7 Essential Tips For Running Long Distance | Ultramarathon Survival Guide

The popularity of running an ultramarathon is on the rise, & preparing for your first ultra will be like nothing you’ve ever faced before! Mark has recently survived a couple of ultras himself and learned a lot from them. So, today he's going to be sharing a bunch of tips to help you too!

The popularity of Ultramarathons are on the rise, & preparing for your first ultra will be like nothing you’ve ever faced before...trust us on this one! The very nature of an ultra is that you will be pushing yourself beyond your previously established limits of physical endurance and mental resistance - and that is mainly why we want to do them!

So, ordinarily, you may be preparing for events to beat a personal best or race other competitors. But an ultra is very different. Mark has recently survived a couple of ultras himself and learned a lot from them. So, today he's going to be sharing a bunch of tips to help you too!

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[Ian_Synnott]

Another great tip that I always give out to people is "Things don't always get worse". If you hit a low point or the dreaded wall, just keep going, things can get better. I know this from experience.

[bhatch]

For longer races, the key is to start slow and ease off from there :)

[PoppyOxymoron]

I have some advice!:
In your final five km of an ultra try to think to yourself “this is the last 5km and after this I won’t be able to run for a while and I’m so proud of myself” I found it really helpful to just enjoy and feel greatful to be out side and reminding myself that I love this in the last 5km.

Also nutrition!!! I can’t believe you skipped over this 😅 super important to remeber to hydrate and take good with you while you run. When you’ve finished your ultra have an isotonic drink and a recovery meal. Also 1hour if stretching I found really helped.


Lastly, if you’re stopping stretch. Just a few lunges while you eat or refill your water bottle will help your legs later

[patayofice]

just completed my longest run of 63 miles at the weekend, great tips in the video!

[gthack]

Still vividly remember my one ultra, great advice here! Start slow, slower than you think, then slow down a bit more! I did a 40 mile event, pretty much ran the first 25 miles, then paid over the last 15. Sitting down at feed stations was a bad plan, getting back on your feet is tough, though maybe on longer events you really need to sort your feet out occasionally?
The feeling over the line is incredible 8)

[SamJones]

The key is to start slower than slow and then get even slower! Embrace the pace. Thanks so much for the great tips!

[KevinHoegler]

Love the tips! I've done 2 ultramarathons so far this year. I have one in a few weeks and going to look for one more to do. Your tips are so spot on. Love the walk the hills tip as its often overlooked! I couldn't agree more about limiting the stops. When I took a 15 minute break, getting going again was not easy. Thanks for the video!

[sbombfitness]

Just signed up for a 50k in September! (I had signed up for the same one last year, but it was canceled due to Covid 😥) Excited and scared!

[juan]

Hello. I have only done 1 ultramarathon. It was a 100K in Millau, France. I enjoyed it very much. One advice I can give is to stop to fix any small thing that might be bothering you, be it a very small rock or sand in your shoe, or the clicking sound of your laces on your foot pod. In a very long event little things may end up hurting you badly (like in the case of the rock) or frustrating you for a stupid reason.
In Millau, they let you have a “follower” in a bike. I had this done by my son who gave me food and drink the whole 100K, I can not stress how valuable this was firstly to avoid stops completely (I did not stop once in the whole race), and secondly to cheer you up when you are breaking down. I ended up with a 10:40 time, I was very happy about this and hope to do another ultra again here in Spain, although I am now 55 so I will have to be careful about this.

[today-nl]

4th, ultra marathon is all I could find now, while most road marathons are canceled. This video is very helpful.

[BrentSnider]

Just ran with a friend yesterday while he was doing his 100k ultra. Best tip, don't do any of it alone. Try to have someone with you throughout, even if that means having different people lined up for different segments.

[stevejodoin]

Great tips. All true. If I might add, poles are also super useful later on in the race as you get fatigued and your knee drive isn’t as good as in the beginning. Your feet start slouching and there is a real risk of face plant. Those poles have saved my butt more than once because of the extra support and pivot points. Highly recommended!

[logiconabstractions]

LIve the present moment, and pratice that beforehand.

I've found that the most enjoyable parts of my 100k were those were I sort of let go of the distance ran/left and all that, only to focus the run itself, as if some sort of meditation.

[doubledragon]

Thank you so much for this vid. Great advice. Working up to my first ultra in November and this is all so invaluable. Love the tip about getting out for a walk after the run. 👍

[lafreshkicks]

Looking forward to using all this advice.

I am taking on my first ultra in 30 days. Cannot wait!

[minemusic]

Hi GTN - thiis was a great video - between this one and the one of Mark running the 100k, it is inspiring me to try an ultra-marathon.

[JohnHarryShaun]

Not an ultra, but I completed a full Ironman distance triathlon, all day I kept an eye on Hr, didn’t want it going over 160bpm, so eased right off going uphill on the bike and run. Swim was just as relaxed as possible. Definitely helped me get through it.

[chinmayhuddar]

Beautifully constructed, informative and was much needed. Kudos to your market research team in identifying what we need. Cheers😇💯

[watchingeye]

Very professional, very good 👍 explaining, good 👍 tips, very sympathetic. Show us more videos like this one.

[kristofraemdonck]

Great content. After 8 years out of the running scene (injuries and stuff, work, ...) I got back to running (thanks COVID). I see it as a 9 year project to run eventually the MOAB240. Still early days, training first for a 5k and we will take it from there...but nothing wrong with running towards something that seems impossible as a goal imho
Fingers crossed