What is an Ultra Marathon?

An Ultra Marathon is anything over 26.2 miles which is the distance of a Marathon. However, official ultra marathons start at 50k or about 31 miles. The distances of ultra marathons can go over 200 miles, and there’s one ultra marathon in the united states that is 3100 miles, and that’s called The Self-Transcendence 3100 mile, which takes place in Queens, NY, around a 0.5-mile city block. 

The most common distances of ultra marathons are 50k, 80k, 100k, and 100 miles. 100 milers usually can be completed within 24hrs depending on terrain, elevation, and weather. Some ultra marathon formats are broken down into different stages throughout a few days.

This article concentrates on just being able to run an ultra marathon (50k) and call yourself an ultra-marathoner.

My First Ultra Marathon

I’m an Ultra Marathon Noob. My first Ultra Marathon was in 2022; my furthest distance was 45 miles. This year 2023, I’ve signed up for a 24-hour race and 100-mile race with the hope of getting those coveted belt buckles (traditionally, if a runner completes 100 miles, they receive a belt buckle). There are important lessons that I’ve learned in my first year of running ultra marathons.

I ran my first Marathon in May 2022, my first Ultra Marathon in July 2022, and My 45-mile longest ultra marathon in October 2022, and I felt the worst after running my first marathon. The reason that I felt the worst when running the marathon was the lack of training. 

Training for My First Marathon

My first marathon was in May, and I started adding mileage to my weekly runs in February. The rule of thumb is to have at least 16 weeks of training before the race. Granted, I ran year-round once-a-week long runs stemming from 10 to 16 miles, but that still was not enough to easily run a marathon.

During training, I increased my weekly mileage to about 35 miles and ran in trail shoes on pavement that weren’t the right shoes for me, even on trails—I later found out after many experimentations. Also, my runs were slow, and not many hills were incorporated. Training guides say that if a runner can complete about 22 miles, they can run a marathon, so I did that. I ran my 22 miles about three weeks before the marathon as my long-last run. When the marathon came around, I was fine for the first half of the marathon, but once 16 miles came around, I started hurting and feeling miserable until the very end. I did complete my first marathon in a whopping 4 hrs and 10 min.  

Here’s a LINK to a video on my youtube channel about the right shoes that I found to run marathons in. And here’s a LINK to a youtube video where I review my favorite trail running shoes that I run Ultra Marathons in.

Lessons Learned and My Training Improved

In October of 2022, I ran my second marathon two weeks before my 10-hour race (where I ran 45 miles), and my time was 3hrs and 35 min. So what did I do differently?

First, I increased my mileage to 50-70 miles a week, that’s a 70% to 100% increase.

Second, I started incorporating speed work into my weekly runs at least once or twice a week.

Lastly, I added hills to my runs. Changing these three things made my race runs much easier; I even placed first in my age group for 5k and 30k trail runs, and 3rd overall in my first ultra marathon, a 6-hour race where I ran 33.5 miles. 

Training Plan for 2023

This year, I’ve signed up for a local 24-hour race (Anchor Down Ultra) and a 100-mile race, a qualifier race for the Western States 100 lottery.

The first plan is to do 100+ miles a week with back-to-back long runs (e.g., Saturday 23 miles & Sunday 25 miles).

The second plan is to increase my leg strength, last year, I noticed one of my most significant weaknesses were my legs, so this year, I include weight training such as squats, box jumps, deadlifts, and calf raises.

Lastly, I found some giant dunes near me where sprinting up them smokes my legs and my cardiovascular system in addition to running many hills as well. 

I will be doing more marathons and smaller ultra marathons (50k, 80k, and 100k) to break the monotony of doing long runs alone. 

This training is in addition to what I did last year, and I hope this plan will be enough for me to reach those 100-mile distances. 

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