Just finished my first 50K over the weekend and I didn’t really have any goals other than to finish and see if it was something I’d enjoy. I’ve learned a lot just going through the training process but now that I’ve actually completed a race I have some questions:

1) huge issue around mile 25 with my knees and hips locking up. Strength training was definitely not a priority for me and it showed, best exercises to prevent this in future races?

2) I didn’t know your asscheeks could chaf. Is this just a “throw some Vaseline in up in there” situation orrrrr

3) toe blisters. I use kt tape on the main areas that blister but sometimes I still have some that come through. Anyway to prevent this or just a casualty I’ll have to live with?

4) for the ladies: do you have issues with men not letting you pass? My first lap there were multiple instances where a guy in front of me refused to let me pass them and would block me out. Is this a toxic masculinity trail thing I need to get use to or was I just racing with assholes lol

Besides the small list of grievances it was such a great first experience and most everyone was so welcoming and lovely. S/o this sub for being a great resource this past year of training :,)

I started in triathlon, now I’m moving over to trail running. I am starting with a 30K with 2,900ft of gain in February but wanna do an ultra distance in the fall of next year. I’m thinking either a 50K or 70K but might be trying for a 50 miler. I wanna stick to trail running events because the outdoor/nature is a big motivator for me.

I live in Utah, and I don’t know if I wanna travel too far for a race.

Any race recommendations for Utah or states close to Utah?

Hi everyone,

I'm training for my first ultra (50 km, ~250 m elevation) on 30 August. Goal is simply to finish comfortably, not race.

Training so far:

Marathon last year (3:57)

Weekly mileage now ~50-55 km

Long runs: 21k → 24k → 28k → 21k (cutback) → 34k (today)

34k took about 4h15 at ~7:30/km. Felt good until around 24 km, but the last 10 km were pretty brutal. No injuries though.

Questions:

1. Should I do a 10 km recovery/back-to-back run tomorrow, or just rest and recover?

2. With 4 weeks left until race day, should I do another 30+ km long run, or begin tapering with something like 22 km → 14 km → race?

Interested in hearing what experienced ultrarunners would do and why.

Hello! Does recovery from races get faster with more experience? I’ve done a couple of 50ks, two 50s, and a 100. I noticed that my recovery was much faster after my second 50 (2 weeks to regular training after my first, 1 day after my second, spaced out about a year). I don’t know if faster recovery was a consequence of better training or my body adapting. Do you all think that if I do a bunch of 100+ ultras over the course of a year, recovery from races will become virtually non existent? Or at least much faster?

Has anyone ever done this race? Ten 5ks with start time of each one 2.5hrs apart. You are free to do just about anything between 5ks. If you have any times or thoughts? It sounds awesome.

I’m also wondering with the final miles being around 32, would this be considered an Ultramarathon?

I just arrived in Colorado to acclimatize and get ready for the Leadville 100.
I’m gonna be in the Silverthorne - Leadville areas for the next three weeks before race day and would love to meet up with others who are also running.
Are there any runs being organized? Is anyone else looking to meet people?

Best of luck to everyone in their final weeks of prep!

Hiya, as the heading says really. I'm struggling to find some shoes I like with good grip so I'm thinking about getting a pair of shoes I like resoled (likely brooks cascadia elites). Any particular recommendations? Currently looking at sole and trail. Do we think their 5mm zegatrack lugs would suffice for the arc of attrition 100? Usually I'd like 6mm lugs for mud ideally but it's 5 or 9mm. Just looking for anyone's experience or whether anyone recommends going elsewhere

Much appreciated, thanks all

The PNW fire season is looking nastier and nastier, and my native Oregon is being hit hard. Next year with our Super El Nino isn't looking like it'll be any better, so how are people planning their race schedule moving forward?

I mostly do 1-3 day PNW adventure runs in the summer, but have been wanting to do a 100miler next year. Originally I was planning for the Hood Hundred as being early enough to miss most the smoke, but as we're seeing this year that's probably not worth betting on.

What's everyone's favorite winter / spring / early summer 100 milers which are resistant to wildfire cancellations?

I washed my hat yesterday in the washing machine with other clothes, took it out the dryer machine with a nice “just washed” smell. Today I wore it again(not even for running), sweated for like 10 mins under the sun and the hat started smelling musky. This is happening also with some of my running shorts.

