fast at the 100K distance,…
Emily Harrison Emily Harrison is our number nine ranked woman for 2014. The Virginia native, now living in Flagstaff, Arizona, had a stellar year capped by a win at the…
We start our countdown with the tenth ranked runners for 2014. Alex Varner Alex Varner of Mill Valley, California checks in at our number 10 runner. Varner ran four races…
Victor Ballesteros of Victory Sportdesign talks with us from The Running Event (TRE) on his variety of bags and a few developments on new products coming up for 2015.
by Sarah Koszyk, M.A., RDN, Registered Sports Dietitian/Nutritionist Success. Completion. Accomplishment. Congratulations, you’ve just finished running an ultramarathon, most likely about 31, 50 or 100 miles. The time it took…
Race results are obtained from numerous sources, and should be accurate and complete, but inevitably there may be errors. In such cases please let us know. We obtained results from our archive of old ultrarunning magazines dating back to 1981.
Wondering what state represents the most when it comes to finishes at Ultras? The map below shows the percentage of Ultrarunning finishers as a percentage of a states population.
On August 24, at the 14th running of the Headlands 50K, ultra rookie Alex Varner took off at a torrid pace and never slowed down. Many of us were at the finish line area setting up, and not expecting finishers for anothe...