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Don’t litter. This should be unnecessary to say, because everybody knows littering sucks. For so many reasons, too. Littering degrades the landscape, injures the wildlife, takes away from the experience of others, and just looks really bad. The rule is to pack out what you pack in, and for runners that’s simple enough. Not littering extends to human waste, which should be buried 6 to 8 inches deep to avoid contamination. Staying conscious of what we carry allows us to protect our favorite areas.

Be friendly. Of course you are anyway, but being friendly makes other people want to work with you. By keeping the trails amicable, runners boost the goodwill of other users and make the trails a worthy use of resources for government planners.

Plan ahead and prepare. Making sure you know where you’re going and what you’re going to encounter is often the difference between a fun day of running and a hideous epic of painful torment. Search-and-rescue is costly, disrupts wildlife, and consumes a lot of resources. Tell someone where you’re going and prepare adequately.

Run in small groups. Keeping group sizes down reduces overall impact on a trail and the area at large. Small groups don’t disturb wildlife as readily or erode the trail quite as quickly and are, therefore, much more conducive to a healthy environment.

Leave what you find. Not that runners are in a position to pack out rocks and sticks and such, but sometimes an object surfaces that is just too perfect to be left behind. Well, leave it behind. In most cases, things are where they are for a reason, and moving them disrupts their purpose. An important exception to this rule is litter, in which case you should refer back to rule 2.

Other ingredients are force, patience, and a lot of earth-moving equipment, but that’s why you have this great product! Protect-A-Place is the environmentalist’s answer to development. It’s what people who want to make the world a healthier, altogether more runnable place use to save the areas they love. Protect-A-Place is recognized worldwide as the standard for wilderness reclamation, so why can’t it work for you? Log onto our website and order your Protect-A-Place so you can take back your wilderness! And remember, if this turns out to be completely fake, don’t just give up, make your own Protect-A-Place! It’s fast, it’s fun, and it can even save the planet!

Protect-A-Place—For the Places You Want to Protect Most!

Dakota Jones is a standout ultrarunner who proved himself before the age of 20 with a near-course-record win at the 2010 San Juan Solstice 50-mile and a fourth-place finish at the 2010 The North Face Endurance Challenge 50-mile championships.

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8

HYDRATION AND ELECTROLYTES: KEEPING THE GLASS HALF FULL

Staying hydrated is paramount to success in an ultramarathon. Just a 2 or 3 percent loss in body weight from sweating can result in a 10 percent drop-off in endurance performance. Marathoners may be familiar with the concept of cardiac drift, which results when dehydration decreases blood volume, leading to a reduction in oxygenated blood flow. The net result of cardiac drift is a slow upward trend in heart rate while the runner maintains an even effort. Cardiac drift is worsened by hot conditions that draw blood from the muscles to the skin to assist with cooling.

Beyond endurance performance reductions, dehydration can also lead to cramps, digestion issues, and blisters. Extreme dehydration can lead to life-threatening as well as chronic health conditions. In other words, it’s best to stay hydrated on the long run. To hydrate properly, you need to know how much you sweat, how to balance water and electrolytes, how to monitor your hydration, and how to drink on the run.

Failing to properly hydrate is an unnecessary mistake. (Photo by PatitucciPhoto.com)

Fluid Loss

Unless you know how much you sweat, it’s impossible to maintain proper hydration. Sweat rate varies based on many environmental factors. For instance,