This is a odd/random question I thought of. I'm running my first 50K at the end of November in Colorado and my question is has anyone ever had a situation where their gear (gels, water, food) has ever frozen in your drop bag while at the aid station? If it has what have y'all done to combat this issue. Again I know its kind of an odd question but I'm trying to think of any issue that might come up during the race.

volunteers kinda carry these races and i feel like they don't get talked about enough. could be food, a pep talk, taping up your feet, whatever.

Hoping someone with a little experience could help me please.

I ran the arc of attrition last year and was disqualified/timed out 99 miles in.

I’ve ran the distance multiple times, but always in more favourable conditions and the weather caught me out to an extent.

I will be trying again next year and hoping to be better prepared, but hoped someone could offer some advice regarding footwear.

The coastal path was a muddy mess and often I was running through puddles and ankle deep mud. This is in addition toy the grass, gravel, shingle and everything else the course threw at you.

I wore a pair of Pegasus gore-tex trial 5’s. While I had no issue with them before (including the Sirona 100), my feet were a mess afterwards.

I’m pretty sure more grip would have help, as would a little more cushioning towards the end.

I’ve also read that goretex is not a good choice for runs of this size in this weather as sweet and puddle water can not escape from the shoe? Would it be preferable to wear a non-water proof breathable shoe at all?

Does anyone have any recommendations for a more suitable shoe at all? Or advice what they wore on the course and how it fared?

I’m possibly looking at the New Balance Fresh Foam X Hierro v9. Would anyone recommend these or give advice on them being fit for purpose?

Many thanks!

https://tuckerbrady7.wixstudio.com/my-site-1

Hello! I posted earlier this week about hosting a virtual backyard. I have got a website up and tickets available. It’s one starting time 8am on Nov. 21st. There will be a live tracking that is used and submitted. The race will go until last one standing and all the times will be evaluated. There will be an option to connect to zoom your “aid station” to make more of a fair playing field. Let me know thoughts and if this will work or flop. Thanks!

I’m hoping someone with experience in the UTMB system can help me understand something!

I recently finished the Kodiak 100K and was absolutely overjoyed to learn that I placed first in my age group! I also received a message congratulating me on the achievement, which was such an exciting surprise.

Here’s where I’m a little unsure. Does placing first in my age group at Kodiak, as a UTMB World Series Major, mean I’ve earned an automatic entry into the CCC race in Chamonix, France, in 2027? Or does it simply give me another opportunity through the lottery?

I’m still relatively new to this sport and learning how the UTMB qualification process works. I’m thrilled at the possibility, but I also don’t want to get ahead of myself if I’m interpreting the message incorrectly!

If you’ve qualified this way or have experience with the process, I’d be so grateful if you could share what I should expect and what steps I need to take next.

Thank you so much! I’m incredibly grateful for this trail-running community, the opportunities this sport brings, and all the people who make this journey so special.

Bles in health,

Rhonda 💛

Hey everyone. Wanted to get some people perspective on this.

I’ve been in this trail running group for about three years now and usually it’s chill 7 to 15km runs at a time at a social pace. Everyone has been super welcoming and I’ve made a lot of good friends.

Recently mentioned to the group that I’m interested in running an ultra marathon trail race around 50 km. Some of the group members have been really supportive, but some of them have really been questioning my ability to do it.

I mentioned that some of the technical trails have been really challenging to run and that I’m going way slower than I want to. One person who is experienced in ultras just responded, “ yeah I told you so 😂” and when I asked if they could show me how to get better they just avoided the question and said “it’s a runnable trail”.

I want to find an experienced but supportive community to help become a better trail runner and reach this goal.

Does anyone have tips on how to handle people who just shut you down? Or where to find people who support newbies?

Taking a trip here this weekend and looking to summit old baldy.

Anyone have any experience?

I’ve found trail 650 on strava but it only has a path showing for 1.5 miles.

Coordinates 46.730181, -109.203665

Recently finished my first 50k and have caught the bug. Looking to move up to the 50m distance and wanted to see if anyone has ran this race and what their review was.

