I know there are marathon runners here and i even see talk of ultras, so I know there are some distance folks lurking.
What is the furthest you have gone without stopping....just straight running, from the first step until the last....no walking in between along the way?

I've only been running for about 5 years....started out unable to complete 1/2 mile on my first try.
These days I knock down around 20-25 miles a week and 10k-20k distances are no problem.
I'm no long distance runner buy any serious standard, but I am damn proud of the 65 pounds I lost and kept off for over 4 years, and the idea that my first week of running it took me almost an hour to walk a 5k and within a few year I could knock down sub-25 minute 5K's without trying.

Still...the marathon eludes me...just got in from an 11 miler and the thought of a little more than double that really feels like a steep hill I've yet to figure out how to climb. The ultra.....I cant even image. For you ultra runners....how the hell do you keep motivated, hydrated, and fueled up to last 100 miles? Do you have to walk / stop along the way or is it really possible to go 100 straight miles from start to finish?

Tell your stories of how to stay motivated for long distances.
I want to go past the 13.1 mark and could use some advice.

My mantra is, "do I feel physically worse than I did 5 minutes ago?" If not...continue on for a while and ask myself the same thing again if needed. I realize that most of the run in mental...once you get to certain level of fitness it would seem that the rest is in ones mind.

Do you long distance folks run with music?
I cant imagine the long runs without it.
Music changed the way I train...when I first started out I didnt even know how to make mp3's...now, I have ipods for different distances, preloadeed with music that has a tempo to match the pace I want to keep.
Same thing for the mountain bike and also for the gym....ipods ready to go with appropriate music for those activities.

What do you all do to make it 26.2 and beyond?

Furthest I ever ran was 13 miles...I did that a few times in college, haven't done it since.  I didn't use headphones because back then all we had were cassette tape walkmans and I considered them too bulky to run with.  How did I keep motivated?  Shit, it was nearly 20 years ago, I hardly remember...
Furthest I've run since that time was last Tuesday, when I ran almost 10 miles.  Kept it to right around 8 minute miles, a bit slower than I usually run but it was a long way for me.
I clip an ipod shuffle to my waistband nowadays but I get most of my motivation by lying to myself on the way out, telling myself I'll turn around at the 3.1 miles mark and make it a 10K run.
On the way back, it's easy...I have to cover that distance to get home anyway, and if I walk it'll just take longer.  

Don't get dependent on music - most races do not allow headphones, though the rule is rarely enforced, some (such as the Minn/St. Paul marathon) went through finish line photos and DQed everyone wearing headphones.  If I am training solo, I will wear an iPod and listen to podcasts or music, but I never would consider racing with one.  IME, folks wearing headphones in a race have ZERO situational awareness of what is going on around them.

Other ways to stay motivated:

-trail running
-training partners

As far as how far I have run without walking - probably 13.1 miles is the farthest as it is the longest distance that I have really "raced".  During all of my longer training runs I walked when I got to a fountain where I could refill my water bottle.  I wouldn't consider what I did at my Ironman "racing" and I walked through all of the aid stations on the marathon course - easier to get in fluid and calories that way and to stuff icewater sponges down my top to stay cool.

Are you taking in fluid and calories on your training runs now?

Did they tell the runners they were going to do that?    The no ipod rule is like the law against jaywalking;  although it's well-intentioned, most people ignore it.

Most I've run is 13.1.  I'm training for a marathon now and my mind still isn't comprehending running the half.....twice.  

What I've done in the half is to break it up into smaller races.  I run 5 miles (no problem.)  Then I run 5 miles (no problems.)  Then I run a 5k.  Bam, I'm done!

IMHO, it's ok to train with an ipod and then run the race without one.  During the race, there is plenty of distraction.  There are crazy spectators and bands.  You have your GPS/HR watch to fiddle with and do math with ("if I run at my current pace, I should make the half by X time.  If I run 30 seconds/min faster, I can PR by X" etc.)  Then there's always the beautiful women to pace and get mesmerized by.

Don't really have the time at the moment to make a huge post... My main motivation is that I always had feet/joint/knee/anything to do with running problems practically my whole life. Every doctor I went to told me I'd never be able to do distance. Hell my 1st half marathon was with 2 weeks of training because my neighbor, also a sub 3 hour marathoner and a 2x ironman who I envied(and still do) told me there was a 1/2 marathon in a couple weeks and asked me if I wanted to come.

