While running the McDonald Forest 50K, my first ultra, I met a guy named Michael. We exchanged stories as I talked about my young twins and he told me how he’d run this particular race several times in the past. His trai...
Tag: From the Editor
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
We recently conducted a reader survey and received almost 1,000 responses – thank you for your feedback. The positive comments were encouraging and nice to hear. Over 98% of respondents said UltraRunning Magazine is inte...
Most ultrarunners are fueled by a desire to push their limits and explore the boundaries of what is possible. They are drawn to training for and completing ultras because they want to challenge themselves and achieve big...
This time of year is generally recognized – with reverence and in hushed tones – as the time for looking back on the year and reflecting. But as ultrarunners, we are most often solely focused on what lies ahead – after a...
After a joyous wedding celebration, Erika Hoagland, UltraRunning Contributing Editor, and I had the bright idea to enjoy our honeymoon by taking on a new adventure together – hiking the 170-mile Tahoe Rim Trail. We had n...
As Tropical John Medinger astutely observed, ultrarunning is a hard sport for everyone – back of the pack, middle of the pack and those at the front – and it is this shared experience of suffering that brings all ultraru...