The first time I heard the word Ultramarathon, I felt as though they were reserved for the superhumans of the world. I was very mistaken. I realised I was wrong to limit myself or doubt myself when I met a man named Jon. Jon eats microwaved burgers, more sweets than would get devoured at an eight-year-olds birthday party, and does a little running here and there. He has run over forty marathons and above races (his longest being around seventy miles), and he told me that I could do it easily. His blasé attitude towards these sorts of distances made me feel like, yes, I can do that. This, however, didn’t follow suit when it came to training. When I started running, I was completing three to five mile runs on average. No part of me felt like I would ever be able to complete an Ultramarathon, my longest run ever had been a half marathon back in my younger days, so signing up for a 44 mile ‘brutal’ rated race seemed like suicide.
I approached it linearly. Adding mileage to my runs until I got further and further. There were a lot of other bits and bobs that helped too, like nutrition and eating on the run, but that would take too long to explain, so I will keep it short. When I really started to up my distances and studying long distance endurance runners, I realised that the average age of an ultra runner is forty-three, meaning I hadn’t even hit my prime for these races. Not only that, but watching men and women well into their fifties, who had never been runners in their youth, completing the 240 mile Moab desert run, made me see how achievable it is. We can get so caught up with people saying that it is not possible, that we forget that there is no such thing as a superhuman, and all of the amazing humans you see doing incredible things, are exactly like us, they just worked hard and never listened to anyone who told them no, that’s not possible.
The amazing part of running the 44 miles (which was actually 46) was that when I crossed the line, not only did I feel amazing, but I could have easily kept going. I put this down to three main things.
1. Ignoring your body’s moaning.
Moaning is very different from pain. I call it moaning because, like a child being told to do chores, your body is designed to dislike hard work. I’m not sure why, but as soon as you learn to ignore it, the farther you can get. Dismiss the moaning.
2. Don’t listen to negativity.
So many people will tell you that you can’t do it, this is because they don’t think they can do it, so ignore them. The truth is, running an ultra is basically an eating contest with running in it. You are not too old; you are not too unfit, you can do it if you want to.
3. Let the people around you, motivate you.
I ran with two people. Jon and Becky. They are both veterans having run over fifty ultras between them and both never doubt they can finish. That sort of confidence surges into you. Running partners help boost you during those times your body is moaning, but more than that was the spectators and the pitstop workers. Those guys are amazing. They ooze enthusiasm from start to finish. Some of them working fourteen hour days were still jumping around, clapping and cheering us on at the finish line, with the same umpf as they did from the start.
My final advice for anyone who wants to run, be it an ultra or a couch to five K, is as simple as putting one foot in front of the other for a period of time. That is all it takes. Understand that you can do it if you want to, and don’t go too fast too soon. Be patient with yourself, and you will achieve it.
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