The front page of the Globe and Mail has a feature on a Canadian ultramarathon runner. What is the distance in an ultra-marathon? It is 170 kilometres. The race mentioned last year was a 200-mile race. There are pictures of people running across or down steep mountain slopes.
What comes to my mind is who would want to run these distances? The answer (according to 2 sources) is 611,098 people. There have to be a lot of people as there appears to be an Ultra Running Magazine.
You can get the sport demystified. And it does seem a mystery to me. I particularly am mystified that people would spend 30 hours running a race. How do they stay awake? The answers seemed to include caffeine and energy. The article says they "push through exhaustion and discomfort" - that sounds a bit like an under estimation to me.
But my real question is about how gruelling this is and how many people might not survive the task. What is the main cause of death during ultramarathons or any marathons? It is sudden cardiac death.
Look up the articles and you will find an ultramarathon in 2021 in north-west China where 21 runners died in extreme weather conditions. That's the most catastrophic story. One hopes it is the last of its kind. But there are headlines for various races.
Ignoring all the dangers, and moving on to the lighter side, there's an article on the best gifts for ultra runners. I don't need to look at that one - I don't expect to know any ultra-marathon runners.
Here are some bicyclists on the Houtby Farm road where Brian's Lilycrest Gardens hybridizing field is. That's my closest to photographing athletic activities.
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