Ultra Running Is Not Real
In this episode of Momma Runs an Ultra, I share my excitement, nerves, and overthinking about my training for my first ultramarathon. After finishing my biggest back-to-back long runs yet, I’m surprised to realize the second long run still somehow feels easier than the first. Hoping that's a sign that the training is actually working, even if I still have no clue how to predict a realistic 50K+ finish time.
I talk through all the little race-day questions swirling in my head, from pacing and aid-station planning to figuring out how to explain to my family what I’ll need when my brain is fried halfway through the race. I also share the hilarious story (joke was on me!) of meeting an ultrarunner years ago and genuinely thinking he was lying about people running 60+ and 100+ mile races, only to eventually become the person training for an ultra, even if it's shorter than those. Somebody tell my husband he is definitely sleeping on the sofa bed the night before the race.
How I Procrastinate
- Sleep with Rock Stars, the Gen X Sleep Podcast
- Country Fried Rock, Podcast Archives from 2009-2020
- Music Playlists
- Support This Podcast
- Dive Bar Music Club, the Low Key, High Taste Happy Hour for Music Nerds
Chapters
- 00:03 - Introduction to Mama Runs and Ultra
- 00:37 - Preparing for Race Day
- 02:50 - Unexpected Connections
- 03:59 - Discovering Ultra Running
- 04:50 - Preparing for Race Day
- 05:47 - Preparing for My First Ultramarathon
Recommended If You Like
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Transcript
Well, hey y'.
Speaker A:All.
Speaker A:Welcome to Mama Runs and Ultra.
Speaker A:I'm a runner on the downhill side of my 50s and this podcast is me saying all the quiet parts out loud of what the hell am I thinking?
Speaker A:So I have made it through my biggest ever back to back long runs, weirdly the first long run.
Speaker A:So like the actual long long run seemed easier than the first time I did a run a couple miles shorter than that.
Speaker A:So I can definitely tell I'm making some progr.
Speaker A:Still just completely surprised that those second runs generally feel great.
Speaker A:Completely unexpected.
Speaker A:But I've definitely hit that point of seeing my race on the summer calendar and wondering what on earth I do.
Speaker A:I've done all the training, but how do I know what to do on race day?
Speaker A:I, I, I have all the little things.
Speaker A:Like I actually wrote out lists for everything and I'm using my theater background as a former stage manager of how I'm going to lay out everything.
Speaker A:So I feel like I have actually a pretty good way of dealing with that.
Speaker A:But I mean like the running, how do I pace to go, you know, in a half marathon, say you want to go two hours, you're roughly going to run 904 per mile because that's going to give you a few seconds built in there if there's like a quick potty stop or anything like that.
Speaker A:But for a 50 something K, that is TBD as far as the actual distance because ultra running and all of my training has been by effort.
Speaker A:I don't know how to plan for what the day is going to be like.
Speaker A:How do I tell my family where to meet me at the aid station or what time?
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker A:Is this going to be an eight hour day?
Speaker A:Is this going to be a ten hour day?
Speaker A:Is it going to be a seven hour day?
Speaker A:I have no idea.
Speaker A:I'm sure that there is some way to figure this out, but I have not asked the question correctly in order for Google to give me any sort of indication of how to plan for this.
Speaker A:And part of it is I don't know what's reasonable to expect.
Speaker A:I know what I can reasonably do on a half marathon and I know what my watch thinks I can reasonably do on a marathon, which is ridiculous because there is no way I can run a full marathon at the pace it thinks I can.
Speaker A:So I was looking at, at that and I was like, okay, so say ideal road marathon, add an hour to that time and then so for this, what add two hours?
Speaker A:I don't know.
Speaker A:I would very much appreciate your feedback in any of the podcast comment sections ASAP about how you figure this out.
Speaker A:Like, I've seen the calculators where you can like put in your goal time, but I don't have a goal time because I don't know what's reasonable and how you judge that.
Speaker A:Is there like a race predictor somewhere where you put in like a half marathon time and it'll predict it for your 50 whatever K?
Speaker A:Because that would be way more helpful.
Speaker A:Helpful.
Speaker A:I haven't found that yet.
Speaker A:I'm sure it exists, but I haven't found it.
