Most extreme endurance races

After reading this, you’d think that the Ironman Triathlon is for wimps and the mere marathon is for toddlers.

Welcome to the world of extreme endurance events. These events can last for 24 hours, or even several days.

There is the 100-mile (160km, that’s like FOUR marathons strung together) ultramarathon. There are about 40 of them in existence, including the Western States Endurance Run, a run held every last weekend in June through the Western States Trail in Northern California. It has been in existence for more than 30 years. Runners descend a total of 7,000m on mountain trails. It begins at 5am and continues non-stop until you finish, or you drop. Competitive time limit is 30 hours.

The course record is held by Scott Jurek, with a time of 15 hours, 36 minutes and 27 seconds, set in 2004:

100 miles only? Well, you can try the Spartathlon: a 152 mile race.

Jurek won the 2006 edition, but Yiannis Kouros, winner of the first Spartathlon, still holds the record of 20 hours 25 minutes set in 1984. That’s amazing, considering the nearest any subsequent winner got to his record is more than 2 hours!

If that’s not challenging enough, there’s the Antarctic 100K. That’s right, you have to run 100km near the South Pole.

This year, the 3rd edition of the race is scheduled on 15th December. Dubbed “the world’s coldest 100”, runners will have to contend with Katabatic winds, -20C temperatures and 24-hour daylight. Fittingly, the website says: “Don’t apply unless you like to hurt!” Personally, I think the USD15,000 (more than RM50,000) entrance fee is enough to scare off most people already.

Russian Evgeniy Gorkov’s tells what it’s really like in his blog.

Still not challenging enough you say? Well, there’s the Marathon des Sables (the Marathon of the Sands / “the toughest foot race on earth), a 254km (156 miles) running race through the Sahara desert in southern Morocco. That’s equivalent to 6 marathons back to back. It’s so long it’s divided into 6 days, the longest single stage being 84km (52 miles) long.

As if running that far isn’t tough enough, competitors are required to carry all personal belongings and food for the entire event in their rucksack, apart from water and tents.

Apparently, during the 1994 edition, a competitor from Italy, Mauro Prosperi got lost in a standstorm and was only found 9 days later, having lost 13kg of his body weight.

The ultimate triathlon race should be the Ultraman races. As far as I know, there are 2 editions, one in Hawaii and another in Canada, where you have to swim 10km, ride a bike for more than 400km, then run 84km, a total distance of more than 320 miles (500km). In contrast, an Ironman triathlon “only” entails, a 3.8km swim, 180km bike ride and a 42km run, and in a typical triathlon, you only have to run 10km, *not* swim 10km!

Or perhaps the ultimate is the Enduroman, where one has to run 87 miles (139 km) from London City Centre to the coast, then swim across the English Channel (distance covered depends on how far the sea waves sweep you off), then ride a bike for 180 mile (288 km) to Paris City Centre. Apparently, on 3 persons have ever completed the race, the record currently being held by Eddie Ette at 81 hours, 5 minutes.

So how does one prepare for these crazy events? Todd Zagurski, an amateur ultra-competitor, has the following outline:

Off season:

* Monday-Friday: 1 hour of predawn training, either running, swimming, bike or gym workout.
* Weekends: 6-7 hours training.

On season:

* Monday-Friday: same as off season
* Weekends: 12-14 hours!

An interesting point to note is that most ultra-competitors are in their 40s, due to the costs of travelling and expensive fees, which can run into thousands of dollars.

sources:
The Final Sprint
bbc.co.uk

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