TEMPTED BY AN ULTRA BUT LACKING THE CONFIDENCE TO ENTER? OUR BEGINNER’S GUIDE TO ULTRARUNNING SHOWS YOU WHY LONG-MILEAGE RACES ARE IN YOUR REACH, AND HOW TO TRAIN FOR YOUR VERY FIRST EVENT…

WORDS: LISA JACKSON, WITH TRAINING ADVICE BY ANNE-MARIE LATEGAN

RUN AN ULTRA

Ultrarunning is “just one long moving picnic”, wrote James Adams, in Running And Stuff (£10, Matador). And he’s right. Yet if there’s one word in the running lexicon that strikes fear into a runner’s heart (other than marathon or runner’s trots!), it is surely ultramarathon.

I was one of those runners. But then I started dreaming of doing the Comrades Marathon in South Africa, a legendary 56-mile race that’s the equivalent of running from London to Brighton. At first I was terrified, and it was only when I spoke about my fears to an ultrarunning friend that I realised running an ultra wasn’t an impossible feat but definitely doable. He asked me if I’d ever walked back to my car after a marathon. Of course I had. “Well then, you’ve already done an ultra”, he said smiling. Because of course, you don’t have to jump from 26.2 miles to 100 miles in one go – any distance that’s even a smidgen longer than a marathon counts. And you don’t have to run all of it either. Reassured, I went on to run Comrades not once but twice, along with other ultras.

If the distance still scares you, it’s helpful to think of ultras in terms of hours on your feet rather than miles, says running coach Rory Coleman (colemancoaching.co.uk), author of A Rebel And A Runner (£10.99, Matador), who’s completed 245 ultras. “Running and walking for 12 hours sounds easier than completing 50 miles.” Many of us wouldn’t think twice about going for an all-day hike, so an all-day run/walk shouldn’t be too daunting.”

Also, the ultrarunning scene is ultra-inclusive, and has a whole lot more to offer than you might expect. Here’s just some of the reasons why ultras are great.

1/YOU’LL GET GREAT BANG FOR YOUR BUCK