Friday, April 06, 2007

Take It To The Limit (Financial Times Deutschland, Germany)

(Thinking of Spring? I took this in Spring, 2006 along
the Harkins Ridge Trail in
Purisma Creek Redwoods OSP)


Kevin Braddock of The Financial Times Deutschland(Germany) did a nice article this week about ultrarunning (here). I thought you might enjoy it.

Highlight quotes:
About 70,000 exceptionally fit individuals are thought to take part in "ultramarathons" around the world and the sport is pushing for recognition at Commonwealth and Olympic level.
"Some people are running away from something, some are running towards something," he says. "For most people, running a marathon is a huge barrier. My personal best was 3hr 24min and I knew I wouldn't get any faster than that. I'm better over 150 miles. Then it becomes mind over matter. If you want to do it, you'll do it."
Karnazes argues that to complete the challenge is to win. "Ultra people do it more for themselves than for bragging rights. Marathon is all about beating your personal best times. Something like Badwater is to most people just incomprehensible. Even though I won Badwater, I prefer to say I survived the fastest. Anyone who crosses the finish line is a winner because there are so many elements to overcome."
Enjoy!

SD

6 comments:

  1. Podcasters -

    The Final Sprint has a new interview with Scott Jurek that is worth checking out.

    SD

    ReplyDelete
  2. The Ibuprofen studies leave a lot to be desired. It takes really large numbers of subjects to draw conclusions in cases like these. Certainly 155 subjects aren't going to do it....they'd all have to be identically trained, give identical efforts and, most importantly, be blinded from whether they were getting the drug or not. All you can really say is that Ibuprofen isn't killing anyone and that there is more evidence for it's safety under stressful conditions than there is for any of the suppliments you take. (most of which are never tested at all during endurance runs). If you want to get down on drugs...and I think it's probably warranted...get down on all of them. $20. says the guy who eats, stays hydrated, starts slow and eats and drinks lots soon after finish....who has trained for the event....will do as well or better than the person on drugs/suppliments. After 30 years of med ical practice, I'm a theraputic nihilist.

    Larry

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi Scott,
    you might want to change "Financial Times Daily" to "Financial Times Deutschland" which is the proper name ;-)

    Great article!

    Best regards,
    Norbert

    ReplyDelete
  4. Scott, I'm an avid reader of your blog and I have a question. You always have pictures from your races - what kind of camera do you take with you? Where do you keep it as you run? I'm starting to run more and more trail races and I would like to take pics as I run. Thanks for your help and keep up the good work!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Scott good luck at Boston and most of all enjoy it!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Runningtwig -

    I'm currently using a Sony Cybershot DSC-P200, which I believe is a discontinued product unfortunately. I have also used the Sony T3.

    The DSC-P200 is about the size of an Amphipod gel bottle, and it slips into the Amphipod cage/holder nicely. I took some of the excess elastic from the Amphipod waist band and attached it to the cage so that it holds the camera in. I wear it on my belt for some races, and on my Camelpak shoulder strap when I use the big tank.

    If you find a camera that has a small form factor, a decent lense, and a "sport" setting, I bet you could make an elastic pocket for a belt/pack in a similar way. Let us know if you come up with something clever!

    SD

    ReplyDelete

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