Sports you play as an adult

rhouses gym sessions for table tennis

RichM I love the legend of the race, the mystique of it all, it’s inspiring to watch. I’d argue Jasmin Paris’ finish last year ranks among the greatest sporting achievements I’ve ever seen.

Is that the ginger guy you’re talking about? I watched an interview with him, seemed surprisingly normal.

303abuser yeah that’s the one. Sent a presentation he did after the run Africa event. It was a mental thing he did, but when he talks about the things he did prior to that, like bury himself alive for a week with only water and pull a car the length of a marathon. You realise it’s all challenging his mental self as much as physical. Very impressive.

Impressive is probably an understatement. It’s amazing to see people push the limits of what they’re capable of doing. I figure if I can capture a sliver of that, I’m moving in the right direction.

rhouses makes more sense, thought you were in the gym doing weights so you can pick up that heavy table tennis bat

303abuser is it though? No one knows what the course is year to year, last year could have been half the distance than this year, we don’t know?

5 finishers last year suggest an “easier” lap and JK’s fun run this year could be the best ever in terms of toughness and distance

This is my problem with it and most people have no way of quantifying the effort.

That being said, I do think it’s a unique and mystical event and glad there are crazy things like this going on to test the limits of human endurance

Hursty I’m interested to see what John Kelly has to say about this year’s race. Most of what I know about it is from his interviews. I get the impression that the course doesn’t really change that much year to year, unless there are finishers. The rumour I heard from this year is that one of the books was moved from the top of a climb to the bottom of a 1800 foot descent. Last year everyone said the weather was perfect, so I know that was a big factor.

I think all of the speculation and ridiculousness is what makes it fun for those of us following it. I know it’s longer than the 100 miles it’s listed at.

I was hoping to see Ihor run it again. I have a friend who’s relay team won the canadian death race the last two years. In 2023, he said some guy running solo destroyed their team and didn’t look tired at the finish. That was Ihor.

Hursty John Kelly just posted this about the race …

That 3 loop “Fun Run” hurt more than my last two 5 loop finishes. Yes, the course was harder - about 10% more vert, bringing it to _15K feet per loop. The weather was tougher too - 77F / 25C is toasty for Barkley (2 nights earlier had 4 inches of rain w/ a tornado watch, 1 night later had snow flurries ). But I also made a lot of mistakes.
It’s actually pretty intriguing, it being back to something I’m not sure I’m capable of doing. But the best measure of difficulty isn’t whether I, or anyone else, can finish. The race is meant to have goals that are out of reach but maybe possible for the full spectrum of participants. When only 10 people finish 1 loop, and only 4 finish 2… then yeah, maybe it was a bit difficult. The course, and the runners, will continue to recalibrate. And the weather will continue being unpredictable.
Rigid pre-race goals are great for motivation & prep, but for post-race evaluation they often fail to account for the actual circumstances. After each of my events I now distill my satisfaction down to two seemingly simple questions:

1. Did I do my best?
2. Was it (or would it have been) worth it?
   The answer to both questions should be the same. This time they were both yes.
   Possibly the greatest thing ultrarunning has given me is simply the ability to honestly answer both of those questions. It requires knowing what my best is, and what my best takes. Far too often people have no idea what they’re capable of and think “I gave it my all” when it was really just “I experienced mild discomfort.” What our best is isn’t nearly as important as simply being able to actually give it & having something in life that’s worth it.

Hursty I like the context where he says his job as the RD is to create the environment for people to achieve greatness. That said, I agree, the orienteering part of it has no appeal to me. I have enough trouble not getting lost on flagged courses.

303abuser Damo Hall is doing the Northern Traverse race in early April here in the Uk, basically it’s the classic coast to coast route, around 180miles non stop starting in the Lake district and finishing on the east coast
I’m hoping to do it in 2026 for my 40th

Hursty Good for you, that’s a proper goal. I can’t get my head around that kind of distance yet. How long do you think it will take you, 3 days?

303abuser yeah at least I would say, you get 6 days I think so plenty of time if you can keep moving!

Hursty I guess if you take it at a slow pace and plan to sleep a little here and there, maybe it’s manageable. Is it self-supported? How are you managing the logistics for eating/sleeping?

303abuser there are checkpoints along the way, I’m not sure if you can use a crew to be honest. It’s pretty rare here in the UK, I know it’s more prevalent in the states

I need to get this 100 miler cracked first, 4th time lucky! Keep getting to 80 miles then retiring for different reasons

Hursty It’s so helpful to have a crew. My wife has crewed my 50k races, think I did 5 aid station in something like 15 total minutes last time. Run in, swap bottles, grab a ziplock of chips/candy, ice in every pocket, and back out. For 100 miles or more, it’s probably nice to have a little morale boost at times too.

What’s holding you back when you get late into that distance?

I’m riding 800km through the Alps from Geneva to Nice in early July - 18,000m of climbing and ticking off a ton of classic Tour climbs. 6 days, but 6th day is a shorter mostly downhill day.

Managed to break my arm playing golf Friday.

Scones!!