I wrote the following article for the July/August 2015 issue of the Huntsville Track Club News.
Over the course of the past two years, I completed my first
two 100 mile races. I haven’t been alone
in this endeavor. Several of our fellow
HTC members have earned that coveted 100 mile buckle too, and others have been
mastering this distance for some time. However,
as I was resting on my laurels thinking of those future days when I might brag
about running 100 miles to my, as yet to be born, grandchildren, I was brought
down from my high horse by a couple of articles that appeared in two different
running magazines.
The first article was more of a brief blurb in the
January/February 2015 edition of Ultrarunning
magazine. The title was, “200 is the
new 100.” The article pointed out that
there are now over 135 100 mile races to choose from in North America. Given that, many ultrarunners are now looking
for new challenges. The inaugural Tahoe
200 was so popular in 2014, that it has already instituted a lottery for
entry. The article notes that several
new 200 mile races are taking place this year and others are in the works.
While I was trying to digest the idea of a point to point
200 mile race – not a stage race – but a non-stop 200 miler, I was hit with the
next article in the May/June 2015 issue of The
Running Times, titled, “Is 100 Miles the New Marathon?” The title has a little more shock value than
the actual article, but it serves to get your attention. It points out that 100 mile finishers have
grown from 1,378 to 7,029 in the U.S. since 2003. In 2014 alone, the number jumped by 17
percent. Now, to put that in
perspective, last year the New York City Marathon alone had 50,530 finishers. However, the intent of the article is that
many elite runners at various distances up to the marathon are now looking to
ultra-distances as a next step, and a new challenge.
So, where does this leave us? Clearly, the sport of ultramarathons and its
closely related cousin, the trail run, are growing in popularity. As these events become more popular we are
undoubtedly going to see race distances continue to grow as the long runner
looks for new challenges. Also, as the
sport continues to attract elite runners, the incredible capability of the
human body will continue to amaze. As an
example, this year at the Graveyard 100, in North Carolina, the race was won by
Marco Bonfiglio, of Italy, with a time of 13:01:52, and an average pace of 7:49
a mile. He had no crew and no
pacer. When you wrap your head around
that, you can see that this is an area of the running experience that will
continue to entice runners at all levels to explore the limits of their
capabilities.
For me, I’ve registered for “A Race for the Ages” in
Manchester, Tennessee in September.
It’s a timed event and I will have 48 hours to see how far I can go
beyond 100 miles. After all, at
whatever distance we choose, as runners we all want to keep knocking down those
walls. Have fun out there!
