I was in Rebecca Ball's crew and we had the same thought. While those 8 hr daily finishers are amazing (like incomprehensible for us BOP'ers), they get an extra 4 hours to recover. We really did a ton of prep the day before the race (packing and pre-cooking a TON of our food) to maximize our athlete's feet up / food in recovery time each night.

Thank Dev, you are certainly correct. I have never been as mindful for fueling in race, and post race (each night) as I was at this event, and it made a huge difference. The weighed us in each morning and night, and I was always within a oind each morning of where I started the event, and never lost more in a day than 3%.
My nutrition on day 2 was 98% Tailwind, water & salt pills lol. I had a couple "Fruit 2" bars, but they are only 100cals, and we're more just for a change of pace sugar boost.

As soon as I crossed the line each day, my wife had my 1st recovery (protein) drink ready for me, and a protein bar. I'd have another protein drink after supper, along with one or two big cups of electrolyte mix in the evenings. Plus meals, of course.

In some ways, the day 1 transition from swim to bike was the "hardest" for me. The good thing is that the first 50k of the bike is pretty flat and net downhill, so I just focused on fueling (getting caught up, out of the water) and spinning easy. The body came around after that section, but the neck and back definitely let me know I had just swam 10k.[/quote]
Did I read that your wife took care of you after each day where you were blowing off family and doing sport and did not shove the kids on you and ask you to mow the lawn? If the answer to this is "yes", then I suggest you enter the secret formula on the "things to know about this forum thread". I am sure slowman would pay for the patent rights to this invention just to license it out to everyone around here.

Nice writeup. Out of interest I looked at the signup and application. Holy crap! I had no idea how expensive it is. $2100 (Canadian dollars) for the race. Makes Ironman look cheap

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Matt

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You just have to have done an Ironman in under 14:30 in the 18 months before the start date of the Ultra you are applying for.If you haven't done that and are an endurance person like Goggins for example then you just have to show your resume and the RD will decide if they will let you in. Most Ultra's do not fill up but races like UM Florida and UM Australia do and Ultra520K has wait lists as there are always drop outs (as happened this year in Canada)
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The whole idea that that everyone in these events are elite front of the pack ironman types is false.Sure the top guys and girls are fast buggers but the rest are just normal triathletes doing really cool events.The "Invitation process" is a lot less dramatic than people make it out to be.Sometime there are people racing who have no real business doing it but just want to hang out and roll around the course for the grand experience that it is. ( I lead that category )

For the 520, you submit your race CV (history). The minimum standard listed is 1 IM under 14 hours, within the previous year. The difficulty on acceptance varies, depending on who else, and how many ppl applied. Also, the field size (cap) would impact this.

Except IM is 1 day of racing, this is 3. I'm not about to claim this is a bargain, but the race fee isn't a get rich scheme.

We were given an awesome opening and closing meal (vegan options for the numerous plant based athletes and crew) , as well as breakfast on the start of 3rd day (bc it begins in a diff town). We also got quality massages after each day (like I swear I was on the table at least an hour after day 3), and post race drink & food. Also a finish line bbq on day 3.

Race swag: hat, hoodie, under armour finishing jacket, medal, and beauty glass trophies with name and finish time sticker on each.

Also they provided every crew with 2x coolers, water jug, safety vests, and a full binder with coloured, lamanated course maps and other necessary equipment. The course was very well marked each day, and where needed they had staff controlling traffic.

Of course you have to have a crew and provide your nutrition, but that's one of the amazing things that sets this event apart and those costs are worth it, in my opinion.

I may have missed a thing or two, but that's the general run down. Yes, it's a costly endeavour, but the race fee itself, is only a part of the expense and imo, fair, when put into perspective.

I understand the desire to compare something like the 520k to IM in order to logically process the comparison. I will state that I have done a fair number of IM's. I have been fortunate enough to have gone to Kona. They're all expensive. The race experience I had at the 520kCanada this year is on a completely different level than doing another IM. The 2 experiences are not comparable in my mind, 520k was that much better!

