Goal: To complete a 100 mile ultramarathon

Adventure Status: completed

Read the Blog: 100 Mile Ultramarathon

Details:

The question that I am attempting to explore in this challenge is: How far can the I travel under my own power without the aid of any kind of technology (like a human powered vehicle)?

I have wanted to run a 100 miles ever since I read the book “To The Edge” by Kirk Johnson many years ago. To The Edge is about the worlds toughest running race – the Bad Water Ultramarathon – It is a 135 mile (215 km) course starting at 282 feet (85 m) below sea level in the Badwater Basin, in California’s Death Valley, and ending at an elevation of 8360 feet (2548 m) at the top of Mount Whitney. Why reading a book about such an insane endurance event would make me actually WANT to run a similar race, I don’t know, but it’s been a dream of mine ever since.

Greg finishing the Northface Endurance Challenge

I started with a 50 mile race in June, 2009 – the Northface Endurance Challenge in Bellingham, Washington which went very well for me aside from adding 10 km onto my day by getting lost. You can read the race report here. My next race was the 90 mile Sinister Seven ultra in Crowsnest Pass area of BC. I suffered from very bad blisters and had to quit after 100 km. You can read that report here. My third attempt at the big 100 miles was in September, 2009 at the Lost Sole Ultra near Lethbridge, Alberta. That was an incredible tough race and I quit after 100 km again for a very large number of various reasons, including, and probably mostly my poor psychology. Read that race report here.

I finally achieved success at the San Fransisco One Day 24 hour ultramarathon in Oct, 2010 where I completed 100.8 miles in 24 hours and placed 4th overall.

Hamburger feet
Hamburger feet after the Sinister 7 ultramarathon