WHEN YOU TELL someone that you're training for a marathon, the most common response (from nonrunners, at least) is a combination of awe and incredulity. Yes, you have to plan out your strategy and train for weeks preferably months-beforehand for best results. But 26.2 miles is still largely viewed as being within the realm of the achievable for the everyday guy. When you start talking about running longer distances, races that span 50 or even 100 miles, like the Ultra-Trail du Mont-Blanc (UTMB) in the Alps or the Western States Endurance Run in the Sierra Nevadas, people freak out, because they can't fathom the level of endurance required. But running an ultra is absolutely possible for anyone with the will to put one foot in front of the other. You just really, really need to prepare.
Ultrarunning generally refers to races longer than a standard marathon, many of them 50 to 100 miles long, usually on trails. Over the past decade, participation has exploded: There were 2,672 ultra races last year, compared with 873 in 2010. The UTMB World Series is the pinnacle. The organization holds a series of trail races around the globe leading up to its final event in Chamonix, France. The race typically spans 171 kilometers (about 106 miles) and entails nearly 10,000 meters of elevation gain, covering terrain in and around peaks in France, Italy, and Switzerland before finishing in Chamonix.
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