If not, really looking for anything with under 10k gain in the state of California! (Ideally in the spring of 2027) All recs are appreciated

I have a 30 hr race in 2 days. Yesterday I woke up with a sore throat. I have decent energy (not 100% but decent) and a stuffy nose. I've been training for this race for a year. Do I DNS or give it a try? There's another race in 3 weeks I put myself on the wait list for. But not sure I'll get in. Thoughts?

So my plan for starting next year season with 63 km with 1600 meters elevation is power hicks of 16-20 km and 10-15 km city runs

Hello!! I’m a 31 year old mom of 2 looking for advice. I’m sure this community is familiar with the Rut in Montana every September. I’ve done the 11k twice and this year I tackled the 21k. I have a bug up my butt about not getting all the way to the top of Lone Peak and now I have this crazy idea that I can make the leap from the 21k this year all the way to the 50k next year…

How realistic is it to start now and get a plan in place for the 50k while being a stay at home mom? To get ready for the 21 this year I spent most of my training on my Peloton bike honestly and doing a few big hikes in the month leading up. Is it possible to successfully train using a bike?

GPS performance, pace tracking, battery life, and reviewing training data afterward are high on my list. I also lift weights several times a week, so I don't want a watch that's great for running but awkward for everything else. I'm looking for an Amazfit smartwatch review from people who run regularly. I've narrowed my options to the Active 3 Premium, T-Rex 3 Pro, and Balance 3, but I'm trying to understand how they compare when you're actually out running rather than just looking at their listed features. which features have made the biggest difference in your own training, and which ones turned out to matter less than you expected?

Last week I was gifted a 50K race entry in the Wolverine State 100. Not being a planned trip, I couldn’t justify the expense of taking our 15 passenger van and getting hotel rooms. So I packed my motorcycle and rode 6.5 hours to Alpena, MI, slept in the parking lot, ran the race and rode 6.5 hours home.

I ran faster than the previous age-group course record, (though 3 guys in my age group also did ahead of me lol) and I got 10th place overall.

It was a great adventure! It’s nice to know I’ve built my ankles up enough at this point to ride a motorcycle home after running an Ultra! 🤣

Has anyone else noticed an increase in people registering for the longer ultra distances (100 ro 200 mile) with little to no endurance background? I did a 100 mile this past weekend that had roughly 230 entrants and posted that the majority (approximately 130) had never run a 100 before. I know everyone is new to the 100 mile distance at some point, but there was a 56% finisher rate on a course that was not a technical or challenging and the weather was perfect. It's an ideal race for a high finisher rate. I looked up several of the names who did not finish and they has little to no ultra experience at all. When Cocodona sold out this year and the entrants were listed, a large number had no ultrasignup history. Yes, I know not every race is listed on ultrasignup (especially non US based raced), but the number of entrants with absolutely no history exceeded what could be explained by race registration platform. I really think social media is creating a perception that "couch to 100 mile" is as reasonable as a "couch to 5k". I do not doubt that there are people who can leap from no running to ultra endurance distances, but I think that is the exception and not the norm. Everyone is free to do with their money and time as they please, but as some races get more popular and sell out painfully quick, it is a tad frustrating when spots are taken by people with a high chance to DNS or DNF

I feel like I’m consistently nursing an injury, whether it being a knee, or the other knee, or my foot etc.

I recently scheduled a PT visit next week.

Has anyone had good/bad experience?

Typically with it?

I’m 39 years old and scheduled for a C5-C6 cervical disc replacement on November 5th, along with removal of bone spurs that have been contributing to nerve compression.
I’ve been dealing with chronic neck pain, nerve pain, and numbness for over three years. I’ve tried conservative treatments, including steroid injections and medication, but things have progressively gotten worse. My most recent MRI showed significant foraminal narrowing, moderate spinal canal stenosis, and some deformation of the spinal cord.

Despite all of this, I’ve continued running at a relatively high level. Over the past few years, I’ve completed multiple marathons, a 50-miler, and most recently a mountain 100K. I’ve regularly maintained 60–80 miles per week during training.

Running is a huge part of my life, both physically and mentally, so naturally, one of my biggest concerns is what life and training will look like after surgery.
My surgeon anticipates roughly two months of recovery, and my plan is to maintain whatever aerobic fitness I safely can through walking and eventually incline treadmill work, as permitted.