Speaker A:Anyway, had a really nice text exchange from a local friend that I actually don't see that often.
Speaker A:Who are the people I may have mentioned in the first or second episode as being the very first people I knew who had ever done an ultra marathon?
Speaker A:So long story short, in case I haven't told this story before or in case I have, when we first moved rural South Carolina, I was in a meeting and this woman comes up to me and she's like, hey, now I'm from Atlanta, like city of Atlanta.
Speaker A:So we're talking millions of people and this woman comes up to me in the middle of this middle nowhere meeting and she says, hey, did you go to such and such elementary school?
Speaker A:And I was like, I did.
Speaker A:She said, you were in my brother's class.
Speaker A:And I was like, I was so random that these people that I went to elementary school with were also living in the same little town in the middle of nowhere.
Speaker A:And we got together with them socially.
Speaker A:We didn't really know them, but with some sort of connection we got together with them socially and they invited another couple over who they had recently met as well.
Speaker A:And this other couple were super nice.
Speaker A:They were our age.
Speaker A:They also had just moved there at the time.
Speaker A:They also didn't have kids.
Speaker A:And we were just chatting and the husband was telling me this whole story about how he was running to and from work.
Speaker A:Like, I don't know, 9 miles and 19 miles.
Speaker A:I don't even remember anymore because I was not a runner back then, so it all seemed ridiculous.
Speaker A:And he was telling the story of like how he ran like a 60 miler and all this stuff.
Speaker A:I honestly thought he was lying the whole entire night we were talking to these very lovely people.
Speaker A:I thought he was making it all up.
Speaker A:I had never heard of ultra running.
Speaker A:I had never heard of any of these races.
Speaker A:I didn't know people ran 60 miles, ish miles, which is 100k.
Speaker A:No people ran 100 miles.
Speaker A:I honestly thought he was completely lying.
Speaker A:Joke was on me because turns out he's done tons and tons and tons of them.
Speaker A:We're now friends with all of them and we coincidentally ended up having kids at the same time.
Speaker A:So thank you for for lending your expertise and your kind texting earlier this week because it was very reassuring and I really appreciate it.
Speaker A:So anyway, big shout out to them.
Speaker A:We've decided in our family that we're going to do like a pit stop practice for the aid station and I don't know if this is a good idea or not because it's not like we're trying to do it quickly.
Speaker A:It's just that I want to be able to demonstrate in a non pressured situation what I need for help instead of having to verbalize it halfway through a 50ish K because I have a pretty good idea that I'm not able to come up with the right words during the middle of my race.
Speaker A:I'm going to be like, I don't want to be cranky and mean because that is not the intent.
Speaker A:And I've been super appreciative of my family's support for the training thus far.
Speaker A:Far.
Speaker A:So yeah, definitely looking forward to it.
Speaker A:The one thing I have not factored in I probably should mention to my husband.
Speaker A:So we're staying in a cabin that has like a sofa bed and then a teeny bedroom.
Speaker A:It's like a tiny house sort of situation.
Speaker A:He's gonna have to sleep on the sofa bed the night before my race because he snores and if he snores the night before my race, I might have to smother him in his sleep.
Speaker A:So he's gonna have to sleep on that sofa bed.
Speaker A:Hi honey.
Speaker A:Here's your notice.
Speaker A:You're gonna have to sleep on the sofa bed.
Speaker A:Love you, but it's been a good training block so far.
Speaker A:Enjoying it.
Speaker A:Excited for seeing my race on the horizon.
Speaker A:Probably overthinking everything and trying to, in the words of my friend who is the spouse of the ultra runner that I thought was lying when we first moved here, calm down.
Speaker A:Not usually a helpful phrase, but yes, actually, calm down.
Speaker A:I'll do my best.
Speaker A:Always seeking any advice y' all may have for someone's first ultramarathon.
Speaker A:Things you wish you'd known, things you're super proud of yourself for remembering to do just any little tidbits.
Speaker A:Definitely leave those in your favorite comment section of your podcast apps or YouTube.
Speaker A:Leave those five star ratings in review because I have to head out the door now that it's finally hot.
Speaker A:I'm gonna get not enough weeks of heat acclimation training because Mama runs an ultra.
