This is called the lactate threshold.Īrm fatigue can leave you unable to hold your water bottle.įoot-eye coordination can help avoid stumbles and falls as muscles tire.Ĭentral fatigue can strike, along with exercise-associated collapse syndrome, where a runner’s muscles simply stop working. At some point your body can no longer convert the lactate. Lactate is a byproduct of the breakdown process, but can also be converted back into energy.

Joint pain may arise during the race and continue after it’s finish. This has a colossal cumulative effect on the joints, especially the feet and knees. Ultrarunners average 5000 strikes of the foot to the ground per hour. This syndrome is named for the speculative cause of death of the first marathoner, Phidippides. The sustained cardiac effort of an ultra can tax the heart with volume overload. “”you can be totally asymptomatic, and your first symptom is sudden death.” It’s important for runners to be cardio-cleared before undertaking ultras.

Gordon Tomaselli, a cardiologist at the Johns Hopkins Outpatient Center, explained an athlete’s ability to run right through all the warning signs. Sweating, difficulty breathing, chest pain-all can be both normal parts of extreme running. Heart attacks can mimic normal race exertion. For this reason, doctors recommend more pre-race screening.especially for ultra which tend to be held in remote areas away from trauma centers or critical care centers. Outside magazine calls the heart a Runner’s Ticking Time Bomb, reporting that one in 200,000 runners will experience cardiac arrest, and one in 50,000 will experience a heart attack from coronary artery disease during a marathon. This lower intensity lessens the risk of race day cardiac events. Ultrarunners stay in the 50 to 65 percent range. Marathoners spend the majority of their race at 75 to 85 percent of their maximum heart rate. In some regard, ultra are less risky than marathons. There is a slightly elevated post-race risk of atrial fibrillation, an irregular heartbeat and temporary cardiac dysfunction. For some vulnerable runners, this dilation and related scar tissue can cause cardiac arrest. The right side, however, can dilate and weaken. The left can become stronger through running. Sustained exertion impacts each side of the heart differently. There is continuing debate whether it causes lasting damage. Most finishers exhibit elevated Troponin I, which can indicate heart damage. Running an ultra stresses a runner’s heart during and after the race. Raceday risks include:Įach organ of the body is impacted by the effort. Running an ultra is not for the faint of heart.

So how hard is it to run 100 miles? And what happens to your body when you do? Your body on Ultras “Some people think I’m crazy to run 100 mile races,” says ultra coach Keira Henninger, “I think I’m the luckiest person on the planet to experience a physical and emotional journey in the most beautiful landscapes in the world.” hasn’t discouraged the runners who’ve followed. That’s right, ultrarunning is so badass that the guy who invented it died doing it. It’s defined as any distance greater than 26.2 miles.īut did you know that Phidippides was also the first known ultrarunner? He died suddenly after running more than 175 miles in two days (culminating in the marathon).

Ultrarunning begins where the marathon ends. But for some people, 26.2 miles is not enough. The word itself is a ubiquitous metaphor for any sustained effort. Rooted in Greek history, the distance attained legendary status when Phidippides ran from Marathon to Athens to announce a victory. Running a 26.2 mile marathon is on many bucket lists.

100 mile extreme race