Sir, – Who cares if people are finding marathons too easy ("Marathons are for the lazy: the rise and rise of the ultramarathon", April 2nd)? As long as running any kind of distance stops people taking up golf, we are all winning. – Yours, etc,
JUDITH GOLDBERGER,
Donnybrook,
Dublin 4.
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Sir, – As a reasonably seasoned marathon runner (now at 30 completed, worldwide), I can relate to why some runners want to go beyond the mere 26.2 mile (42.195 km) distance. But make no mistake: marathons of the regulatory distance are not for the lazy, but they can be for the bored and unchallenged.
There are different reasons for the rise of ultra-running’s popularity. For one thing, “ordinary” marathons are now well-organised, mass participation, community offerings that are, in reality, still short enough to remain essentially a competitive event. Pretty much everybody finishes a marathon these days (97 per cent, or about 44,500 of the runners in the 2017 Paris marathon completed the course, for example). The first question from your mother on hearing of your completion of a marathon 20 years ago, be it in London, Berlin, or Dublin, used to be “Did you finish?” Now, it is “What was your time?”
With ultra-running and events of that nature, the psychological and physical endurance required is on a different, more personal level. It is not about the completion time, but about finishing at all. As one experienced ultra-marathoner said to me: “Marathons are harder than ultras. With ultras, it is just you and the road.”
So, it is this “in the moment” dimension of ultra-running that many runners now aspire to; a superlative personal experience.
But one thing puzzles me: why are these ultra events mostly located in the back-of-beyond places: in hot deserts or across bleak, barren landscapes? In Ireland, usually the location is up stony mountains, across boggy wetlands, or through muddy rivers, sometimes held in locations that frankly border on the penitential. Consider, instead, that anyone who has spent hours shopping in Henry Street in Dublin or Dundrum Town Centre at Christmas should already be mentally and physically trained for ultramarathons, so let us see such events happen in metropolitan locations instead. – Yours, etc,
ULTAN Ó BROIN,
Blackrock,
Co Dublin.