If I can. You can.

“It always seems impossible until it’s done.” – Nelson Mandela

I love ultra running so I had to take this opportunity to write about my favourite hobby. Below is some valuable advice I recently read about in one of my running magazines and wanted to share further.

“It was argued that of the greatest aspects of ultrarunning is its accessibility. You don’t need much expensive or specialized equipment, and you don’t have to be incredibly fit or talented to participate. I happily fit into the latter category.

That is not to say ultrarunning is easy, because it most definitely is not. However, by structuring training to address key fundamental areas, I am pretty confident anyone can reach the finish line of an ultramarathon event within the cutoff time, and have fun doing it.

Ultra runners are often seen as the holy grail of runners; the toughest of them all. An exclusive club that only the truly hardcore can even think of applying.

But I’ll let you into a secret.

Ultras are not as hard as you might think.

Having finished a number of 75km or longer trail ultras I can vouch that it is actually easier than a road marathon.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Secret recipe? 

During a road marathon your legs repeat the same movement over and over, pounding the hard tarmac.

Every footstrike is identical. It’s relentless, repetitive and painful.

The focus is on time, splits and maintaining pace.

You want to do your best and most marathon runners try to run the fastest time they can over the distance.

A trail ultra on the other hand is relaxed and fun, and although you have to run a bit further (an ultra is basically anything longer than marathon distance), it’s much less stress on your body due to the mixed terrain, pace and run/walk approach and it’s just… well… easier.

Why is that the case?

Relaxed setting & pace

The atmosphere at an ultramarathon is more chilled- think fun day out with your friends, usually with cake (yum). The pace is much more relaxed.

Contrary to what most runners might think, walking is not frowned upon or seen as a failure in an ultra.

In fact in the ultra running world it’s positively encouraged.

There generally isn’t the pressure on time and therefore you can just trot along at your own comfortable pace, enjoy the view, walk up the hills, have a nice chat to your buddies and focus on simply crossing the line.

But when you crawl over the finish line of the marathon it’s hard to imagine being able to run another step.”

Training advice

This needs a more extensive post, but if you want to discuss how to attempt your first ultra challenge I look forward to hearing from you.

Happy trail running til then.