The Future of Ultra-Running Could Look Much Different

With ultra-marathon races getting faster and faster, where does this leave the back-of-the-pack runners?

The sport of ultra-running is going to need to change in the near future. There are a couple of things driving this in our new post-pandemic world.

One-hundred-mile races are seeing faster and faster finish times and not just from the freakishly athletic people like Jim Walmsley. Looking at the finish times, athletes are getting faster and faster.

In 2000, there were 385 starters and 222 finishers at the Western States 100 race. Of the 222 that finished the race, 65 completed the 100 miles in less than 24 hours. Only two of these athletes that finished in the Top 20 were females.

In 2010, 423 started and 328 finished. Of those 328 finishers, there were 123 athletes that finished in less than 24 hours. This year, only one of the Top 20 Western States 100 runners was a female.

Fast forward to 2022 and the numbers really start to tell a tale. In 2022, 383 started and there were 305 finishers. 101 of the 305 finishers finished in less than 24 hours. Five of the Top 20 finishers were female.

I’m not saying this is a bad thing and Western States 100 is becoming well known as a track meet among ultra-marathoners. However, it begins to raise a question as to what types of times you are going to need to even be able to get an entry into the Western States race in the future.

Thinking of winning times and what it will take to earn an entry in the Western States 100 is daunting.

In 2000, the winning time was 17:15:24. In 2010, the winning time was 15:07:04. This year, the winning time was 15:13:48 by a gentleman who ran his first 100-mile race. With no Walmsley this year, his mark of 14:09:28 stood little chance of being broken.

I am a total numbers nerd, so could talk numbers all the time. The focus of this article though is on what ultra-running was before there was such a fascination with the sport.

All of these stats simply point out that if you are a slower, back-of-the-pack runner, there is little to no chance that you are going to get into one of the “bucket list” ultra-marathons. The times to qualify are quickly becoming like Boston Marathon qualifying.

So, where will the tens of thousands go to test themselves in an ultra-marathon event? Sure, there are the smaller races still available. But, what do you do when a 35-hour cut-off for a 100-miler gets tough?

That’s where the sport of pedestrianism comes in.

Looking Back to See the Future

Imagine a sport that used to fill the original Madison Square Gardens with over 10,000 raucous, cheering fans.

The contestants would enter the arena with their own stable of chefs, dieticians, doctors, massage therapists, and trainers. Their trainers often suggested they drank champagne.

There were corporate sponsorships and the betting was ridiculous.

This was the sport of pedestrianism, and the athletes had to walk laps around the arena for six days until they had completed 450 miles or 724 kilometers.

They could run, walk or crawl.

The one hard, fast rule was they couldn’t leave the oval until they completed their mileage. If they needed to use the restroom, there were little tents along the side of the track.

Celebrity athletes had quirky nicknames and the crowds followed their every move.

A BBC article, The Strange 19th Century Sport That was More Cooler Than Football, is a fascinating historical read on what would become known as ultra-running.

Included in this history is the man versus horse races, including one in 1880 when Michael Byrne finally bested a horse by running 578 miles in six days to the horse’s 563 miles.

By 1881, interest in the sport of pedestrianism fell off a cliff. It was decided by one newspaper that pedestrianism was more a spectacle of “pain and delirium than athletic prowess.”

The final blow to pedestrianism was the invention of the bicycle. Suddenly, anybody could jump on a bike and ride ridiculous numbers of miles, and there was no need to gather in an arena and watch people endure pain and suffering.

Thus, pedestrianism as a sport drew to a close, and would not be heard from again.

But Is It Time to Resurrect This Idea?

That’s a brief history of what ultra-running was before there was such a thing as this sport and long before the incredible athletes who dominate the sport today began laying down such tremendous finishing times.

For me, it still comes down to the 99% of runners who pay an entry fee to these races and will never stand atop the podium.

With the tremendous growth and interest in the sport of ultra-running, more and more races will need to go to a lottery system simply because the permits from federal and state agencies to run in these places limit the number of participants.

This means that as the athletes continue to get faster and faster, those in the ultra-running community who are getting older and slower will most likely miss out on participating in well-known events simply because they’re not fast enough.

Which leads me back to the place my wandering mind always leads me. Is it time to resurrect what was once known as pedestrianism, but what I refer to as ultra-walking?

I wrote an article in December 2021 about walking an ultra-marathon not being as weird as it sounds. Since then, I’ve finished a 100-miler in March 2022 where I walked over 80% of the course and finished in a tad over 26 hours. I also completed 83 miles at a 24-hour ultra-marathon where I dealt with a toe problem stemming from a bad shoe choice.

I read a blog post out of the UK from 2016, Six Reasons to Get Into Ultra Walking, that I completely agree with. In this post, the author listed six very valid reasons why just about anybody can complete an ultra-marathon walking the entire distance.

My Fitness Pal has an article from January 2020 by Marc Lindsay that offers great insights for those wondering if they should even consider something this crazy.

Everything You Need to Know About Ultra Walking is a fantastic guide to entering and finishing your first ultra doing nothing but walking.

“Walking is one of the easiest, most effective exercises to improve physical and mental health. In fact, walking can even beat running for heart health.”

I believe that as ultra-marathons see faster and faster finishing times that more people who just enjoy being out there for hours on end challenging themselves to see how far they can go will begin attempting these distances and more races will create access for walkers.

In the Hampton Roads area of Virginia, a talented local runner has created timed events that offer excellent opportunities for people to walk the entire time and complete an ultra-marathon. Just a Training Run is perfectly suited for anybody looking to complete these distances and be around other people out running and walking the courses and having a fantastic time.

As lotteries for the “big” races increase and fewer non-fast runners are able to get into these events, smaller organizations are going to fill the gap and create opportunities for those like me who will never see a podium, but enjoy moving long distances.

So, If you’re wondering where the sport of ultra-running is going, this is my bold prediction.

There are going to be races that are for the young and elites in the future. The races like Western States, Hardrock, Leadville, Grindstone, Vermont 100, UTMB races, and those types of races will continue to have lotteries and continue to get faster and faster in order to qualify.

There are also going to be people that create races that cater to the ultra-walkers, those that still cover the same distance, they just don’t cover the distance as fast.

It is this second category where you are going to find runners that want to test their mettle, possibly podium, but most of all, just have plain, old, good-fashioned fun without feeling like they need to run faster and faster in order to get in the “good” races.