"There's only one hard and fast rule in running: sometimes you have to run one hard and fast."








Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Records and quotes

I've been reluctant to list my running accomplishments like so many do, because it's a little embarassing to have them all be so long ago. Also, I tended to race a lot "unofficially" without a number and to do races that were not certified, so my best times usually don't count. Still, I decided to add them - they're at the very bottom of the blog, where they belong. They're as accurate as I can make them - you may notice the best times are for the shorter distances. I'm determined now to remove that "TBD."

[A note for Carl: turns out my best 50 Mile is a little faster than yours, but you still have me at 100K, 12 hours, 24 hours and 100 miles.]

Sounds like Barkley Marathons
"Where I'm going there's no running to speak of. You mostly crawl about on your stomach here and there among the debris." - Katherine Anne Porter, Pale Horse, Pale Rider.

Worst song lyrics for running
"So tired, so tired, so tired, so tired, so tired, so tired, so tired. So tired of beating myself, beating myself up." - Jamie Lydell, "Multiply"

6 comments:

brothergrub said...

It would be interesting to see the correlation between 3k, 5k, 10k times and success at the ultra-marathon distances. (hmmm.... too bad we don't know any number geeks...) The "world-class" ultramarathoners don't even typically have "world-class" marathon speed - solid, but not world class. The training for ultras would certainly slow you down for current 5k attempts, so I would assume most UltraMarathoners would have personal bests at the shorter distances that occurred in the past - Especially considering that UltraMarathoners tend to be older...

Carl Gammon said...

Thanks for the acknowledgement. However, I fully expect my old (and some new) times to succumb to your races yet to come.

Kel said...

Worst song at an aid station: "Don't drink the water" by Dave Matthews Band.

Diane said...

Interesting that out of those responding to your poll there's a pretty equal mix that feel you are as challenged by your self-imposed schedule as you are by gravity.

Fast Bastard - World's Fastest Hematologist said...

Those are fast times! Actually a bit faster than the people who win the ultra races you are in.

I would love to see you race an ultra at the end of an injury-free build-up period.

SteveQ said...

Rasmus, you and me both would love to see me run with a decent build-up. It only happened at the FANS 24-hour, where I got sidelined with diarrhea.

Kevin, the faster one is at one distance, the faster at all. Bill Rodgers always claimed he ran marathons because he was slow, but he ran a sub-9 two mile in high school. Yiannis Kouros (100 miles in 12 hours!) was a teenage prodigy at 3-5K. If you do a log-log plot of times vs. distances, records under the marathon fall on one straight line, from 50K to 300K on another; one can compare the slope of one's own lines to see where one excels; for me, the shorter the better.

Kel- The worst I've heard was Beck's "I'm a loser, baby, so why don't you kill me."

Diane- I actually think the Wild Duluth/Glacial double is the hardest, coming at the end of the season. But will I get there?