For some runners, the marathon isn’t long enough. Always pushing the envelope, the extreme of the extreme long distance runners seek out ultramarathons, races longer than the standard 26.2-mile marathon distance. Typical ultramarathon distances include 50K, 50 miles, 100K, and 100 miles. There are also timed runs, events in which ultrarunners attempt to cover as much distance as possible over a set time. These races typically last 12 or 24 hours.
One interesting tidbit about ultramarathons — most of these events are run over some pretty tough terrain and in extreme conditions. For instance, the brave souls who take on the Hardrock 100 Miler in Colorado get to enjoy climbing over 33,000 cumulative feet over the course of the race. That’s roughly the elevation gain of from where you are right now to the cruising altitude of a transcontinental Boeing 747 (unless you happen to be reading this column on a plane). Hello, monster calves. At least the temperatures during Hardrock are usually pretty good.
The same isn’t true for another little race called the Badwater Ultramarathon. The race starts in Badwater, Death Valley (the lowest elevation in North America — 280 feet below sea level) and finishes at Mount Whitney Portal at 8,360 feet. Between those two locations are three mountain ranges for a total of 13,000 feet of ascent and 4,700 feet of descent. Oh yeah, and the race is 135 miles long. The worst part though is the temperature. The race takes place in July, and the daytime temperatures reach the 130’s. Hello, sunstroke.
Now, I know what you’re thinking. Who in their right mind would subject themselves to that kind of torture?
Many people treat you differently when they find out you do ultras. Sometimes you even see a bit of the old “flee or fight” in their eyes when you first breach the subject. But really, to the hardcore ultrarunners, it’s not a big deal. It’s just what we do. Some people knit, some people fish, some people watch M.A.S.H. reruns, and some people like to run for 24 hours straight until their toenails fall off and they’ve lost five percent of their body weight. Completely normal.
Dean Karnazes, one of the more famous ultramarathoners, and author of the popular book Ultramarathon Man, described it best, “People think I’m crazy to put myself through such torture, though I would argue otherwise. Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness. Never are my senses more engaged than when the pain sets in. There is a magic in misery. Just ask any runner.”
Two San Angelo Road Lizard ultrarunners who identify with Dean participated this past weekend in the Relay for Life, sans the whole relay part. They were two teams of one among the 120 or so teams in Tom Green Country that raised over $230,000 to fight cancer.
Mars Torres, 31, decided to participate in the Relay for Life in honor of his uncle, Jesse, who died of liver cancer in 2003. His goal was to complete 60 miles in 12 hours. Kent Fish, 56, has participated in the relay for several years now. His goal this year was to complete 50 miles in 12 hours.
Mars explained his passion for running long distances as a desire to obtain mind over body-type experiences, “At some point in a long distance run, whether it’s a 10-miler at a fast pace or a 50-miler at a slow pace, the body will start to fatigue and pain creeps into the mind. The body will want to stop, but the mind can overcome it and force it to keep going. It amazes me how much abuse the body can take and still keep going.”
I know most ultrarunners can relate to Mars’s statement. For the 20 or so miles I paced with him starting Friday night and into Saturday morning, in between the bad jokes and off-key singing, we discussed the excruciating pain that runners tend to experience, and actually seek, during an ultramarathon.
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