The Four Tenets of ULTRA
Since the very early days of making ULTRA we decided that it wouldn’t be about ultrarunning. At least, not *only* about ultrarunning. The pages of this magazine should instead be dedicated to providing, recording and preserving stories and articles that are interesting to ultrarunners. This includes fell and mountain running and mountain marathons, for example, or long difficult social or training runs.
Given that ULTRA isn’t ‘ultra’, so to speak, this forced us to try to define what ULTRA is. Ultramarathons are defined as any race that is longer than a standard marathon. That’s the technical definition taken care of, although the ultrarunning community has never rested easy on that. Depending where you ask, people may believe that ‘true’ ultra-distance events start at either 50km, or 50 miles. As far as I know there’s no real reason for that other than ‘that’s what they think’, so we decided to ignore the definitions and instead concentrate on what we call The Four Tenets of ULTRA:
Adventure / Freedom Endurance / Community
These four words embody, for us, everything that is good about our sport.
Adventure
Definition: “An unusual and exciting or daring experience.”
I think this is *exactly* what ultrarunning is about. Many people consider the marathon as the pinnacle of human achievement, and to some degree they’re right. 26.2 miles is a very long way to travel by foot, and this precise distance has very defined and widely known measures of success particularly with respect to timing.
But most people consider driving 50 miles a bit of a chore; the notion of doing it on foot is… well, unusual. It’s also quite daring and it’s certainly exciting – what is going to happen during a race is anyone’s guess, and that’s part of the appeal for those who take part. You hear a lot of people talking about the unknown as something they’re driven to find out about.
There’s the internal adventure, the question of “can I do it?” which is highly appealing. Failure still hurts, but failing at something really tough is acceptable. How many times have you seen someone post on Facebook that they got 90 miles into a 100-mile race and then gave up, and have 100 people respond with “You still did 90 miles, you should be proud.”? It’s true, they should be – and then immediately book another 100- mile race to apply the things they learned from those 90 miles.
This is the dance within our heads that we perform when we’re trying to convince ourselves that all this is a good idea. There is a theory in neuroscience that the brain is made up of two or more segments that are capable of independent thought. Since I started running long distances I’ve always had this mental image of two brains, Brain A and Brain B; and while Brain A is obstinately refusing to go out and run, Brain B and I will quietly slip on our running kit and get out the door before Brain A notices. It might not be factual, but it often motivates me when I just don’t feel like it.
There’s also the external, exploration aspect of adventure. Hill walkers often cite exploration as the reason they walk, the idea of finding out what is over the brow of the next hill, seeing things that they wouldn’t otherwise see if they’d stayed in bed. Sunrises, sunsets, cloud inversions, beautiful landscapes, interesting flora and fauna, other people. It’s the same with running, but because we travel more quickly we have the potential to see even more of those things. I don’t know about you but I’m at my happiest when I’m somewhere I haven’t been before, with a map and a compass, a bag of kit and food, and the whole day to play with. New things to find, adventure to be had. Which brings me nicely to: Freedom
Freedom
Definition: “The power or right to act, speak, or think as one wants.”
Inextricably linked with adventure is the freedom to go to new and interesting places. The physicality of this is tricky depending where you live. In many countries, including Scotland, Norway and Switzerland, the freedom to roam on public or private land is a
traditional public right, while in some countries like Northern Ireland there is no such tradition and finding a way to freedom is often blocked by inaccessible private land. In England and Wales, since the Countryside and Rights of Way Act 2000, the freedom to roam has been significantly increased but it’s still highly restricted. According to Right to Roam (righttoroam.org.uk) 92% of English countryside and 97% of rivers are out of bounds to the public, and they’re fighting the fight to persuade the government to open that up and give us rights to wider rights to more than one-tenth of our landscape.
BUT, the mentality is much easier. Wherever you live there are places to go, places to explore, new hills to climb. We may have to drive there, or take a train, but they are there and awaiting you. For me one of the great positives of lockdown is exploring a little further from my house than usual, and by linking up a bunch of local open spaces by map I found new and interesting places that are inspiring and wonderful to run in.
In one such place, a vast open green space on top of a hill overlooking Ottershaw, in Surrey, I waved to some people feeding horses in a paddock next to the right-of-way. We got talking, and when I said that I was surprised to find this huge space with a warren of public footpaths running through it one of them told me that it’s something she had heard dozens of times in the weeks since lockdown had started; so I guess I was far from alone in discovering this place.
But the place I like the most is common land; the wild, uncultivated landscape of mountains above the intake wall, or of one of the many huge commons or parks we have access to in this country. Because they require transport to reach it’s not something I do regularly, but now and again to break out of the monotony and go find something new I’ll hop in the car and drive somewhere; using that freedom to explore is great for the mind, body and soul.
Endurance
Definition: “The ability to endure an unpleasant or difficult process or situation without giving way.”
Although we’ve agreed ULTRA is not technically all about ultrarunning, endurance is a common thread in what we do, as long as it is done on foot – no wheels or boats for us.
Not all mountain marathons involve ultra distances, but the mountainous land, running off-path, often attritional surface (bogs, heather) and requirement to self-navigate tick all the boxes – this is hard stuff, and you need to be physically fit and mentally tough to get through it. Fell runs are mostly relatively short, but again the intensity of the race and the terrain the runners have to get across (and up/down) is difficult and often unpleasant. I say unpleasant, I guess we wouldn’t do it if it really was; but maybe it’s ‘Type II Fun’ where it’s sometimes miserable while it’s happening but fun in retrospect. Getting through this kind of thing takes endurance, so it easily makes our grade.
Community
Definition: “The condition of sharing or having certain attitudes and interests in common.”
When we started ULTRA we had only Adventure, Freedom and Endurance as our tenets, but by Issue 2 we had added this fourth because it so obviously makes up a good deal of what our sport is about. Ultrarunning is a leveller, a common element among us, and I’m not sure why exactly but I rarely meet somebody in the sport that I don’t like and often I find myself forming an immediate friendship. And the volunteers! Thousands of people who, if they can’t run a race, will turn out weekend after weekend to help others run theirs, without whom the races would not happen.
Perhaps it goes back to the unusual nature of the sport, so when you finally meet other people with this same interest there’s a natural link; but by and large I’ve found ‘mountain people’ and ‘ultra people’ (let’s call them ULTRA people) to be friendly, welcoming, fair-minded and possessing a fabulous spirit. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen or heard of someone stop mid-race to give assistance to another runner; to share food and water with another runner who needs it; to slow down and walk with another racer who’s lost their motivation to make sure they’re OK; or to remain at the finish line of a race to clap in other runners. It’s a natural way to be.
It’s why we formed the two ULTRA Festivals back in 2016 and 2017, and why we’re doing another this year; I realised that the only real opportunity we have to interact with other ultrarunners is either before a race where we’re nervous and just can’t wait to start; while we’re actively racing which is good and social but not really conducive to a relaxed chat; or after a race when we’re either knackered, asleep, or wanting to get home. Sitting in a Wiltshire field with 100 other ultrarunners was one of the times of my life; it was a magical, inspiring experience – but it was just people with this unusual, difficult, daring, free common interest, and the opportunity to talk and share stories. Not crazy, or insane, weird, or stupid, or any other negative adjective; actually quite beautiful. And if all ULTRA does is pivot on that beauty, and extol the virtues of our wonderful communities, then it has done its job.
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Andy is an ultrarunner and editor of
ULTRA Magazine