Obviously we're all familiar with things like the Tour de France and Ironman triathlons and so on, but yesterday I happened to catch an event in the "Tour de Ski". The Tour de Ski is actually modelled in part on the Tour de France, and involves 6 cross country skiing races over about 9 days around New Year. The final stage (I think) every year is this ridiculous climb up a mountain in Trentino. 425 metres straight up with some incredibly steep bits (29% in one place!) Cross country skiing is really fucking knackering, and even these 50km loop type events that they have in the Olympics are massive tests of endurance and strength. But this climb? The women's race happened before the men's and they did exactly the same hill too. Anyone ever come across this before?
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It gets some coverage in Italy and is indeed bonkers. -
I don't know anything about skiing, but the Badwater Ultramarathon has always struck me as particularly insane - 135 miles run starting in Death Valley in July.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badwater_UltramarathonComment
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"In the last few years, 70 to 80 people have competed in each race, with 20–40% failing to reach the finish line. There have been no fatalities.
That's surprising.Comment
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The Vermont Spartan Ultra Beast is pretty rough - it has a completion rate of below 30%. I am going for the Tri-State one first to measure it up, but it is the altitude that supposedly makes Killington, VT so challenging.
There used to be the Death Race which is full of excellent stories (many possibly untrue). Things like having to bring a bike as required kit, being made to carry it for a day or so and then told it is useless and to leave it behind. Having to recover things from lakes and then build whatever is in the bag...Comment
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Stuff like this just makes me feel even more alienated from the rest of the human race. I just can't imagine how they're brains work. I'm envious, to some extent (assuming they're happy) but I just don't get it.
On the other hand, there's not much money in ultramarathoning and the training schedule must be brutal. It has to impair the other aspects of their life. For example, a local graduate student made the papers here for doing either that Death Valley race or some other 100 mile race. I know some faculty in his department and one of them told me "Yeah, well, that's great and all, but to be honest, we'd like him to spend more time in the lab and less time running."Comment
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For me it is a steady increase in challenge and something to focus on. I did a Tough Mudder last year which really started me getting in shape and I have jumped off from there. As a result I know I could do a Spartan Beast. The Ultra Beast is slightly terrifying (26 miles, 8 hours or so, on a mountain w/ some seriously difficult obstacles), so gets me back into training specifics to stand a chance. I can do a decent run of monkey bars for the first time in over 20 years.Comment
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That's very true, HP. I know people who do some of these extreme events, and generally it's not good for other aspects of their lives.
On the other hand, the people I know who do this have their brains wired in such a way that if they weren't training for a few hours most days, they'd go completely insane and become utterly intolerable. So I've just put it down to them running instead of reading, or drinking, or playing video games, or pissing around on the internet, or whatever people do to keep their brains from going nuts.
Most of you know that I drove support for a couple of these guys who did RAAM last year. But my friends did the "easy" option of the 2-man relay, so they were getting a bit of rest, and "only" cycled 1500 miles in their 8 days. The more extreme guys in the event do it solo, which means they get to cycle 3000 miles on open, public roads! And even then, this isn't the "hard" bike race across the US. That's the "Trans-Am" which is self-supported, which means you have to take everything with you or buy it at public stores, and can't have a crew fixing your bike or handing you drinks...
Of course, because things are never hard enough, there's now the Tour Divide, which is a mountain bike race along the Continental Divide in the US (or, at least, the Great Divide Trail which stays close to the watershed) - nearly 3000 miles off road from Banff to New Mexico...
Whatever you find, there always seems to be a more extreme version of it.
Actually, that's true of Ironman, too. I had thought that was the pinnacle of nuttiness, but when I got to San Diego I made friends with a couple who fairly regularly compete in the Hawaii "Ultraman", which is a 10km swim and 145km bike ride on day one; a 275km bike ride on day 2; and a double marathon "run" on day 3... The most bizarre thing about my friends who do this is that they're otherwise relatively normal.Comment
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I can see that. But, see, I can barely get out of bed most days now because of...issues. And even when I was young and really trying, the best I could do was about 8 miles in about 80 minutes and my legs felt completely numb. Indeed, that was one of the experiences, among many others, that really discouraged me. Like, I'd worked that hard and that was still the best I'd probably ever do. Maybe that's not right, but it's one of the voices in my head.
So I can't relate to people who get up early to exercise. I just don't know how to do it, despite trying many times to be one of those people.Comment
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I have a friend who ran the Western States ultramarathon a few years back, and came really close to a divorce thanks to the training for it. It also screwed his knees up so now he can't run at all, and he's since migrated to ridiculously long bike races. So far still married, at least. Otherwise he seems OK (though with execrable taste in music).Comment
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