Summary

Join me on my journey prepping for my very first ultra marathon! It’s been a mix of excitement and nerves as I dive into the challenge, which originally started as a wild idea to do a unique looping run from my home. Turns out, my idea was not novel at all, and there’s a whole community around this kind of thing, like the Backyard Ultra! I talk about why I’m really doing this. It’s all about pushing myself, not seeking validation from others. I also share the behind-the-scenes planning, from preparing for the terrain to figuring out nutrition and building the mental toughness needed for the race. Join me as I walk through this prep, share insights, and connect with other runners along the way.

Chapters

• 00:10 - Embarking on a New Challenge
• 01:44 - Personal Insights on Running Events
• 02:22 - Preparing for the 50k Ultra Marathon
• 04:19 - Preparing for a New Challenge
• 05:47 - Preparing for the Ultra: Footwear and Comfort Tips

How I Procrastinate

• Sleep with Rock Stars
• Making Playlists
• Dive Bar Music Club
• Country Fried Rock, Podcast Archives from 2009-2020
• Support this Podcast

Recommended If You Like

ultra marathon training, backyard ultra events, first ultra marathon experience, running tips for beginners, how to train for an ultra, ultra marathon diet, pacing strategies for ultra marathons, elevation gain in running, mental training for long races, comfortable running shoes for ultras, ultra marathon nutrition, solo running motivation, running loops training, trail running tips, running events for older adults, managing race day pressure, planning for ultra marathons, ultra marathon race profiles, running community support, personal goals in running

Transcript

00:00:01.680 - 00:06:59.380

To be honest, it kind of ticked me off that somebody already came up with the idea. Hey y', all, thanks for stumbling into Mama runs an Ultra. I'm a runner on the downhill side of my 50s who decided I'm gonna run my first Ultra.

What the hell am I thinking? As I shared, I've been spinning around this idea of doing an Ultra in some capacity for the last two or three years. And.

And my first plan was that I would have everybody out to my house to tailgate in my yard for my birthday while I went and ran this about three and a half mile loop from my house every hour on the hour.

And I talked about this for quite a while, thinking that I had come up with the greatest idea ever, only to discover that apparently this is a thing not only every hour on the hour races or time races of time, typically 6, 12, even more hours. But also there's something called a backyard Ultra. Okay, this is an official thing. And I had no idea. I had never heard of this. No clue.

And That's a almost 4.1-ish-mile loop every hour on the hour. And you're out when you can no longer complete the loop in the hour. They could go on for days.

But I was super disappointed to discover that apparently there's thousands of people out there who do this all the time. All right, so call me Scoop.

But the main reason that I decided not to do this every hour on the hour 3 ish mile loop near my house was I mentioned it at the gym one day and one of my friends who is an attorney said, hey, maybe not, because if your friends decide to run with you, you could potentially have liability if something happened to them. And I was like, oh no, this isn't about them. This is about me. And I don't do a whole lot of things that are like, this is just for me.

And so that actually solidified this concept how I wanted to approach my Ultra a pretty long time ago, before I ever really decided I was really doing one, I was like, I'm not doing this for other people. I'm doing this for me. Just like this podcast. The whole reason of sharing all this stuff is so I can think it through out loud.

I'm one of those people who can't process my thoughts really unless they come out of my mouth. Hence every single report card in my entire childhood saying, very chatty, talks too much, always has something to say. I know, I know.

It hasn't changed. So I still might go do one of these six hour events or every hour on the hour events type someday. But for now I am officially signed up for a 50k.

I think it's a point to point it might be a loop. I probably should know that as we get closer to it.

I have made the mistake many years ago of showing up to a half marathon, having just run the distance, but not training specifically for the course. That was a huge mistake and I learned that in a much easier environment. So yeah, I will absolutely know my elevation gain in the next week or so.

Nice thing about ultras is most of them have pretty good profiles about that and I went through the platform to sign up for this race. There's even some sort of app that'll help you break down pacing, etc. And you can add in your aid stations and all that kind of stuff.

I actually don't have enough information yet to know how to plan appropriately for that, but I will. I already know that I'm not a person who can do sugar only carbs throughout a race. I have to eat something savory salty.

So practicing what I'm gonna eat will be a whole nother deal. I have a whole. I have a plan. I have a plan, y'. All. I'll talk more about that in another one.

But yeah, I'm sort of sad that I'm not gonna be doing this big loop from my house every hour on the hour for a while. Except that it seems like a whole lot of pressure to be the one person that people come and are cheering for.

That's as much as I love to be, you know, up on a stage, not in that environment, especially when things go sideways. Because I'm one of those people who burst into tears when I'm mad. I know it's super effective sarcasm font for those of y' all who don't know.

