How to survive (and perhaps even enjoy) an ultramarathon, if woefully underprepared and completely lacking in talent (like me):

• Toughen your feet through gradually increasing pedestrian journeys
• Experiment until you find shoes and socks that work for you
• Train via long slow jogs, with many rest days in between
• Take a multiweek taper to rest up before the race
• Avoid injury sedulously

And on the day of the event itself:

• Apply gobs of vaseline to all unmentionable body parts
• Set an embarrassingly slow pace, right from the beginning
• Be shameless about accepting help from friends and race volunteers
• Consume water, sugar, and electrolytes as often as your body asks for them

And above all, be sure to have huge amounts of good luck!

(for more authoritative comments on ultralow-mileage ultrarunning, see http://www.ultrunr.com/lo-mile.html as well as http://www.extremeultrarunning.com/1stultra.htm by David Horton; cf. UltraMan (8 May 2002), SlowerRunnersGuide (30 Oct 2002), RunningAdvice (2 Oct 2003), ...)

TopicRunning - TopicLife - TopicHumor - TopicPersonalHistory - 2005-08-26

(correlates: ProcessVersusOutcome, DarkGlory, QiRunning, ...)