I've only done 1 marathon myself so far but I'm hoping to Boston Qualify this year and do an ultra(either 24 hour or 100 miler) sometime by 2010. I never run with music or anything like that, I like to be aware of my surroundings especially around here. I've almost been hit mulitiple times by people turning at full speed going the wrong way in a 1 way road in the middle of the night.

As much as I hate to you gotta carry fluids if youre going on anything more than 10 miles+. Training for my 1st marathon I did a 17 miler with no water or food and I can honestly say I've never felt worse in my life(well, when exercising). After that I started taking in fluids and gu and I can't even tell you how much it helps in the long runs.

I'll post more later, but I'd love to hit up a marathon with someone later this year if anyone is down. Most of my friends don't care much for running, especially anything longer than a block. I'll either be at the St. George or the Baystate in October.

Heh...the thing about needing water and food after 10 miles reminds of the first time I ran 13 miles.  I got back to the house, went into the kitchen, stuck my head in the freezer, drank nearly a quart of orange juice then laid down on the living room floor for an hour.  

Thanks for the responses...lots of interesting info.
I have never carried water or calories on a run ever but after the weekend run may start doing things a little differently for long runs.
I can see 10 miles being the barrier and understand how a little hydration could help in getting well past it.
Given the hills I run, I was easily down 1500 calories toward the end, if not more....I had a huge breakfast before going out but still, thats a lot of energy to burn off.

I really like the idea of viewing the 1/2 Marathon as a 5miler, then another, then a 5k to finish....I need to try that.

Im not really into running for the times these days, I honestly dont care where I place....its not about PR's or standing or qualifications...not anymore. I just like to run. Hope I can get past the 13.1 wall and knock down the whole thing one of these days.

Time will tell.

Still havent seen anyone chime in thats done an ultra....I'd love to hear first hand what that is like.
I dont even try to imagine.

i had a crazy fuckin drill sargeant on my ass

I'm not sure.  The race brochures all mentioned that iPods were not allowed as did volunteers at packet pickup and the announcer pre-race.  In a triathlon, I've seen those violating the no headphone rule pulled from the course.  A couple years back the Army Ten Miler even banned heart rate monitor chest straps (worried about suicide bombers I guess).

I used to be agnostic on the iPod ban, but now I am an enthusiastic proponent based on things I have observed while volunteering.  

Anything over an hour and you should have hydration and nutrition.  I haven't done an ultra, but I have done a marathon after warming up with a 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile bike.  I think that a 100 mile ultra would be much harder.

12.5 miles.  Just to see if I could do it.

I may have done ten, but I doubt it - done some long assed 90 minute or longer runs in unit PT back in the day, but the pace often gets real slow.

I rarely run over 5 miles if I have the choice - just not my thing.  Anything over 10K and the joints start to remind me I am not 20 any more.

I ran 1 mile once but I was in jr high school.


I don't run, I'm wayyyyyyyyyy too heavy for it.

I do uphill walking to stay lean.

Furthest I ever ran was 12 miles.  That was many years ago.  Summer before last I got back up to 10 miles - and then my second child was born.  Turns out you can't run very far when you haven't slept.  Now I'm back to 3 miles at a time but it just got warm enough here to start running again.  Anyway, I don't wear headphones, it throws off my rythm.  Sometimes I count strides to see how high I can get .  Sometimes I sing cadences.  Mostly I daydream or make plans for the future.

Too cold to run?  Blasphemy.

Okay, what I mean is - there's snow on the ground and I slip and slide and my shoes get wet and then they stink.  I lift in the winter and run in the summer.

One of my canadian profs told me about how people (new to canada) tried running in the dead of winter....   He said that ice crystals form in the lungs and you start bleeding

The furthest I ever ran without taking a break is a little over 20 miles. I use music when I train, but most races prohibit them.

Please

Anyone here who has done a tour in Korea or Alaska has experience winters every bit as cold as they get in Canada - and ran throughout the winter as well.

I did a 50k, thats technically an ultra .

