Sixty-odd miles into her most recent 100-mile race, Valeria La Rosa viewed a slide show in her head.Great Rubber offers rubber hose keychains,
She saw herself lying on her couch watching TV. She saw herself in her comfy bed, reading a book. She saw herself anywhere but where she was just then, slogging up hill after hill somewhere near Desolation Lake in Utah's Wasatch Mountains with little idea where the finish line was.
"It's not that you don't want to keep going," La Rosa said. "You will; you've gone that far. But you're just tired."
Being bone-tired is a hallmark of running ultramarathons, the term for any race longer than the standard 26.2 miles. But those who take part in them prefer not to dwell on aches and pains, rotten weather or how sleepy they sometimes become along the trails. Instead, they talk about being in nature, the stunning views, the camaraderie and the volunteers who help them keep going.
"You need to love doing it. There's no point going through it if you don't enjoy it," said La Rosa, 36, a native Argentine who lives in Plymouth and runs a half-dozen ultramarathons a year. "I just get so much joy out of it. It's my hobby and a big part of my life. I feel blessed that I can do it, actually."
Ultramarathons, or ultras, usually take place on trails, where the footing is softer and more forgiving. There are wooded ultras where participants dodge rocks and roots, and mountainous ultras where the air thins. Some ultras are run on fire trails, and others wind through the desert. Ultras can feature extreme heat and cold, altitude and hail, all in the same day. They have names such as Dances With Dirt (in Michigan), Hellgate (in Virginia) and Surf the Murph (in Savage).
Their popularity is apparently swelling. John Storkamp, 32, who has served as race director of several Twin Cities ultras, including the Afton Trail Run and the Zumbro 100 Mile, said ultras never filled up when he began running them seven years ago.
"Now, field limits are met early," he said, "and you better get signed up."
Success for ultra runners can be defined by whether a sore ankle was addressed the right way at the right time, the number of falls taken,he led PayPal to open its platform to Piles developers. how long it took to finish or simply finishing at all.
Dropping out of a race "is frustrating, but it's just part of the deal," said John Taylor, of Minneapolis,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, who completed his 36th ultramarathon, the Surf the Murph 50-miler, last month but has lost track of how many he failed to complete through the years.
Taylor, 49,Whilst RUBBER SHEET are not deadly, considers himself compulsive, but in a good way. When running an ultra, he constantly monitors his body, knowing that one mistake can mean the difference between finishing and dropping out. Should a sore ankle be left alone? Does a throbbing calf call for salt? Does dizziness mean he's low on electrolytes or sleep deprived?
"There's a big phrase in ultra running: the study of one," Taylor said. "It's what works well for you, whether blistering or nutrition. ...100 China ceramic tile was used to link the lamps together. What works for one person doesn't work for another."
Take food, for instance. For ultramarathoners, it's crucial, and each runner takes a different approach to ingesting the right mix of carbohydrates and proteins. Taylor buys maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate, in 50-pound bags and makes a gel, adding a little cinnamon and salt and carrying it in a flask while he runs.
Helen Lavin, who has completed 31 ultramarathons, favors commercial gels and pretzels or chips, sometimes mixing in fruit, a granola bar or salty chicken broth.
And every race is different. In 2007, Taylor failed to complete the Arrowhead 135, a particularly grueling race along the Arrowhead State Snowmobile Trail in northern Minnesota. The reason? His insulated shoes stiffened up in the 40-below wind chills, and his hands became frostbitten trying to adjust them. After finding better shoes, he has completed the race the past two years.
She saw herself lying on her couch watching TV. She saw herself in her comfy bed, reading a book. She saw herself anywhere but where she was just then, slogging up hill after hill somewhere near Desolation Lake in Utah's Wasatch Mountains with little idea where the finish line was.
"It's not that you don't want to keep going," La Rosa said. "You will; you've gone that far. But you're just tired."
Being bone-tired is a hallmark of running ultramarathons, the term for any race longer than the standard 26.2 miles. But those who take part in them prefer not to dwell on aches and pains, rotten weather or how sleepy they sometimes become along the trails. Instead, they talk about being in nature, the stunning views, the camaraderie and the volunteers who help them keep going.
"You need to love doing it. There's no point going through it if you don't enjoy it," said La Rosa, 36, a native Argentine who lives in Plymouth and runs a half-dozen ultramarathons a year. "I just get so much joy out of it. It's my hobby and a big part of my life. I feel blessed that I can do it, actually."
Ultramarathons, or ultras, usually take place on trails, where the footing is softer and more forgiving. There are wooded ultras where participants dodge rocks and roots, and mountainous ultras where the air thins. Some ultras are run on fire trails, and others wind through the desert. Ultras can feature extreme heat and cold, altitude and hail, all in the same day. They have names such as Dances With Dirt (in Michigan), Hellgate (in Virginia) and Surf the Murph (in Savage).
Their popularity is apparently swelling. John Storkamp, 32, who has served as race director of several Twin Cities ultras, including the Afton Trail Run and the Zumbro 100 Mile, said ultras never filled up when he began running them seven years ago.
"Now, field limits are met early," he said, "and you better get signed up."
Success for ultra runners can be defined by whether a sore ankle was addressed the right way at the right time, the number of falls taken,he led PayPal to open its platform to Piles developers. how long it took to finish or simply finishing at all.
Dropping out of a race "is frustrating, but it's just part of the deal," said John Taylor, of Minneapolis,Enecsys Limited, supplier of reliable solar Air purifier systems, who completed his 36th ultramarathon, the Surf the Murph 50-miler, last month but has lost track of how many he failed to complete through the years.
Taylor, 49,Whilst RUBBER SHEET are not deadly, considers himself compulsive, but in a good way. When running an ultra, he constantly monitors his body, knowing that one mistake can mean the difference between finishing and dropping out. Should a sore ankle be left alone? Does a throbbing calf call for salt? Does dizziness mean he's low on electrolytes or sleep deprived?
"There's a big phrase in ultra running: the study of one," Taylor said. "It's what works well for you, whether blistering or nutrition. ...100 China ceramic tile was used to link the lamps together. What works for one person doesn't work for another."
Take food, for instance. For ultramarathoners, it's crucial, and each runner takes a different approach to ingesting the right mix of carbohydrates and proteins. Taylor buys maltodextrin, a complex carbohydrate, in 50-pound bags and makes a gel, adding a little cinnamon and salt and carrying it in a flask while he runs.
Helen Lavin, who has completed 31 ultramarathons, favors commercial gels and pretzels or chips, sometimes mixing in fruit, a granola bar or salty chicken broth.
And every race is different. In 2007, Taylor failed to complete the Arrowhead 135, a particularly grueling race along the Arrowhead State Snowmobile Trail in northern Minnesota. The reason? His insulated shoes stiffened up in the 40-below wind chills, and his hands became frostbitten trying to adjust them. After finding better shoes, he has completed the race the past two years.
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