captainchas

Running Tri'ing Flying

"Endurance is not just the ability to to bear a hard thing, but to turn it into glory."-- William Barclay

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Category Archives: Ultramarathons

Race Recap: 2012 Comrades (Ultra) Marathon

12874867-1448-x-972 After 3 hours, there are 9 hours left in the Comrades (Ultra) Marathon and 41 miles to go. Failure is an option. Almost 35% of those who enter fail to finish. Fear, doubt, pain, hopelessness, and lack of motivation encourage a formula for defeat. The desire for it all just to end is the prominent thought. I am not going to finish. I know it. I am not being pulled off the course yet, but I certainly will be. I hope for it. There is time left before the 12 hour deadline, but I will not make it. How could I possibly make the 12 hour cutoff?

The Comrades (Ultra) Marathon is a 56-Mile, 89km race that takes place between Pietermaritzburg, South Africa, and Durban, South Africa with a gun-to-gun maximum race time of 12 hours. Finish time is not based on the chip on your shoe – that’s just for tracking. You get from 0530 until 1730 of the day of the race to finish. Period. No extra seconds, no forgiveness no matter how long it takes to cross the start line.

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SlickRock 57km Ultramarathon


Mile... uh...

Sometimes, things go well. Sometimes, things go badly. And then, when it rains in the desert, it pours.

And pours some more.

The First Annual Slickrock Ultramarathon series (50k, 50mile, and 100-mile) event faced probably the worse set of circumstances ever faced by a group of people trying to direct a fun, scenic, challenging race. A few unappreciative runners vented to the race directors, and those losers individuals who decided it was necessary to yell their frustrations only managed to make a complete ass out of themselves. From my perspective, they were lucky there was a race at all. In most, if not all, races I’ve known, if the directors had faced the same circumstances they would have cancelled the race completely. But, the SlickRock Directors didn’t, but not without trouble after trouble for all their efforts.

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SlickRock 100 Mile Faces Storm Changes

When the race director sank his jeep up to the windows in quicksand along the SlickRock Ultramarathon course, the decision by him and the Search and Rescue personnel to change the course wasn’t exactly hard to make.

Despite spending several hours hiking back out of the wilderness, the organizers behind SlickRock have managed to come up with an alternative course for the 50km, 50mile, and 100mile courses. Stayed tuned tomorrow for a Garmin Map (assuming my 310xt doesn’t freeze from the 6,000 foot  altitude) of this year’s course.

Now, off to bed! My 50km Ultramarathon begins in a few hours.