A 50-something newbie ultra-runner tries to follow the Canyons and Madeira races, roasts the sport for being a “sausage fest,” can’t find a livestream or correct leaderboard anywhere, learns race names make zero sense, and ends up confused but inspired anyway.

How I Procrastinate

• Sleep with Rock Stars, the Gen X Sleep Podcast
• Country Fried Rock, Podcast Archives from 2009-2020
• Music Playlists
• Support This Podcast
• Dive Bar Music Club, the Low Key, High Taste Happy Hour for Music Nerds

Chapters

• 00:02 - Exploring Gender Dynamics in Ultra and Trail Running AKA Sausage Fest
• 02:15 - The Challenges of Following Ultra Marathons from Afar
• 03:00 - Exploring the World of Ultramarathoning
• 08:01 - Discovering Ultra Running
• 10:32 - Exploring Gender Representation in Ultra and Trail Running, Again Sausage Fest
• 11:17 - Introduction to Trail and Ultra Running

Name Dropping Like Mick Jagger

• Boston Marathon
• London Marathon
• Sebastian Sawe
• Kejelcha
• Kiplimo
• Molly Seidel
• Des Linden
• Makena Morley
• Lauren Gregory
• Sub Hub Podcast
• Alice Bacquie
• Grace Ebersole
• Audrey Roberts
• Tyler Green
• Tommy Sullivan
• Rod Farvard
• Katherina Harmuth
• Helen Mino Faulkner
• Jasmine Lowther
• Rachel Drake
• Ana Paula Rodrigues
• Vinnie Mauri
• Aroa Sio
• Alyssa Clark
• Amanda Basham
• Adam Peterman
• Zach Miller
• Hayden Hawkes
• Riley Brady
• Careth Arnold

Recommended If You Like

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This is like a sausage fest.

What the heck y'?

All.

This is all Dudes Do Women Run ultra and trail.

This is weird.

Hey y', all, this is Mama Runs an Ultra.

I'm a runner on the downhill side of my 50s who decided to train for my very first ultra marathon.

And this podcast is me saying all the things out loud of what the hell am I thinking?

Well, if you're still here listening after I've unintentionally insulted everyone who has ever been associated with the Boston Marathon, I'm here to redeem it on behalf of the London Marathon.

Not really, but kind of sorta.

Holy cow.

If you follow the sport of running in any way, what an unbelievably magnificent weekend with Tikis to Sefa resetting her own world record for a women's only start on a marathon.

And if you'll recall, I have posted this repeatedly.

Sebastian Saue broke two hours.

But not only did he become the first person to break two hours in an official marathon, the second runner, Cajelcha, also beat two hours in his debut marathon and the third runner, Kipli Mo came through below the previous record, although not beating the two hours.

Absolutely electric.

Incredible.

Other news from the world of roadrunning was a guy in Toledo debuted at the marathon in 205 something I believe he was a D1 runner.

Vinnie Mori.

No idea if I'm pronouncing your name correctly because literally nobody's ever heard of you other than your mom.

Crazy, crazy, crazy, crazy.

I hope that that stands.

I ran the correct course.

I hope all of these people were clean athletes and we don't end up hearing drug testing stuff.

But holy crazy.

Wow.

So I was loosely following London because I've always followed London mainly because the vibe of the London Marathon is so different.

I love all the people who raise a billion dollars for charity every year.

Collectively.

I love the people running in essentially like group Halloween costumes.

I mean it is the best.

So I I love the vibe of the London Marathon and I know that your chances of getting in as a normie are somewh slim and none but I still just absolutely love the event.

But what I was really watching this weekend were a couple of trail ultra marathons cuz some of them had sub ultra distances so I'm not really pivoting to like ultra trail coverage.

But as a new fan to the sport, I would love to start sharing with y' all a little bit of what I see in here from my perspective on trying to be a fan of what's going on and how sometimes it's really hard to be a fan of this sport.

Like, one of the races I was trying to follow this weekend didn't even have any coverage.

And the, like, leaderboard lists did not update.

When they did, they weren't correct.

They could have at least had like a designated person updating social media or something.

Y' all know I hate social media.

So the fact that that's it, but, like, it's.

It's hard to be a fan of a sport that doesn't want people to know what's happening.

I mean, that's my assessment.

I tried to follow Canyons in Madera.

Here's what I was able to discover.

And so, yes, I was following along to see how Molly Seidel was going to do in canyons.

Congrats.

