Podcast: The Demographics of Ultrarunning and Juggling Family and Training
In this show on Elevation Trail Gary and I discuss more of his extensive ultrarunning survey, including demographics like marital status, location, ultra experience, and race. I hope you enjoy the show and please comment with your thoughts on the topics. I’d also like to have listeners comment on why you started ultrarunning.
If you’d like to contact me personally, email me at tim [at] footfeathers [dot] com. Thanks for listening!
I started ultrarunning because I wanted to run down an antelope. Oh, and I wanted to have quads that look like that guy in the picture at the top of this blog...
ReplyDeleteI never wanted to run down an actual antelope. But I did have an enormous Scott Carrier crush for awhile there.
ReplyDeleteLet's follow this literalist vein a bit further. When is "running" just running, and when is it "ultrarunning"? (I know, I know, "when you strap on a headlamp and hike all night, that's ultra "running"). But seriously, if you have an ultra on the horizon, is your long tempo run to be considered "ultrarunning"? What about running for the bus? Is there any logical gymnastics by which that could be considered "ultrarunning"? And do you tell your colleagues, as you head out from work with a headlamp strapped to your forehead that you're heading out for a little "ultrarun"? Does anyone *not* roll their eyes when you do this?
Is there anything fundamental about the nature of an activity that is not context-dependent and significantly bound up in language? Or, as might be equally relevant in this case, images? Now Jeremy, I'm not saying those aren't footfeathers' quads. What would I know?
I paid good money for those legs on the black market.
ReplyDeleteIt's really just for looks, since they aren't that fast. I sit on my bike at coffee shops until all the cyclists leave. Then I put my bike in the back of my car and go home.
The meaning of anything can be either bound up or flourish with language. Depends on who's speaking and who's listening.
You too can have impressive looking quads if you have a make-up artist around for the photo shoot.
ReplyDeleteThe podcasts are thought provoking & interesting. Great work & keep em coming!
ReplyDeleteFantastic podcast...thanks for sharing the data!
ReplyDeleteClaire Dorotik
Run With It Racing
www.runwithitracing.com
A thought I had about your discussion of novelty or new challenges in running... I think for some people, even if one runs the same ultra several times or several years in a row, the experience is never the same. Aside from weather, the highs and lows in ultras seem much more of an X-factor than in "traditional" running races, to the extent that the X-factor becomes just as important a part of the character of the activity as the distance, elevation, competition, etc. In road races, machine-like precision and execution (I think) is a greater determinant of success due to a lesser degree of variability in the race experience. Granted this is coming from my newbie perspective of only having completed 3 organized ultras.
ReplyDeleteA quote from the Last Samurai comes to mind occasionally when I run: "The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your whole life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life." I personally run, and run ultras specifically, as part of pursuit of that personal perfection (at least as I define it), and am pretty sure that I could run the same ultra course 100 times and never have it be the same experience. My $0.02