ultra running RSS

Badwater 135 is probably the most famous ultramarathon in the world. It is a 135 mile/217 km road ultrarunning race that starts at Badwater Basin in Death Valley, 282 feet / 85 meters below sea level, and through 2 other mountain ranges goes all the way up to Mt. Whitney Trailhead, which is the highest point in the lower 48 states in the United States at 8360 ft / 2548 meters. The total elevation of the course is 14,600 ft / 4450 meters. All this, in the hottest place on Earth during the hottest time of the year when temperatures...

This race was absolutely brutal for me, unexpectedly so. It should have been a smooth sail. It should have been a joy run. It should have been everything that it wasn't. On paper it sounds very straight forward: I was the favourite going into the GOMU 48h World Championship on September 3-5 in Hainesport, NJ, USA based on previous bests, and I won it. In reality, it was the biggest fight I have ever had to fight in a race and for the most part, it didn't look like I would be able to make it. Pre-race with Canadian-American Trishul...

My second trail race went much better than the first one did! Back then I said I won't ever race on trails again (race report of my first trail ultra) but you know how these things go for us, endurance athletes ...  There were, again, a bunch of different reasons I wanted to do this race, and unlike Ultrabalaton this was approached as a pure training run, not even a day off training that week, just rolling into it from full build for the 6-day race that is coming up in 3 weeks. The event was local which made logistics...

WOW - so I did it! I don't even know where to start this report, the whole 3 days seem to be just a big blur so far, but I will try to peel back as much as I can dig out from my memory. Let's start with a little perspective. This race was not a goal in itself but a stop on the way in my quest for a 6-day record. I'm so new to ultrarunning (I've been doing it for less than 18 months) that I felt that I needed a bit more experience before jumping into another...

I'm not a patient person to be honest... and that is not great when you have way too many races on your bucket list. You just want to do them all, all now, not understanding that there will be a season in 2023, 2024 and even beyond... mind you, I already have races in my calendar for 2024 too!!! I find it really hard to stay focused and not throw too many unimportant bucket list races in the schedule. Right now I'm trying to take things out rather than add new ones but when I manage to prune it a little...