Podium 3rd place Molly, Bronze medal Olympian in the marathon for the US has had a lot of personal and professional ups and downs over the last several years and seems to have found a happy place.

And so it's been fun to follow Molly's dedication to the training and participating in the community, and that's been just pretty cool to see.

And part of my entryway into the world of ultramarathoning, well, before I ever decided that I would do this myself, was following a bunch of podcasts in this world.

So, like I said when I first started, I don't actually know people who do this in my real life.

So everything I know, I know from listening to podcasts.

So I don't actually know who these people are who host these podcasts.

So I didn't really have any kind of frame of reference for, I guess, how qualified they are to talk about the things they are.

So it's been a little like, laugh at myself amusing just to learn more and watch some of this.

And a few of these names I do know.

And so the races that I was following included Canyons, like I said, because I was following what Molly Seidel was doing.

But there are multiple races a lot of times that go on over the course of the same long weekend at these events.

And again, because I'm new to all this, I didn't know this.

So Canyons, for example, isn't just the 100k that I knew about because of Molly seidel.

There's also 100 miler, and this is where I am absolutely blown away by the powerful women runners.

Like, a woman took second overall in the hundred miler, and she's from Spain.

I'm absolutely not gonna be able to pronounce her name correctly, but Aroa SEO, I'm sure I just butchered that.

But third place, Alyssa Clark and then Amanda Basham in fourth.

So I feel like these names are familia solely from listening to these podcasts that highlight these women athletes.

It's really fascinating.

And again, I don't know squat about these sports.

Like, I don't think I've even hiked mountains that come close to half of the level of elevation.

These people run up and over and down and all of the good stuff, but it's just, it's fascinating to me and I love it.

So Canyons was pretty cool.

I was really disappointed there was no way to watch this particular race.

I've gotten spoiled by the fact that some of these trail races have spectacular coverage on course.

From both athletes fixed in location filming to drone coverage to all sorts of stuff, there was nothing.

So I was like clicking on the Internet and not even sure I was finding the correct years.

I was trying to find standings updated as people came through aid stations and stuff.

I finally found somebody who was posting stuff on their Instagram stories as people literally ran by them in the sound.

I think it was like someone's mom.

So shout out whoever you are's mom.

You rule.

Because, wow.

Just really surprised that such a huge race just had essentially no coverage available for potential fans.

And as a newbie to these sports and to following these sports, if you can't find it, it's really hard to be a fan is like you don't just magically know something exists that you've never heard of before.

So my 2 cents worth from someone new to all of this.

But as I said, with Canyons and all these other ultra long weekends, a lot of times there's multiple races going on at the same time, which I guess makes sense.

I just didn't know this.

So I think the big news coming out of the 100k looks like it was the guys.

But I don't really follow men's sports, so I'm not super knowledgeable about it.

But weirdly, the top three guys actually have heard their names before, which means they must be spectacularly successful because if I know who they are and their guys, Adam Peterman, Zach Miller, Hayden hawkes in the 1, 2, 3 spots on the 100k.

Congrats to Y'.

All.

I don't know you or anything about you, but your names are well enough known that I've heard of you before.

And then scrolling down, nice to see some fantastic performance out of Riley Brady.

They've been having an up and down time over the last year or so.

But again, shout out to the parents.

When I first started following this sort of racing, their parents were just super supportive, cool people in the social media sphere.

And so I could see how much love and support they had for their child.

Really, really pushing and doing great, cool thing.

So that was cool.

And then Carth Arnold.

I've heard that name also from some of the podcasts I listen to and looks like maybe the third woman, Sarah Ollabin.

I'm sure I just mispronounced your name.

Not familiar with you, but congrats to you for looking like pulling in in the third slot on the 100k.

But of course the race that I was actually following or attempting to follow and could not do so was the 50k.

And that was because of Molly Seidel participating.

So I like to see that, at least from the outside it looks like she's also participating in the community.

And for those of y' all who are enmeshed in the world of trail and ultra running, this is good that people like DEZ Linden and Molly Se are dipping their toes in the trail and ultra world and stage racing and all that kind of stuff because it brings in people like me who previously really did not know that this part of the sport existed.

And as an observer, it's really a different sport, but it's related enough to bring the interest.

And so for good or for bad, this is how we find it.

And weirdly, in the 50k, the woman who came in first is someone I know from road running, McKenna Morley.

So congrats, McKenna Lauren Gregory, also a name I hear all the time on a bunch of the podcasts that I listen to.

Pulling up second and then Molly Seidel pulling up the third.