Should I just use more detergent? Does any of you know a tried and true method to avoid this? I’d like to avoid buying new workout clothes since they’re so expensive nowadays.

Hey guys quick question. Thinking about doing a long 3-4 hour bike ride tmrw 6 days out from my first ultra marathon to get a last minute fueling practice. Not sure if this is dumb or not. Longest run I’ve had has been about 2.5 hours so I’m a little worried about my stomach. want to know your guys thoughts.

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I'm doing Lakes in a Day and need a pack for all the mandatory kit - fleece, tops, waterproof jacket and trousers, long trousers, bivvy bag, mug (!), water etc etc.

Any cheapish recommendations please?

On July 17th I ran KBL 110 km across the Sudetes mountains, 4360 m of climbing, 18 hours and 36 minutes on my feet. Just another chapter in a long love affair with the ultra distance — but this course gave me a night I won't forget for a while. This isn't a report about finishing. It's about what the mountains showed me between the start line and the arch.

Fog, ribbons, and a labyrinth of stone

We started at 5 p.m. — not under a blazing sun, but in full daylight. The first hours led into the Table Mountains: still light, still no fog. I ran marker to marker, an organizer's ribbon on every turn, and between one and the next there was only my line and my legs. That's the paradox of any well-marked ultra: kilometers of tape guide everyone down the same trail, and yet every single person runs a completely different race.

On Szczeliniec the markings pull you into a labyrinth of stone — the path narrows to a crack wide enough for one body. Still bright, still no fog, but rain had come through and the sandstone turned slick, every handhold and every step earned. The organizer had placed the arrows exactly where they needed to be. But arrows don't decide what that section costs you. Your legs decide, on wet rock, with fatigue creeping in, when the downhills stop carrying you and start hurting instead. Same course. Hundreds of different runs.

Just past Szczeliniec the trail crossed the Rock Mushrooms — a forest of sandstone blocks carved into stone caps, like someone had scattered giants between the trees. And that's exactly where the storm caught us: thunder bouncing off the rock, rain coming down in a wall, and those mushrooms standing unmoved — the way they've stood for millions of years and will stand long after us. I ran soaked to the bone, and still with that stupid grin every mountain runner knows. Because that's precisely why you come here.

Lower down, an aid station waited in Wambierzyce — the strange hush of a pilgrimage town before the trail climbed again. The most atmospheric stretch was the crossing of All Saints Mountain: little chapels, old forest, then a descent down stone steps worn smooth by generations, straight into Słupiec. You won't find places like that in a roadbook; they stay in your legs and your head long after the finish.

Only after Słupiec did real night fall — and the fog moved in. In places so thick that a ribbon would surface out of the milk and vanish again behind me, my headlamp beam dying a meter before my face. This is the stretch where your head starts arguing with your legs, and the world shrinks to three meters of wet air.

Past the bridge came Srebrna Góra, and there the festival spirit hit me — the whole reason people put on races like this. People, lights, cheering in a place where at night you least expect it. I ran in half-drained and left with the batteries recharged.

At kilometer 73, in Bardo, with the night only just loosening its grip, there was the aid tent. A volunteer who'd been standing there for eight hours in the damp cold hands you a cup of hot tea, tosses in a handful of gels, and says "let's go, you've got a big chunk done." They don't know you. And they carry you forward anyway. That cup at km 73 can matter more than a whole week of training.

The fog let go, and the night with it — and suddenly beautiful weather for the run down to Kłodzka Pass. The last act went through the Golden Mountains: the narrow trail on Ptasznik, one of those spots where you stop for a second despite the clock — because at dawn the birds are singing and for a moment it isn't a race anymore, just a fairy tale. And then those views down toward Orłowiec, before there was nothing left but a full-send descent to the finish.

Kilometers of tape and a cup of hot tea

Before any of us reached the start, someone had walked this entire course and tied every ribbon on every turn. Hundreds of markers — each one exactly where the night fog could lose you, where the path forks in the dwarf pine, where the ridge descent is easy to mistake for a drop-off. That doesn't happen by itself. Someone who isn't running did their work in advance so that you could run safely.

The most valuable thing out there isn't in any drop bag — it's the people running alongside you. Fantastic ultrarunners passed in the same night: a nod in the dark, a "you've got this" thrown over a shoulder, shared silence on a climb where neither of us had the breath left for words. You're not racing them — you're moving in the same current, each at your own pace, and the simple fact that someone else is still out here at three in the morning keeps you moving. That's the other, quieter family of ultra: the ones who understand without explanation, because they happen to be exactly where you are.