And then it makes me more mad because I'm crying because I'm mad. Yeah, I know some of y' all can relate to that.

The other thing is doing the same loop over and over and over all by yourself has got to be pretty boring. So I ran my first like five years of running only running this one same loop back when I was doing the three miles three days a week.

So I'm not really sure I can actually mentally make myself do it. That might be good mental training to force myself to do that sometime, but not this time. That's not what this one's about.

So real soon I'll be checking out exactly what the elevation profile is for this race that I'm signed up for, but also I need to know the terrain. They've said it's mostly flat and it's mostly groomed, so I have an idea of what that means.

But, you know, groomed packed sand, which is what we have near where I live, is very different than groomed packed. Like crushed stone versus pea gravel versus big gravel. And I already know that just from, like, hiking adventures and how that footing feels.

So I'm just grateful that it's not, like, technical trail, because I'm not. I'm not prepared for that. I don't have the ability to train for that appropriately.

And as much as that sounds appealing to observe, it's not a challenge. That sounds interesting to me at this time. See how I'm already, like, scope creep.

Those of y' all have worked in nonprofits like I have will be like, oh, yeah, I can see where this is heading. All right. But we're reining it in. We're only doing one thing this time around.

This 50 ish k. The more I talk about it, the more I'm talking myself into it. Right. Right. That's what we're here for.

So if you didn't catch it from the last episode, I am loosely titling some of these episodes from the songs that are on my playlist. So this one, of course, is you spin like a record, baby. But of course, when they sing it, they say, you spin me right round, baby, right round.

I will spare y' all by singing, but not on the trail. I guarantee you will hear me singing.

I cannot carry a tune to save my life, but I have former DJ disease of knowing every word to every song I've ever heard. It's a problem. So one thing that has me a little concerned here is some advice from y' all on what shoes to wear on different types of terrain.

From what I know, this is like sort of that asphalt y paving that they do on, like, old rail trails. And there might be some sections where it's either crumbled or the they've put in some gravel to deal with where it's washed away in storms.

So generally decent footing, but not super fabulous. What have y' all worn to deal with both traction on those, but also comfort over that many hours?

I'm way more interested in being comfortable during the uncomfortable experience because fast is not going to be a thing for this event. Not for me, anyway. If y' all would leave a comment with your suggestions, I would super appreciate it.

It's looking like YouTube has been the best place to do that. You can do it on Spotify too. I wish Apple had a better method for doing that.

Apple lets you like leave an overall podcast comment, so if you want to be specific in that, go ahead. That's super helpful too.

And as always, I super appreciate those of y' all who have popped by in your podcast apps and left those five star ratings and reviews kind comments, all the good stuff. And if my way TMI sharing about training for this very first Ultra has caught your attention, I sure appreciate you sharing it with a friend.

As y'all help me figure out why Momma Runs an Ultra.

Mentioned in this episode:

Dive Bar Music Club, the Low Key, High Taste Music Podcast

A rotating cast of The Regulars gather to chat about the music they're currently listening to.

To be honest, it kind of ticked me off that somebody already came up with the idea.

Hey y', all, thanks for stumbling into Mama runs an Ultra.

I'm a runner on the downhill side of my 50s who decided I'm gonna run my first Ultra.

What the hell am I thinking?

As I shared, I've been spinning around this idea of doing an Ultra in some capacity for the last two or three years.

And.

And my first plan was that I would have everybody out to my house to tailgate in my yard for my birthday while I went and ran this about three and a half mile loop from my house every hour on the hour.

And I talked about this for quite a while, thinking that I had come up with the greatest idea ever, only to discover that apparently this is a thing not only every hour on the hour races or time races of time, typically 6, 12, even more hours.

But also there's something called a backyard Ultra.

Okay, this is an official thing.

And I had no idea.

I had never heard of this.

No clue.

And That's a almost 4.1-ish-mile loop every hour on the hour.

And you're out when you can no longer complete the loop in the hour.

They could go on for days.

But I was super disappointed to discover that apparently there's thousands of people out there who do this all the time.

All right, so call me Scoop.

But the main reason that I decided not to do this every hour on the hour 3 ish mile loop near my house was I mentioned it at the gym one day and one of my friends who is an attorney said, hey, maybe not, because if your friends decide to run with you, you could potentially have liability if something happened to them.

And I was like, oh no, this isn't about them.

This is about me.

And I don't do a whole lot of things that are like, this is just for me.

And so that actually solidified this concept how I wanted to approach my Ultra a pretty long time ago, before I ever really decided I was really doing one, I was like, I'm not doing this for other people.