Cool, cool stuff right there.

And then the podcast that was sort of my entry into all of this world is one called the Sub Hub, which I, after listening for a few episodes I learned means sub ultra distance.

So anything under the marathon distance.

So I gotta cover the 25k from canyons as well.

And a few names I'm also familiar with from here and I'm on these other podcasts.

Alice, Backy, Grace, Eversole, Audrey Roberts, all having spectacular days.

So cool stuff all around for something that is essentially brand new to me and I'm enjoying being able to follow this.

So not just new to ultra running in my own training, but new to ultra running and discovering that this world exists.

I didn't know.

I'm sure I'm not the only One the other race that I thought I was going to follow this weekend, but ended up not doing so because I could not figure out the website at all was going on in Madeira, Portugal.

So randomly, I know nothing about Portugal except for the things my mother learned to cook when she lived there because we grew up eating them.

And so randomly, when I found out there was a trail race slash ultra long weekend going on, I was like, oh, cool, I'll learn about this.

But then I couldn't.

So all I know is results.

And then I'm scrolling through the results and I'm like, wait, I know some of these names.

And weirdly, a couple of them, I know the names because their wives are awesome athletes.

So I'm sure I'm skipping over a bunch of like spectacular legends in the sport, but because I don't know who they are, I'm not going to talk about them.

The thing that I find completely entertaining, as a brand new fan of ultra and trail running, and especially of this Madeira race that I literally knew nothing about until four or five days ago, the Madeira won.

Nate names.

The like sub races themselves with different names rather than by the distance.

So one of the distances is called Legend, and that's the one where I was like, oh, I recognize some of these names.

Tyler Green in third, Tommy Sullivan coming in in seventh.

Because I follow Tommy's wife's podcast, Rod Farford.

I know that name.

All of this kind of exciting.

And for the women, I've also heard your names in some of these other podcasts.

Katerina Harmut, Helena Faulkner, and Jasmine Luther.

So cool stuff.

Little side note, because I've only listened to these races in racing coverage, I've never read any of it or seen any of it.

Some names I'm seeing in writing for the first time.

And so Heleno Faulkner, I'm just now discovering Mino Faulkner is like a double last name.

And I thought it was Helena as a first name and Faulkner as a last name.

So learn something new every day.

This person is a impressive athlete, but, you know, it's hard to follow things when you don't know.

And then as you go on to the different distances, it's just amusing because it's so confusing.

As someone who doesn't know anything about the sport, there's a distance that they call advanced.

I don't know what that means, but it looks like the advanced distance is mostly dudes.

Like very few women Running.

Very strange.

And the Discover distance.

Again, no idea what that means, but holy cow.

I follow the podcast of the woman who won at this distance, Rachel Drake.

And then Jane Moss.

I know who you are, too.

I mean, I don't know you, but I know your name from these podcasts.

Ana Paula Rodriguez.

I mean, this is kind of cool, but again, this is like a sausage fest.

What the heck, y'?

All?

This is all dudes.

Do women run ultra and trail?

This is weird, especially because I've only followed, like, women's podcasts.

What the heck?

There's like, one or two women on every screen, and it's all dudes, y'.

All.

This is strange.

All right, Marathon distance.

I know what that means, except as I look at it, it looks like it's not a marathon distance.

More or less.

It.

It looks like shorter.

Close enough.

I don't know.

Again, all dudes.

I don't recognize any of the women's names.

And then starter.

As a distance, I would need to be in the preview category, which does not exist, but so confusing.

Like, there's no way you could come into this particular aspect of the sport without previous knowledge, because you wouldn't even know where to look or what to call things because there's, like, no starter.

What does that mean?

I don't know.

Again, total sausage fest.

Hmm, Interesting.

This is just kind of a fascinating learning process for me, is attempting to be a fan of the sport that I am dipping my toes into, because I'm not really doing a trail race.

It's technically a trail, but it's one of those, like, very wide, flat, groomed, community trail sort of things.

So this is not like trail running by any means.

It's certainly not mountain running, but it is ultra running.

And so it's kind of hard to learn about it when it's just sort of all over the place, literally.

We're still banking on the currency of five star ratings and kind reviews.

They are so necessary in the world of podcasting.

And I'm grateful to everybody who takes a minute or two to tap those five stars and leave a couple nice words.

It really does make a difference.

So heading out for my first run of the week.

Just a nice little recovery run.

And thanks for hanging with me on Mama Runs.

An Ultra.