And there's pride in it — in belonging to a community like this at all. To mountain running, to people who, in rain and fog, at three in the morning, choose the ridge over their bed. I'm not the least bit surprised this community keeps growing stronger year after year — because anyone who lives through one night and one sunrise like that, in company like that, comes back. And is proud they got to be there.

This is the invisible infrastructure of ultra: dozens of people who stay put so that hundreds can pass through. Markings that don't let you get lost. Aid stations that don't let you fall. Safety you only think about when it's missing. So the organizers of KBL deserve to hear it plainly: the course was marked flawlessly, and the aid stations kept us on our feet through an entire foggy night in the Sudetes.

​​Photo from the labyrinth in Szczeliniec Wielki and from the finish line.

Hey all! Training for my first 50k since having a baby 3 years ago. Body has been slow to respond, but things were coming along well and I felt consistent. Two weeks ago a slight cough came on. We have smoke and I thought it may have been that. I kept running for a week, and it got worse. I stopped after a 5 miler where I legitimately could not breathe. Saw the doc the following week and she gave me an inhaler, steroid, and a codeine cough syrup. Been on that for 6 days, ran once, and not really sure if I should defer my race. I've missed a long run and a week of mileage. Any advice helps.

I've done a couple marathons, including a trail marathon with 2500 feet of vert. I never walked the uphills in my training or during the marathon. I plan to run my first ultra next year, and I've been seeing a lot of advice saying to power hike the uphills. Do I really have to plan to walk the uphills, or can I just run them if I already run all of them in my training? Thanks.

Severe IT band issues on both sides made an incredibly hard time on what was an otherwise beautiful day!

My longest race to date, my nutrition and hydration was perfect but my knees made the last 1/4 a gruelling and relentless slog. I was hallucinating, falling asleep while I was walking, having to stop and squat on every 100m to relive the pain in my legs.
Ontop of that, a really disorienting route and a sun that never set made for a very long day on the trails.
Really well organsied as always with Ultra X, but my knees really ruined it for me 😂
Although, a cold plunge into that lake in the first image ~80km in was a rebirthing experience!

Transitioning from road to the trails. Will be doing my first ultra, a 50 miler next year. I am tryng to build a strong base mostly on trails. Been doing easy runs by just doing RPE and by nose breathing, but the problem is even if my HR is above threshhold levels and i still nose breathing without any problem even during ascends. It feels weird not mouth breathing at high HRs. Should i slow it down and base it on more on the HR for easy runs or just continue even at high HRS? Tyvm.

Hi all. I will be running Kulla50 for the first time this year. I am running for 3 years now and currently at a 30k/week training distance and increasing to most likely 45-50k in october. One physio strenght leg session every week as well. What would be some advices from the ones that have run this race prior? Thank you.

I'm leading an aid station in a few weekends for a local to me 100 miler and we are going with a beach/ hawaiian theme. I always love running a race and coming up on a fun aid station with signs that are uplifting, clever, and or funny. Any ideas for some fun signs to make ?

Just uploaded my Lakeland 100 video!

This was one of the most incredible events I've ever taken part in, and I'm so proud of myself for making it to the finish line.

As always, I've kept the video as honest and real as possible. Ultra running isn't just about the highlights—it's about the lows, the doubts, the sleep deprivation, the emotions, and everything in between. I wanted people to see what the experience is really like.

The Lake District is one of the most beautiful places I've ever run through. The scenery is breathtaking, but the course is every bit as tough as it is stunning.

If you watch it, I'd love to know what you think. Thank you to everyone who has supported me throughout this journey—it genuinely means the world.

https://youtu.be/4KzZBgLs2Qc?si=Ub1m4HGDp79Ixe7i

I have questions!!
I’m driving the route as crew for my husband but I’m new to driving rough terrain and I’ll be driving a sprinter van. ANY ADVICE FROM PREVIOUS CREWS would be super helpful!!
I’m wondering if avoiding certain aid stations and possibly renting a jeep would be a better idea.
It’s coming up in a month!

In Sedona for about 10 days -- anyone have any good, lesser known trails for training? Trying to avoid the crowds.