It was a trail race on a beautiful course. Im usually one of the youngest runners out there, so everyone else is usually really supportive. And there was no way in hell I was gonna let my buddies beat me

If you are running for more than an hour, you are probably going to need to hydrate during the run. If Im going over 90 mins, I try to take a GU. Anything over 2 and a half hours and I usually have something more substantial like an energy bar or a banana.

I have many running friends in our track club as well as endurance junkies that I train with.  And while I haven't run an Ultra, from the folks I know that do them and race them, they are pretty brutal.   If you want to see some bad ass runners, check out those mountain runners. Those guys are unbelievable, they run balls out, up and down rocky mountain terrain and they have the scars to prove it.   I did my last marathon last April in Boston and after 6mos of dedicated marathon prep to see my fitness vanish after five days with the flu, it was pretty disappointing.  I can't get motivated to train for another,although I did squeek out a half a few weeks ago!  I doubt I will ever have the motivation to do an Ultra but damn I would like one of those 100 miler belt buckles:)     My buddies that run them have told me that the Carl Touchtone Ultra in Mississippi is a good one to start with as it is run in a pine forest and the trail is cushioned with pine straw, so less impact in the legs. Good Luck!

Just in case nobody has told you they thought you were insane, let me be the first.

Running 100 miles is not worth a belt buckle.  100 miles is best covered on foot over the course of a week or more.

I am with cerve believe it or not. How about we make a pact, lets say next year?

I see you are in FL as well. Im in the Jacksonville area

"100mi in a week or more"  More would be best, it took me a few years before I could do 50miles in a week without being destroyed.   You have to be a pretty durable runner, like collegate level cross country to be able to do100+ miles week after week.  Guys that do it at one time are forest gump type idiot savants.  Same with distance swimmers, imagine staring at the black line for hrs a day,  I think our swimmers at FSU do 10K yds in the AM and 10K yds in the PM, six days a week, that is pretty standard for Div.1  programs.  I would literally crack up after two days.

I'm in Tallahassee.  I am trying to motivate myself for another crack at 26.2 in Feb. if I do it, I could roll that into a "slow" 50K a few weeks later. The Touchtone 50K is 3/06/10  the tallahassee 50k is in Dec.. so it's possible. It's all dependent on me getting motivated to train, which hasn't happened in about a year!

That's what im trying to do right now as well. I'm hovering around 40-45mpw right now, but going to try the Pete Pfitzinger 18/70 program around June for my October marathon. I've never done mileage close to that before but you will never know what you're capable of unless you try. So basically my plan is if my body can hold up to that sort of punishment then I will probably be capable of more.

At the moment there is no way I could sustain that mileage but thats what training is for. If I do an ultra it's going to be a 24 hour or 100 miler for sure, I'm not going to stop halfway at a 50 miler. I just wanna go out with that single goal in mind rather than remembering how tired I was on the 50 miler and have a mental block if I ever try a 100. But like I said that wont be until 2010, BQing is my short term goal atm.

Also I've heard of people doing 100 miler ultras with like 40-50mpw mainly just getting the long run in every week. Not sure on their time or their running backgrounds though.

I did 16 miles once and it wasn't really all that hard. That being said, I was 18 and in the Marines, in MUCH better shape than I am now and it was cold outside so it kept me from getting overheated. I haven't been able to do it since but did recently run 5 miles without too much trouble.

Hehehe...I feel the need to post this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0bUxi_Eo6fU

How's that for motivation?

+1

I crossed the finish line for my final PT Test, Camp Carol, Korea, in 10mins 45secs. It was fucking 15 degrees without the wind chill.

I didn't have any blood in my lungs. I did however leave a very large deposit of vomit in one of the turtle ditches.

The part that is more hilarious than the video is the comments. OH MY GOD THAT IS SO WRONG SNICKERS SHOULD BE ASHAMED OF THEMSELVES!!!

Thanks for all the great posts....I caught up on this thread as I am prepping to go for a run. Going to do a new route for fun, no idea what the milage will be, maybe 5 miles....just looking for a mellow runt o finish the week out.

Regarding cold....I regularly run in cold temps during the winter - I'm truly all weather. Single digits and sub zero temps never stopped me...maybe got me to bundle up and question my own sanity, but always, and i do mean always, after a few miles I am perfectly warm. If you are moving to capacity you just cant stay cold for long (if you dress appropriately)

But today its in the mid sixties, so its shorts and a T shirt

Off to log some miles.....good times

I don't have much an impressive curriculum vitae or anything, so take the following for what its worth.  

