Tuesday, April 24, 2012

U is for... Ultras

You may be asking yourself, ultra what? 

What I am referring to, dear reader, is the ultra known as an ultramarathon!

Now you may be asking yourself what this is... 

Is it another name for a half marathon, which is 13.1 miles long... Or maybe another name for a marathon, which is 26.2 miles long. 

Or is it something all on its own? 

The answer my friends is the latter. 

An ultramarathon is longer and more intense than either type of marathon I have mentioned above.

You may be asking yourself, has The "Almost" Attorney ever raced in a ultra

The answer to that question is no. But I would like to at some point. 

Wikipedia provides good general information about ultramarathons

This site states "there are two types of ultramarathon events: those that cover a specified distance, and events that take place during specified time (with the winner covering the most distance in that time). The most common distances are 50 kilometres (31.069 mi), 100 kilometres (62.137 mi), 50 miles (80.467 km) and 100 miles (160.934 km), although many races have other distances... Other distances/times include double marathons, 24-hour races, and multiday races of 1000 miles or even longer... Timed events range from 6, 12, and 24 hours to 3 and 6 days and 10 days (known as multi-day events)." [Site credit]

As a runner (or as I mentioned previously, a "jogger") I do aspire to competing in a race of this nature, I just don't know if that will be something that I can do soon, or something that will have to wait. 

As you can assume, it would take a lot of training to be able to prepare for something like this and you have to be able to dedicate that kind of time, which I am not sure is something I can do at this point and time. 
 
**This post is for the April A to Z Challenge!

6 comments:

  1. I know a couple of people who do those. They are obsessed! I'm trying to visit all the A-Z Challenge Blogs in April. My alphabet is at myqualityday.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for stopping by! I don't know if I could ever get obsessed with running that far, but I would like to try it, even if it's just once! I will have to stop by and check out your blog. Good luck on making it to all of the blogs!

      Delete
  2. You get more and more hardcore every day! WOW!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Brittany - thanks! I haven't done an ultra yet. Someday. The longest race I have ever done was 13.1 miles, so I'm not too hardcore, just slightly :)

      Delete
  3. Whilst I admire your enthusiasm, I have never understood the concept of running 'for fun'!

    I'm more your 'fight or flight' runner - ie. I run when I need to get out of a tricky situation (whether it's running to the stove because a pan's boiling over or running away from a charging bull)

    But if it makes you happy and keeps you fit, well then good luck to you!
    Happy A-Z'ing! :-D

    SueH I refuse to go quietly!
    Twitter - @Librarymaid

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometimes I have trouble getting back to the run for fun mindset. I have days where it's fun and days when it isn't. Today was a fun run day. Tomorrow could potentially not be. Ya never know!

      Delete