Ultramarathon Runners Won’t Give Up Their Sport

By four in the afternoon on day two, Cherns stood watch, arms akimbo. “This,” he said coolly, “is when the race really begins.” The course, however, was nearly empty of runners and base camp looked like a M.A.S.H. unit. Bodies were scattered anywhere there was shade. As very few runners are able to run for 48 hours without breaks or some semblance of a nap, multiday racing is as much about strategy and pit stops as speed and endurance.

The pre-race favorite, Viktoria Brown, a 47-year-old mother of three, kept pushing forward. Now wearing a ventilation mask for her asthma, she looked like Darth Vader and ran like a bulldozer. Her gait was heavy and determined, her head and shoulders in front of slightly duck feet. Somewhere on the next lap, her power vanished. At the aid station, she slipped the mask down from her reddened face and said, “this is the toughest fight of my life.” She looked like a person being smothered.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/17/sports/multiday-ultramarathons.html