Mental Feat - ultra running explored

This year’s UTMB was cancelled due to a sudden change in weather resulting in a mudslide making the trail dangerous for the runners. Two of my fellow runners, Mimi Anderson and Martine Hofstede were in Switzerland at the time: “1….2…..3…U…T…M…B… we were off, the race had finally started – 166km of hard running and adventure [...]

There is an Ultra marathon on Iceland that many people have raved about. The landscape and beauty of the scenery is suppose to be extraordinary. Below is an account of the Laugavegur Mountain Ultra, posted on Running Monkey. “Laugavegur mountain Ultra marathon was my first ultra. It was the culmination of a challenge I set [...]

In a post on Lisa Bliss’ blog I was forced to think about success and failure. If success is secured, does that make it mundane and not worth pursuing? Lisa is writing about the quote “What would I do if I knew I couldn’t fail?”, and argues that life would then be boring and mundane. [...]

Badwater, the word is a magical one amongst ultra athletes. One of the pinnacle events in the world, and maybe the toughest of them all. Mark Woolley, who I had the pleasure to meet in the Al Andalus last year, here gives his account of this gruesome race. DONT MISS his daughter’s account of the [...]

Three of the 12 runners in the JOGLE completed the whole run across the UK, from the very North to the very South. I think it must have been such a great race for the three to finish, a true endurance achievement. Maybe one day I will be on the start line, but first I [...]

I was running my “long” run yesterday and was thinking of the guys doing the JOGLE. In comparison to what they are doing, I am just playing around in the kids pool… They are covering close to 60 miles per day for 15 days in a row! They are only through day three and I [...]

A few of my ultra friends are embarking on an huge adventure… the JOGLE run, where over 15 days they will run the length of Brittain. In total they will run 868 miles (1,396km!) from John O’Groats to Lands End. It is Rory Coleman, the iconic UK ultra marathon specialist who is managing the event. [...]

My friend Fredrik has tried on barefoot running and I liked his thorough approach. He has written an article in three parts on why he started, his first experience and what he has learnt from barefoot running. Many of us has read “Born to run” and has been inspired to take up the barefoot technicue, [...]

“Try to fail, but don’t fail to try” it says on Mimi’s website (click here). And it seems like this is how Mimi lives… As I write Mimi is in Namibia for a 5 day race through the desert. Not the 24h Namibian Ultra Marathon I am off to do in May 2010, but yet [...]

How do you become an extreme athlete? Well this question was put to Bill Bradley, who answered: “Well you have got to have issues for one thing and you always have got to want to keep one up yourself. If you survive something you go to the next until you run the worlds toughest run, [...]