I have completed a full marathon.  I didn't finish elegantly, but I finished.  I quit smoking January 3, 2005 and ran the marathon on December 18, the same year.  I spent most of my free time 2006-2008 going back to school for my Bachelor's.  Now that I've finished that, I'll be doing the marathon again this year and hopefully my first ultra in January.
The training runs were my smoking cessation program.  It was easier for me to resist the urge when I thought about how I would feel harking the tar back up on my 7 mile run the next morning.  My experience so far is that the difficultly level is not directly proporationate with the distance, or even close.  Actually, it seems to me that after a certain point, it's all pretty much the same, it just takes longer.  You find your O2 saturation point, and that's the speed you train.  Learn to carb load.  Eat those nasty gels to stay fueled.  


My "hardest" run was a 14 miler.  It was around August/September in Jacksonville, FL.  HOT!  My legs stopped working.  I mean, literally, I couldn't move my legs.  Whatever that muscle is that connects your groin/stomach to the top of your thigh? It lost its elasticity, locked up like a tight cable.  I was hunched over shaped like a question mark, unable to lift my feet or "fling" them forward with my hips even.  I sat down on the curb and drank from my Camelbak for about 20 minutes.  I got up and shuffled some more, until my legs stopped working again.  This repeated all the way home.  If I had my cell, I would have called home for help.  I had no change for a pay phone, I was too emarassed to shuffle into a convenience store and ask for help.  The last time I stopped was three houses down from my house.  I could see my house, but I couldn't walk to it for about 20-30 minutes.  No experience since then has has compared, so, that's the "resource" I've drawn on as motivation.  I tell myself that fatigue and pain are distractors, but not disablers.  When your parts stop working.. THAT's a disabler.  

I train smarter now, I follow training plans.  I don't "ramp up" my mileage like that, and I've got a good base mileage to start from.



If your base mileage is 20-25 miles a week now, why set your sights on a half?  Why not a full?
Check out this page.

Find the first marathon in your area that's >18 weeks from now.  Pick one of these plans, whichever you feel comfortable with, and just commit to the plan?


I actually listen to Podrunner.  I hate it.  The music is horrible-euro-disco-trashy-thump crap.  But... it's mixed at one steady tempo for an hour and I "keep in step".  I use it conjunction with a Forerunner to monitor my pace (I couldn't handle a treadmill).  If I want to run 5 miles at 8:30, I set up the Forerunner accordingly and play a 155bpm podcast.  If I want to run 3 miles at 7:30, I play a 165-170bpm podcast. I couldn't have made it without my gadgets.

I hope this helps.

Chuck what distance are you thinking on your ultra?

I got a laugh out of your 14 miler story, brings back memories from one of my long runs a while ago. Thats a big motivation on the long runs, I have too much pride to just stop and give up, especially in public

And yes, it's starting to get hot as hell in Jacksonville again

The Jetty-2-Jetty.  35 miles on the beach.

So I went out last night to grab a casual run...nothing fast, maybe 9 minute miles...really looking to try to forget a rough work week with some new scenery. I dont wear a watch for runs like this....ever. I also had no idea what the milage was, no idea where the splits were...I just made up the route as I went along. I had a vague idea of the milage based on my knowledge of the neighborhood, and assumed it would be in the 10k range total. Traced it out with the truck later on and found out it was about 8 1/4 miles....really didnt seem like much during the run...I finished up with gas in the tank still but was standing in front of my house and decided to call it a night.

I think it's time to crank up the miles and consider a fall marathon....time will tell.

Not all running so mine doesn't really count but 100 miles, 13,000' vertical.

It was a multisport event (adventure race) so that was run, paddle, mountain bike, inline skate.  I have always navigated for my team when I race.  Have to wear a pack with a bunch of mandatory gear (a lot of which you want anyway).  There was snow for part of that one (deep in spots) even though it wasn't a winter race.

No way would I use an iPod or something like that for an endurance event like that.

That's great Glad things are going well for you. There is actually a pretty fast fall marathon in PA so you wouldn't even have to really travel if it's something you decide to do.

http://www.steamtownmarathon.com/