Relentless Forward Progress_ A Guide to Running Ultramarathons - Bryon Powell [62]
There are also training software and websites to which you can upload your GPS data and have the elevation profile or mileage accuracy enhanced.
12
RACING ULTRAMARATHONS
After many months of training, it’s time for the big day: the day you race an ultramarathon. As with your training, there are numerous logistical and mental preparations to make prior to the race. On race day itself, you balance many competing needs. The unfamiliar environment and situations faced during your first few ultras makes balancing these needs a challenge.
This chapter informs you about the race-related choices and situations you’ll face prior to and on race day. To start, you need to choose an ultra, so there’s some advice for first-timers. Once you’ve chosen your event, set goals and expectations. You also have a good deal of pre-race preparation, including planning travel, researching and planning for the race’s specifics, possibly choosing a support crew and pacer(s), and setting up drop bags. Then there’s race day itself, so the chapter wraps up with general pacing advice, some insight into mental approaches, and a discussion of how to deal with injuries and aid stations.
Choosing Your First Ultra
I am often asked, “What’s a good first ultra?” or the equivalent question for a particular distance. My answer? Nearly any ultra is a great first ultra or a first attempt at a longer distance. Each race has its own set of advantages. For example, a flat road course more closely resembles the races with which many runners are most familiar. On the other hand, a mountainous ultra provides built-in walking breaks, and the scenery offers a boost.
You could consider many factors in choosing a first ultra. However, if I suggest one as most useful, it is familiarity. This familiarity is either preexisting or learned. If you live where there are mountain trails out your back door and there’s a race on those trails, run it! Even if the nearest ultras are an hour or two from where you live, consider running one of those races. You don’t need to run the race course every day to know it well. Rather, consider making the course the site of some of your long training runs.
If you don’t live near or can’t easily get to any ultra locations, consider talking to others who have run ultras. Find out as much as you can about a particular race. (This is a good idea even if you run some or all of the course before race day.) Even if you’ve run for years, it’s great to know how to train best for a particular course and strategies for approaching the course on race day, such as where to be prepared for various conditions (heat, cold, water crossings, darkness) or how much water to carry between particular aid stations. Before my first 100-miler, the 2004 Western States 100, I attended a race briefing put on by three of my clubmates. Before I ever arrived at the start line, I felt like a race veteran. I knew the course and how to approach it.
Setting Goals and Expectations
Setting race goals is extremely motivating before and during a race. They get you out the door on a miserable morning months before your race or push you through fatigue in the final miles on race day. In order to set an effective goal, be honest with yourself. What are the true reasons you’re running a particular ultra? There are likely to be many.
If this is your first ultra, simply finishing, no matter how ugly that finish may be, is a good place to start. Indeed, crossing the finish is often the primary goal even among veteran ultrarunners with particular time or placing goals in mind. Unlike a 5k or 10k, there is significant uncertainty that any runner will finish a given ultra.
Not everyone needs to “race” the ultra distance. If your goal is to have a new adventure, enjoy the trails, or have fun, stay true to that goal. Setting such a goal is still motivating in training, as improving your fitness makes