I’m particularly interested in hearing from people who have undergone cervical disc replacement rather than fusion.
Were you able to return to running, particularly marathons or ultramarathons?
How long before you started running again?
Did your neck pain, nerve symptoms, and overall quality of life improve?
Did you experience any setbacks when returning to higher training volumes?
Looking back, was the surgery worth it?

I understand everyone’s recovery is different, and I’ll be following my surgeon’s guidance. I’m just hoping to hear some real experiences from people who have been through this, especially endurance athletes.

After more than three years of dealing with pain, I’m hopeful this surgery will finally allow me to train and live without constantly managing symptoms.TIA

Let's reframe the beginner to 100m debate. I've never DNF'ed a race, but I also only ran up to 50m so far. Obviously, everyone can run into an accident, sudden illness, inclining weather or just a really bad day. But I would not start a (remote) race if I'm not 90% sure I get over the distance. And since I cannot run these distances in training, my only way of getting that confidence is building up race distance over time.

But to me it feels irresponsible towards the organizers and myself to start if I don't have some grounded expectation that in principle I can make the distance. This is why I end up only slowly pushing my race distances up. M

There obviously some grey area here, like this is a lot less of an issue when running in an urban area with easy access compared to a remote trails..

So, how certain should you be that you can finish to start say a 100m race? And what are reasonable expectations for benchmarking yourself before starting?

As in the title really! I’ve got my absolute A-goal dream race next June, and the longest I will ever have done at 268 miles; and 35,000ft elevation. I’ve done 110 and 130 miles in races before (same terrain). If you were doing similar, when would you start your race-specific block? I had been thinking Christmas so a 6 month run up but now wondering if this is too long and risk burning myself out and should maybe go 16 weeks instead…

Obviously keeping the baseline going and doing plenty of hills from now onwards but just contemplating when to start the real build.

Distinctly slow and likely back of pack runner if that makes a difference!

Hey everyone! I have my first 50k ultra coming up in November. For context, I play a high level of rugby throughout the year and have made it through this season pretty much unscathed until the last tournament of the year (this past weekend) I sprained my MCL.

It’s thankfully only a grade 1 but I’ve never had this sort of injury before so I want to be thoughtful about my return to running. I do have a physio who I’ll see tomorrow and ask heaps of questions to, but I’m wondering if anyone has ever experienced this and been able to maintain their running fitness…without being able to run for a couple of weeks??

I worked hard to get to my current point with running and I’m just stressed because this is the moment where I’m supposed to be ramping up my weekly k’s and I feel like I’m starting over again.

Hey guys first off not necessarily looking for medical advice just want to know if anyone else has had similar issues and if anyone has recommendations.

Randomly maybe 10 weeks ago I began to feel some discomfort on the inside of my shine about halfway up maybe 10oclock if front of shin is noon. I continued to run through it and finally went to see a runner specific physio. It was diagnosed at Medial Tibia stress syndrome or a little shin splints.

I say random I did have a gnarly ankle sprain maybe 3 months before this on the same side I rehabbed I’m not sure if it correlated.

I saw the physio the week after my peak week (deload) for a trail 50k. Per orders I trained super light and took deload very serious. I ran this trail 50k and PRd and podiumed. From the start I literally had 0 discomfort. But every run for 10 weeks leading up I had discomfort from the first step.

I say discomfort cause it’s not really painful but it is talking to me. I was prescribed some calf raises and some other tib work to do. Post 50k (16 days ago) I took 14 days off of running completely and did all PT exercises, I felt great so I did a light run walk two days ago and instantly two steps into run same discomfort right back where it was, no change, not worse, not better.

I’m not sure why I didn’t feel anything for the 50k maybe adrenaline then extreme blood flow? I have tried all different kinds of my usual shoes and it does not change it. Trails and roads same feeling.

I get this same feeling doing one legged pogo hops. No pain balancing no weakness doing calf raises etc.

I’m trying to figure this out without having to go spend $$$ and if I’m trying to chase something I should just kind of run through? My only reservation is it’s been there for over 2 months now, definitely not worsening definitely not improving.

Any insight helps.

Nothing came up in a search of the sub for it or the RD org, Side Quest Adventures. Maybe someone's done that 100miler but hasn't been prompted to write up a report on it before. Or if I missed the post feel free to mock me (within reason, I'm recovering from a surgery & not at full capacity)