Matt Blackburn went 80 hours and more than 330 miles. Incredible, and he finished second to John Stocker who did one more lap.
https://www.slowtwitch.com/Interview/The_Endless_One_More_Lap_of_Matt_Blackburn_7981.html
Last year I made it 32 miles, IIRC. So, yeah…1/10th of that.
“I was running behind John and had no idea why I was running behind him or following him. I just couldn’t find the answer, but I carried on running as I knew it was the thing I should do. The whole concept of doing this same lap over and over was becoming quite surreal. For the four hours after 76 yards, I was a space cadet.â€
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I thought this was an interesting perspective. I get this in training sometimes like ‘why am I just pedaling around - do I really have to do this’ and in a 140.6 on the run I started to question the whole point of it. Endurance sports hit the mind in a unique way.
I managed 13 laps in the Quarantine one and then paid for going too hard early on.
Will try again over the winter
Thats insane. Depending on the course i think i could get between 150-200 miles. Have run 100 milers but what they did is unbelievable. Extreme sleep depravation is no joke, ive hallucinated several times because of it.
I’m guessing I could do 25 laps,.so 100 miles. I’ve made it through 58 miles in 12 hours but ultras are no joke. Crazy impressive.
The weird lap number of 4.17 makes exactly 100 miles in 24 hours
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What could I manage? I could put up with 12-14 hours (my IM times), but I wouldn’t want to go any longer. I’ve never gotten into 24-hour or longer ultra distance events, but the stories I’ve heard from people about sleep deprivation and hallucinations don’t sound like something I’d want to deal with.
But I could see putting in seven laps, especially with a group of friends. Nice easy pace for an 8-hour “trail marathon”, and the breaks between laps would be fun. Home in time for dinner, and back to feeling normal in a day or so.
… but the stories I’ve heard from people about sleep deprivation and hallucinations don’t sound like something I’d want to deal with.
Sleep deprivation is no joke. During 9 days doing the 6633 Arctic Ultra I slept 19 hours (just over 2 hours a day) and saw all sorts in the snow & ice, including Bruce Lee and Elvis.
… but the stories I’ve heard from people about sleep deprivation and hallucinations don’t sound like something I’d want to deal with.
Sleep deprivation is no joke. During 9 days doing the 6633 Arctic Ultra I slept 19 hours (just over 2 hours a day) and saw all sorts in the snow & ice, including Bruce Lee and Elvis.
Glad, you weren’t delusional enough to see Chuck Norris. After all you don’t see Chuck Norris, Chuck Norris sees you!
Chuck Norris allows you to see him
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I think most people would be doing well to hit 32 miles.
Anything over 30 laps is truly mind blowing to me.
Just to educate us, what is the format of a backyard ultra. I have not followed this.
You run 4.167 miles (100 miles / 24 hours) every hour. You can run however fast or slow you want…then you can rest for the remainder of the hour. You must start the next lap exactly at the top of every hour.
You run 4.167 miles (100 miles / 24 hours) every hour. You can run however fast or slow you want…then you can rest for the remainder of the hour. You must start the next lap exactly at the top of every hour.[/quote
4.167 miles is a ridiculously long backyard loop LOL. I had a vision of someone jogging back and forth in their backyard, not a 4.167 mile loop FROM their backyard.
Having said that, I already don’t like the format as it benefits fast runners who get more rest each hour (which by the way, is the same thing at Ultraman Hawaii…the faster you are, the more recovery before the next round). The younger version of me would have a massive advantage over the heavier and older version.
To answer “how long would you last” today it is 3 hours. After that, I would lose interest. Now if it was 2km swimming at the top of each hour, the game is on. Let’s go.
You run 4.167 miles (100 miles / 24 hours) every hour. You can run however fast or slow you want…then you can rest for the remainder of the hour. You must start the next lap exactly at the top of every hour.
4.167 miles is a ridiculously long backyard loop LOL. I had a vision of someone jogging back and forth in their backyard, not a 4.167 mile loop FROM their backyard.
Having said that, I already don’t like the format as it benefits fast runners who get more rest each hour (which by the way, is the same thing at Ultraman Hawaii…the faster you are, the more recovery before the next round). The younger version of me would have a massive advantage over the heavier and older version.
To answer “how long would you last” today it is 3 hours. After that, I would lose interest. Now if it was 2km swimming at the top of each hour, the game is on. Let’s go.
That’s not different than any other race. Races favor the fast…I think that’s kinda the point. Long slow races, still favor the fast…because, the fast can work farther down on the PD curve. I don’t think the recovery period has much to do with it. I “slow-jogged” at basically 10mpm, completing each loop in 40 minutes, resting for 20. I think Herbert followed a similar plan.
At 4.2 mph, some people could actually just walk—could that be better? Dunno.
I found 10mpm a pretty hard pace to hold—even my true recovery runs aren’t that slow. I think specific ultra-slow training would be needed to adjust to the mechanics of that pace. Doable, but not really my goal in life.
So, it is run 4.17 miles, stop and wait for the hour to expire, and repeat?
I’m only good for a itty bitty bit. If there was a stop and wait for the hour to expire, or I could walk, I could probably pull off 15 hours (62 miles), presuming I don’t have to walk again for the following week. If it is continuous movement, much, much less capacity. But I don’t know if my body would surrender at my mileage peak or my hours peak.
These races favor those who pace well, and not the fastest. It is possible to mostly walk the distance and jog just a few hundred yards each mile and be well under the hour.
Standing around long is not good either
I did one last summer, made it 15 hours, 100km. This was off training of 60 - 75km a week, plus cycling. Pacing is obviously crucial. If i had to do it again… and I may at some point, I would do a walk run and take food with me. I maintained a good routine with eating between laps and drinking throughout, but it was eventually the heat and high humidity that day that did me in. It was a fun “experiment”, shows you how much more the body can do than what you think is possible. I did a test run a couple weeks prior to the event, ran 5 laps, so a total of of 33km. It felt like i had done 10km.
The last two standing were both on treadmills, and their strategy was definitely for the purpose of winning. The winner took exactly the same time for each “lap”, around 53 min if i recall. In the 7 min rest time he would use the washroom, which was right beside his treadmill, and change clothes. He had food on the treadmill and all his calories and fluids were consumed when walking. The winner was around 60 hours, over 400km… hard to fathom!
So, it is run 4.17 miles, stop and wait for the hour to expire, and repeat?
I’m only good for a itty bitty bit. If there was a stop and wait for the hour to expire, or I could walk, I could probably pull off 15 hours (62 miles), presuming I don’t have to walk again for the following week. If it is continuous movement, much, much less capacity. But I don’t know if my body would surrender at my mileage peak or my hours peak.
That is correct (stop and wait for the hour to expire, then repeat) but I read (including generally in a post a few below your post) that it does not amount to much rest if you are doing it “right.”
Those who have tried to run a little harder to get a little more rest tend to say that it was a bad strategy, and that the way to go is to move much more modestly and to make the cut off time with less “rest.” Then have your support team help you to use that efficiently (trading empty bottles for full, cool ones, for example. The people who do the best seem to be eating and drinking and even using the bathroom during the run, not during the rest. They even say that having your “base” as close as possible to the start/finish matters, to avoid having to take even a few extra steps between laps.
I had to wrap my head around that a bit, but if you consider that to get just four more minutes of “rest” (which isn’t much) you have to run about one minute per mile faster (which arguably is quite a bit faster, particularly in later laps), the voices of experience say that running faster isn’t worth the modest rest gain.