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So much of what happens during race week for all the Ultra-triathlons around the world reminds me of what it was like doing Ironman in the early/mid '90s.There is little pretention, little ego,most are in it for a great shared adventure and come in wide eyed like excited newbies and the events can truly be life changing experiences.I have seen peoples attitude to life change completely from registration day to the time that the awards are finished.I know it sounds pretty hokey and I'm not one for that kind of thing but it happens.The Ultra-Family thing is very real and crosses over from Ultraman style events to the multi-Iron's with the shared experiences of race week making close friends for life.
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As for the cost,if anyone thinks Ultraman events are expensive at $2k'ish then spare a thought for people doing the Epic 5 at $8.5K or the Epic Deca at $10K just for the race entry.I know people who have spent $25KUSD on one Ultra-triathlon.

Just because something is more expensive doesn’t change my thoughts that it is expensive. We talk about one of the issues causing falling numbers in triathlons being the price of entry. Races like this (or decas or whatever). make it an even more exclusive sport than it already is.

That’s great their is an ‘ultra family’ just too bad that a lot of people won’t be able to join the family due the the barrier over the cost. Not just entry but the ancillary costs as well

That being said, it does seem like these are neat events and I’m sure the directors are not making a killing off of it given the difficulty and mass amount of coordination that goes into it.

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Matt

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You can join the family by volunteering to be on a crew.Lots of people do that and have an amazing time without racing just as the crews for RAAM,Badwater and many other events will tell you.You see,your idea of these events is that of an athlete and only the athlete experience whereas ours includes everyone being involved.That is something you don't get in Ironman.

P.S. There are a bunch of Ultra-tri's that cost way less than the Ultra520K or Ultraman..

My recent long distance swim reminded me about long triathlons in the 1990's. We got taken across the lake by motorboats and huddled in the forest for 80 minutes while a barge brought all the event infrastructure because the start location is not accessible by road....organizers wanted a true lake crossing. All 140 athletes huddled together, no pretention, just trying to support one another...I would imagine in a much larger way, ultramans feel similar, but you have the daily support on course and in between.

Totally this! It is a very common occurrence for crews to help other athletes in need or even help other crews. They take the "Ohana" thing very seriously.

Hey Dev...

Sorry for the delay, had to get on my laptop to scan the weeks easier.

Final 12 week avg vol: 17 hrs (max 24.5hrs)
Avg run week vol: 44.8km
Max week run vol: 70km*
Max week bike vol: 453km*
Max week swim vol: 16200m*

*I work shift work, so what these numbers don't reflect is that I had several 7 day stretches where swim max was more like 20k, and run was closer to 80k, and bike, I recall near 475k. But the 7 day blocks overlapped 2 weeks on a calendar... Make sense? :)

Also, I did two races in June and that took my run volume lower than I expected due to mini taper/recovery. I was second guessing myself afterwards for racing, but what I missed in volume, I gained in some intensity and also mental freshness from the "break" racing brings, so it left me eager to knock off the final 5 weeks, instead of just making it through (max week was 3 weeks out).

Anyways, not real crazy numbers, I know. I know the run volume probably jumps out as surprisingly low, but I didn't want to risk an injury and banked on fitness from swim and bike volume (my longest run was only 40k).

As you say, only so much time and energy. I have 3 kids and work 12 hour shifts, which with my commute, are 15 hour days/nights at minimum.

Cheers,
Jon

Did I read that your wife took care of you after each day where you were blowing off family and doing sport and did not shove the kids on you and ask you to mow the lawn? If the answer to this is "yes", then I suggest you enter the secret formula on the "things to know about this forum thread". I am sure slowman would pay for the patent rights to this invention just to license it out to everyone around here.[/quote]
LOL! We made the hard choice to not bring our 3 kiddos on this trip. They usually do join in the racing, but this event was such a bigger undertaking that we didn't feel we could give them and the race the attention needed and we also didn't think they'd really enjoy just waiting around each day. Thankfully they had a great time with grandparents and got the immediate daily race report over the phone each day :)