What is the hardest race (10k, marathon, ultra, whatever) you have ever run and why?
What is the hardest race (10k, marathon, ultra, whatever) you have ever run and why?
Jedediah Smith Ultra Classic 50 miler.
Why?
1) The sheer distance.
2) It was run around a 3+ mile loop that we had to do 15 times, so in that way it was boring as hell.
3) There were 30K people in the same race going faster, and it was difficult to tell who was in what race (different colored ribbon attached to race number on FRONT of runner), so sometimes I would get caught up going faster than I wanted to.
4) It was run in an area where there are sheep and goats, so we had the great manure stench the whole time and sheep bleating at us. 7+ hours of bleating sheep is more than enough to make you want to beat them until they are unconscious.
5) Tore an IT band at some point during the race, but Excedrine and endorphins kept me from feeling it until the next day. Missed my chance to run in the Western States 100 miler because of that.