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Comment by srameshc | Hacker News Reader

I wokeup to read this and I am inspired. I am a late starter, could barely run for 5 minutes, but now I can do 5 miles. I was thinking to myself few days back, "how can people run a marathon and 100K run". After learning about this lady, I think if I try , I can as well.

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It takes time and I encourage runners of any level to start thinking about running, if they like it, in yearlong blocks with annual goals. My longest race to day is a 30 mile trail ultra. Ive done a variety of sports all my life so the fitness base was there. Then I committed to specifically training for that distance. Truth be told - as long as your training is consistent, intentional and you want it, eating is the hardest part. By far. 100k is a different beast altogether. It takes a community to tackle 24-30 hours of ruunning!

Marathon and ultra are different paradigms, for ultra all you need to do is get a heart rate monitor and try running at zone 2 as long as you can, the most difficult part is probably refueling, eating enough calories while preventing stomach cramps. Marathoners chase speed cos 42km/26miles is not that much if you are acclimated, which leads to a lot more interval/tempo/threshold training.

Ultra typically has much more vert, if you don’t strength train or train downhills your quads get destroyed. It gets to the point where you want uphills because the downhills are all pain.

It’s also not unusual for ultramarathoners to include speed work early in a training block (see Jason Koop).

I ran my first ultra in the past month (55k, 7000ft vert). A year ago I didn’t run at all but I’ve always done strength training.

The hardest part is finding time for training. For 100k it’s recommended to put in at least 60 miles per week during peak weeks to finish without injury or a lot of suffering.

I almost thought I couldn't run more than 6km without getting knee problems. But now I run +10km without issues. I just needed to run often enough, have patience and not run when the body clearly told me to stop.

I've run an 83k with surprisingly little training or background. I obviously worked up slowly to get there. But it is very doable for anybody.

That’s impressive, how much vert?

Ascent: 1,304 m Descent: 1,167 m

More info: https://nutskarhunkierros.fi/en/races/83km/

I do want to mention when I said: "surprisingly little training "

I realize now what this sounds like. I want to mention that I did other races to build up my condition to be able to this one (the longest one I ever did).

I also want to mention that it was probably the physically hardest (but most rewarding) thing I've ever done.

Nice work!

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