You might have heard about ultra marathons through a variety of inspirations. Whether it’s Dean Karnazes, Rich Roll, David Goggins, Jesse Itzler, Cameron Hanes, or someone else – ultra marathons are taking the world by storm.
So what is an ultra marathon, how do our train for it, how do you build mental toughness for it and what are common ultra marathon distances?
I’ll cover all that and more in this IMPOSSIBLE guide to ultra marathons.
Why Listen To IMPOSSIBLE About Ultra Marathons?
Table of Contents
Hi, I’m Joel Runyon. I’m a normal guy who used to work at UPS. I realized that I could change my mindset and my life by taking on hard, physical challenges. I fell in love with the challenge and adventure involved with ultra marathons and ran my first one for charity in 2012. Since then, I set out to create the 777 project and run 7 ultra marathons on 7 continents in order to build. In conjunction with Jesse Itzler – we raised 193,000+ and built 7 schools around the world. I’m not a super human person – I like to say I’m moderately athletic but I’m great at suffering. If you want to know what it’s like as a regular human to train for an ultra marathon – I’ve got you covered.
Why I Love Ultra Marathons
I absolutely love ultra marathons. You know why? We live a world that’s soft and most people don’t have to deal with “hard’ on a day-to-day basis. They’ve watered down the meaning of the word IMPOSSIBLE to mean something that’s merely difficult.
Which is why ultra marathons are special – they bring out a different breed of human. Don’t get me wrong – running a marathon on it’s own is an amazing accomplishment – when I first did it – I remember thinking that was the farthest that anyone could possibly go. And while, more people every year decide to run marathons (According to RunnerClick, almost 500,000 people run a marathon every year), an ultra marathon is literally defined as “anything beyond a marathon.”
So by it’s very definition alone – an ultra marathon doesn’t begin until most people have run as far as they will ever run. Ultra marathons don’t start until most people go home, until most people quit.
That’s why I love ultra marathons.
The race doesn’t begin – until it’s hard.
Hard enough that most people don’t even know much about it.
In that sense, it’s much less of a race and much more of a test. A test to see what you’re made of, to see what you’re capable of, and to see how you react when things start to seem impossible.
How To Train For An Ultra Marathon
If you’re looking to train for an ultra marathon
Luckily, we’ve got the physical training programs for you right here. Put your running shoes on and let’s get to work.
Marathon Training Program
Okay – if you’re going to run a marathon it’s smart to run a normal marathon first.
Why?
Most people hit the “wall” at 20 miles” – iF you’re running ultras – you’re going to need to run a lot farther than just 20 miles – so you better know what running. Marathon is like before you go whole-hog into an ultra.
-Marathon training Program Coming Soon-
50k Ultra Marathon Training Program
-50 Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program Coming Soon-
50 Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program
-50 Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program Coming Soon-
100k Ultra Marathon Training Program
-100k Ultra Marathon Training Program Coming Soon-
100 Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program
-100 Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program Coming Soon-
100+ Mile Ultra Marathon Training Program
I’m going to be honest with you. Once you’re above 100 miles – you’re outside the realm of what you can “train” for if you’ve never done the distance before. At this distance, the question is not IF you’re going to hurt – the question is WHEN you’re going to hurt – and what you’re going to do it when it happens.
At this point, it comes more down to your mindset training and determination to keep going no matter what happens training-wise – assuming you have your baseline down.
I like to refer to these moments as “gut checks” or “seeing God.”
That’s where this next part comes in…
Building an “Ultra” Marathon Endurance Mentality
Here’s the dirty little secret about ultra marathons – anyone can do them.
A lot of people will give you general tips, but here are my best ones (from experience). At the bottom of this section, I also include some of my favorite tips from some of the best endurance athletes on the planet themselves.
David Goggins
-interview coming soon-
Jesse
-interview coming soon-
Cameron Hanes
-interview coming soon-
Candace
-interview coming soon-
Matt Fitzgerald
-interview
Ed Roshitsh
-interview
Frequently Asked Questions about Ultra Marathons
Every time I talk about ultra marathons, I get a whole bunch of questions about them – here’s my best attempt to answer most of those questions.
What Are Common Ultra Marathon Distances
While ultra marathon races are notoriously different – they often vary quite a bit depending on the terrain and location they’re set within. That said, the most common ultra marathon race distances do tend to fall under one of 4 brackets – 50km, 50 miles, 100km, and 100 miles.
In recent years, with runners wanting to push themselves even more – 200 mile races have become popularized (thanks to people like Cameron Hanes and Candice Burt.
Notable Ultra Marathon Race Distances
KM Distances in Miles
If you live in the US, kilometers might seems like a foreign measurement, so we’ve converted common race distances into miles for you.
42.2km in miles is 26.2 miles.
50k in miles is 31.07 miles.
100k in miles is 62.14 miles
200k in miles is 124.27 miles
400km in miles is 248.55 miles
Mile Distances in KM
If you live anywhere that’s not the US, don’t worry – we’ve also broken miles down into kilometers for you for easy reading…
26.2 Miles in km is 42.2km
50 Miles in km is 80.47km
100 Miles in km is 160.93km
200 Miles in km is 32.87km
No matter what distance you’re doing or what measurement system you use – those are far – so you better make sure you’re ready.
How Long Does It Take To Run An Ultra Marathon?
The fastest 50k on record is by Josh Cox in Tempe Arizona at 2:43:45. That, to be quite honest- is ridiculously fast.
For most people, if you simply add your 10k time to your expected marathon finishing time, you’d get close to the amount of time you’d expect to spend out on a 50k ultra marathon course.
For the Moab 240 – one f the longer, continual races out there, the cut off time is 112 hours – which is 4 days and 16 hours.
Because ultra marathons have such varied terrain and courses – that a 50k distance race that’s very technical can sometimes be more challenging than a flat, matter-of-fact 100k course.
Personally, I’ve done ultra marathons everywhere from 4 to 17 hours (so far), but people have gone much, much longer.
What Are Popular Ultra Marathon Races?
Some of the most popular ultra marathons that you may or may not have heard of include:
- Leadville 100 Mile Run
- Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run
- Vermont 100 Mile Endurance Run
- Wasatch Front 100 Mile Endurance Run
- Old Dominion 100 Mile Run
- Comrades Marathon (the oldest + largest ultra marathon in the world)
- Badwater 135 Ultra Marathon
- Barkley Marathons (made famous in this Netflix special)
- Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc
- The H.U.R.T.
- Marathon de Sables
The list of races keeps growing – and they’re equal parts inspiring and piss-your-pants exciting.
Here’s my list of the top 10 most impossible ultra marathon here
How To Find An Ultra Marathon
Luckily – as the ultra marathon and trail community has grown over the years, the ways to find out about more races has grown.
There’s several great calendars that I’ve linked to below that should be able to help you find the most challenging race for you – no matter where you are on the planet.
- https://calendar.ultrarunning.com/state/colorado
- https://ultrasignup.com/
- https://trailrunner.com/race-calendar/
- https://marathons.ahotu.com/calendar/ultramarathon
I personally use the Ahotu and UltraRunning.com race calendars the most.
Notable Ultra Marathon Inspirations
You might have heard about some famous ultra marathoners from around the Internet. Here are some of our favorite people we’ve profiled over the years.
- David Goggins
- Dean Karnazes
- Amelia Boone
- Rich Roll
- Rob Krar
- Cameron Hanes
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