Ok, so for a long long time, marathon runners were the kooks, the freaks, the people that were called crazy for running for 26.2 miles for no real reason. Over the past few decades, the marathon has become a goal to all sorts of people, not just runners. There are many people who are not ‘runners’ who decide they want to conquer the marathon, just to say they did it. They train for maybe 6 months, run the marathon, and then never run again. Over 400,000 people finished a marathon last year. Its hetting so ‘anyone’ can do a marathon, so it is not so cool anymore.

After I ran my first marathon last June, I started thinking about the ‘next’ distance, the so called ‘ultra marathons’. An ‘Ultra’ is (technically) any race longer than 26.2 miles, and I figured if I can do 26.2, why not 50? (or 100?) So I decided to do a little research and find a 50 miler close by.

The Chicago Lakefront 50 is in early november, a mere 2 weeks after the Detroit marathon that I signed up for a while ago. Originally, Detroit was going to be my boston qualifying attempt, but no longer since I qualified just fine back in June at Sunburst. So now, I can run the Detroit marathon as my last 20+ mile training run for the Ultra.

Ultras are different birds than marathons in more than the obvious ways. You can survive a marathon without eating anything during the run (if you have ‘loaded up’ properly) but in a 50 mile race that is impossible. You just HAVE to eat something whilst running. I am not a huge fan of the ‘Gu‘ type energy gels for running, I just don’t like the taste nor texture. As such, I have been trying some other things, all with good success, including caramel apple suckers, peanut butter sandwiches, and flat (so you don’t get an upset stomach whilse running from the carbonation) coca-cola.

The other difference in training is that you have to get a lot more miles on your feet. When training for a marathon, most training schedules say not to run longer than 20-22 miles in your long runs. They say the excitement of the race will get you through the last 4-6 miles so you don’t need to run 26 miles in any one training run. When training for a 50 miler, you need time on your feet. So I have done a few really longs runs (31.25 miles is the longest so far) and almost doubled my weekly mileage up to 80+ miles/ week. The only ill effects I can feel is a nagging soreness in my right ankle. Ice, a ankle brace and ibuprofen seem to be helping there though.

I sent in my registration this morning, so I am in for it. We’ll see what happens….

23:49 (5:58/mile)

My first race in a while was by far the wierdest. It is a handicapped race so people start in a staggered format based on qualifying times. There is a ’series’ of road races in Jackson called the Citizen Patriot Run/Walk Series. If you complete at least 4 of the races you can compete in this silly race. The first runner set out at 8am, then a little later, another person headed out, etc. The idea is that everyone finished at the same time (but their elapsed times are very different) I started at 8:27:46 and was the 3rd to last to start. I passed two people within a half mile, but it took me another 2 miles to nab another person. After that, I hit the crowd and started passing people at a good clip, passing (I think) 31 by the end. It was kindof cool, and I hit my goal of less than 6 minute pace.

Afterwards they handed out the awards for the entire series. Technically, I finished second in my age group, but because my age group winner was the overall winner, I get the first place age division trophy. It will look cool in my office I think, next to my wall of race numbers and medals.