I'm doing this for me.

Just like this podcast.

The whole reason of sharing all this stuff is so I can think it through out loud.

I'm one of those people who can't process my thoughts really unless they come out of my mouth.

Hence every single report card in my entire childhood saying, very chatty, talks too much, always has something to say.

I know, I know.

It hasn't changed.

So I still might go do one of these six hour events or every hour on the hour events type someday.

But for now I am officially signed up for a 50k.

I think it's a point to point it might be a loop.

I probably should know that as we get closer to it.

I have made the mistake many years ago of showing up to a half marathon, having just run the distance, but not training specifically for the course.

That was a huge mistake and I learned that in a much easier environment.

So yeah, I will absolutely know my elevation gain in the next week or so.

Nice thing about ultras is most of them have pretty good profiles about that and I went through the platform to sign up for this race.

There's even some sort of app that'll help you break down pacing, etc.

And you can add in your aid stations and all that kind of stuff.

I actually don't have enough information yet to know how to plan appropriately for that, but I will.

I already know that I'm not a person who can do sugar only carbs throughout a race.

I have to eat something savory salty.

So practicing what I'm gonna eat will be a whole nother deal.

I have a whole.

I have a plan.

I have a plan, y'.

All.

I'll talk more about that in another one.

But yeah, I'm sort of sad that I'm not gonna be doing this big loop from my house every hour on the hour for a while.

Except that it seems like a whole lot of pressure to be the one person that people come and are cheering for.

That's as much as I love to be, you know, up on a stage, not in that environment, especially when things go sideways.

Because I'm one of those people who burst into tears when I'm mad.

I know it's super effective sarcasm font for those of y' all who don't know.

And then it makes me more mad because I'm crying because I'm mad.

Yeah, I know some of y' all can relate to that.

The other thing is doing the same loop over and over and over all by yourself has got to be pretty boring.

So I ran my first like five years of running only running this one same loop back when I was doing the three miles three days a week.

So I'm not really sure I can actually mentally make myself do it.

That might be good mental training to force myself to do that sometime, but not this time.

That's not what this one's about.

So real soon I'll be checking out exactly what the elevation profile is for this race that I'm signed up for, but also I need to know the terrain.

They've said it's mostly flat and it's mostly groomed, so I have an idea of what that means.

But, you know, groomed packed sand, which is what we have near where I live, is very different than groomed packed.

Like crushed stone versus pea gravel versus big gravel.

And I already know that just from, like, hiking adventures and how that footing feels.

So I'm just grateful that it's not, like, technical trail, because I'm not.

I'm not prepared for that.

I don't have the ability to train for that appropriately.

And as much as that sounds appealing to observe, it's not a challenge.

That sounds interesting to me at this time.

See how I'm already, like, scope creep.

Those of y' all have worked in nonprofits like I have will be like, oh, yeah, I can see where this is heading.

All right.

But we're reining it in.

We're only doing one thing this time around.

This 50 ish k. The more I talk about it, the more I'm talking myself into it.

Right.

Right.

That's what we're here for.

So if you didn't catch it from the last episode, I am loosely titling some of these episodes from the songs that are on my playlist.

So this one, of course, is you spin like a record, baby.

But of course, when they sing it, they say, you spin me right round, baby, right round.

I will spare y' all by singing, but not on the trail.

I guarantee you will hear me singing.

I cannot carry a tune to save my life, but I have former DJ disease of knowing every word to every song I've ever heard.

It's a problem.

So one thing that has me a little concerned here is some advice from y' all on what shoes to wear on different types of terrain.

From what I know, this is like sort of that asphalt y paving that they do on, like, old rail trails.

And there might be some sections where it's either crumbled or the they've put in some gravel to deal with where it's washed away in storms.

So generally decent footing, but not super fabulous.

What have y' all worn to deal with both traction on those, but also comfort over that many hours?

I'm way more interested in being comfortable during the uncomfortable experience because fast is not going to be a thing for this event.

Not for me, anyway.

If y' all would leave a comment with your suggestions, I would super appreciate it.

It's looking like YouTube has been the best place to do that.

You can do it on Spotify too.

I wish Apple had a better method for doing that.

Apple lets you like leave an overall podcast comment, so if you want to be specific in that, go ahead.

That's super helpful too.

And as always, I super appreciate those of y' all who have popped by in your podcast apps and left those five star ratings and reviews kind comments, all the good stuff.

And if my way TMI sharing about training for this very first Ultra has caught your attention, I sure appreciate you sharing it with a friend.

As y' all help me figure out why Mama runs an Ultra.