The BMW Dallas 50K Ultra Marathon (31M)

2024 has been a year for big things. Running goals established have been mostly fulfilled, including:

• Qualify for 2025 Boston Marathon
• Qualify for Marathon Maniacs Club
• Contribute to running community by volunteering at parkrun
• Broaden running social network via in-person events and blog/website
• Begin training with a running partner
• Run at least 1 international race
• Run sub-3:30 marathon
• Make progress on completing World Marathon Majors (Guaranteed Registration for Chicago 2025)

It's been a fantastic year for running goals, and only one still remains for the year:

• Run first Ultra Marathon

For those of you unsure the distance of an Ultra Marathon, there is not a standard distance. Rather, it's defined as any race over the marathon distance of 26.2 miles (or 42.2 km). Earlier in the year, I'd cobbled together a list of flat Boston Qualifying races in case I needed multiple chances to try and meet the BQ goal. The Dallas Marathon is a BQ race, but it also has an Ultra distance of 50k (or 31 miles). This seemed like a great opportunity to cross the Ultra off my to-do list, and if race day approached and I needed the BQ more than the Ultra, I thought I'd just downgrade from the Ultra to the Marathon. Well, having already met the BQ goal, it looks like December's race weekend will be my first attempt at the Ultra race benchmark!

As a road racer, the appeal of the Dallas Ultra is my comfort level racing on the road compared to racing on the trail where the majority of Ultras take place. But the distance is uncharted territory for me, and the time it will take to complete 31 miles may be a bit of a challenge as my training runs have been quite a bit shorter lately. It's not a good idea to attempt marathon pace for an additional 6 miles, so the strategy will be different. My pace will be adjusted to ensure I have the endurance needed to go the distance. Currently on the multi-marathon plan, my longest run for this month came in under 3 hours and 30 minutes, a full hour less than my goal time for the Ultra will be.

Other adjustments for the distance include swapping my racing shoes for stability shoes, adding additional pre-race fuel and some additional in-race carbs via hydration and sport beans, and finally, a longer play list! Having used my playlist for 3 races now, it needs a refresh anyway, but I'll have to ensure that at least 5 hours of music is queued and ready to motivate me to the finish line!

This year as I've been focusing on growing my running network, I've met several Ultra runners who've done 50 and 100 milers on the trail, the traditional Ultra format. These runners are incredible. Running for 24/48/72 hours or whatever it takes to get the job done, these trail-running endurance athletes are in a totally unique category. Hardcore trail runners deal with unique course situations like the trail/route itself, wildlife, unique fuel challenges where they eat real food vs racing fuel, they cultivate and coordinate a pit crew for refueling and support at remote camping sites for brief stops along the way, they deal with sleep deprivation, and a ton of other differences I probably can't appreciate until I try it for myself.

The Dallas Ultra Marathon will in no way rival an Ultra trail race, but at least for the distance it meets the mark for me. As a road racer, I still have some big goals to meet, but maybe one day I'll consider an Ultra trail race. In the meantime, I'll leave that to my Ultra friends. I'm happy to pit for you to learn from the pros.

Dallas Ultra Marathon, here I come. Let's GO!

Wanna meet up while I'm in Dallas? DM me!

XOXO,

T