Doug Thompson's Staging Area

Incredibly challenging race that is closer to 36 miles than 31 miles and has 24,000feet of elevation change. You climb 3 peaks of over 6000 feet including the highest peak east of the Mississippi Mount Mitchell at almost 6700 feet. The trail is extremely technical with few “runnable” sections. It is much harder than most 50 mile ultras and has a 14.5 hour cutoff. You will need it. Definitely a bucket list race for hardcore ultra trail runners.

As an ultrarunner, Comrades was on my bucket list to do. It has an incredible reputation and is the oldest and largest ultra in the world. I had an amazing experience. From the start at 5:30am with the singing of the South African national anthem, then the Shosholoza song and finally Chariots of Fire to the finish in the Cricket stadium in Durban with thousands of cheering fans, it lived up to its reputation. I had trained hard for 6 months leading up to the race putting in an average of 42 miles a week with many marathons and 50K races as well. I took the course tour the day before which was fun and helpful. I recommend it to any first timers especially from other countries. I started the next day from the F corral with a qualifying marathon time of 4:07. I was nervous about making the strict 12 hour cutoff and it took about 6 minutes for me to reach the start line after the gun went off. I was already 6 minutes behind before I had even started. However, the weather was great and the support along the course even better. I had never had so many people cheering me by name(on my bib) during a race. Aid stations were great with coke, and satchels of water and endura-aid. The hills were relentless even on the”down” year with 4700 ft of climbing and 7000ft of descent. I made all the cutoffs along the way and finished with 25 minutes to spare. I enjoyed seeing and talking to other runners along the way. Most of the 20,000 plus runners are from South Africa(240 runners from US this year) and many had done the race 20 or even 30 times. The number of finishes are listed on your bib. You get a green permanent number once you run it 10 times. I highly recommend this race and hope to do the “up” run someday in the future.

Fun trail marathon in Northern Michigan. It requires a short boat ride to race start on Grand island.
Some pretty views of Lake Superior along the course. Some short hills but nothing too technical. Enjoyed the pictured rocks boat tour the day before the race.

3rd of 3 state series. Very basic support and low key race. fairly flat course with few rolling hills. Run by many farms. Early morning start option is nice and good finisher medals. Good for 50 staters and marathon maniacs. Race director works hard to support everyone’s needs.

The 1st of 3 days of 3 marathons in 3 states . Very flat course with some gravel roads through Bear Lake state park. Good for 50 staters and marathon maniacs. Very basic support but great finishers medals esp if you do all 3 states. Not a large race but good comaraderie with other racers. Early morning option is nice for slower runners or if you want to avoid the heat.

Fantastic adventure race. Very expensive race but extremely well organized by Richard Donovan. You spend time in Svalbard before leaving for the north pole Russian base. You can go dogsledding or snow mobiling. You spend about 40 total at the pole including the race. It was -22 degrees F when I did it and you run about 12 laps of 2.2 miles around the base. I had to warm up every couple laps and thaw out my face mask. Course is very tough with snow and ice.