Ultra News

15 May 08

74 year old walks Kokoda Trail…….More

World Harmony Run - Australian leg The World Harmony Run is seeking runners to accompany them on their Australian tour. This event, supported by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team, started in Brisbane on Sunday 27 April and is heading south. Please show your support and join this run contingent……..More

More photos at Ultra Photo Blog……More

14 May 08

15 marathons in 15 days - The Simpson Desert This will be the first ever attempt to run the gauntlet from the Geographical Centre (Lambert Centre) of Australia across the full length of the Simpson Desert to Birdsville. Five athletes will run a total distance of 640km, passing through 3 States (NT, SA, QLD) and over 1315 sand dunes in a West to East direction in just 15 days……..More

11 May 08

Australians to cross Artic Island on foot In July 2005, two young Aussies Chris Bray and Clark Carter plunged inside the Arctic Circle to travel unsupported across Victoria Island, the world’s ninth largest and largely unexplored island……..More

Pushing your bike 175 miles - In Alaska AS Christian Cullinane admitted, it was no place to have the pedal fall off your bike. With temperatures touching minus 30C and the white wilderness of Alaska stretching as far as the eye could see, there was nothing for it but to push. Which he did for 175 miles……..More

10 May 08

Website of the week - Dreamchasers Outdoor Adventure Club …….More

09 May 08

Vlastik Skvaril wins Tasmanian Golden Coasties Award ………More

Ultrarunner of the week - Donn Ozaki Mile 18 of the Avalon 50 Mile Race was where I first met Donn. He and his friend Jim Green were trying to play catch up after starting slow at the beginning of the race. Coming back from an injury, I didn’t think there was any way I would be able to stay with them for as long as I did, but boy, am I glad that I did!…….More

8 May 08

Yiannis Kouros - 3 wins in 5 weeks A busy 5 weeks for Yiannis Kouros on his European tour. 3 weeks after winning the Brno 48 hour indoor race with a modest (for him) 408km he went on to win a 24 hour running 261km in Ciserno,Italy!……….More

London to Liverpool in 11 days At the time of writing this, I’m sat with Adam on a wall outside Woodside ferry terminal soaked in sweat and shivering like a dog tied to a lamppost on a freezing January morning - but I’m ecstatic……More

6 May 08

Ultra Photos around the Globe Planet Ultramarathon are pleased to announce the start of a new Ultra blog. WordPress recently announced a new photo blog format which I was really impressed with……..More

3 May 08

New members of the PUM team People will probably notice that the Planet Ultramarathon team has expanded considerably in the past few weeks and is looking less and less like a website with only my input…….More

Photos from Coburg 24hr Presentations………..More

An interview with Tracy Y. Thomas What follows is an interview with ultrarunner Tracy Y. Thomas, 46, of Champaign-Urbana, IL, USA, a member of the Second Wind Running Club’s ultrarunning group, “Buffaloes of the Prairie,” based in Champaign-Urbana, IL………More

26 Apr 08

Andrew Laing cycling to Comrades UIST’s roads will be looking pretty good to one cyclist this summer. North Uist’s Andrew Laing is to return to the islands to complete the multi-sport adventure race, the Heb Challenge, from June 29 to July 4…….More

Melbourne Firemen to run from Gallipoli to London The group of Australian firefighters and supporters arrived at Anzac Cove yesterday to prepare for an endurance charity marathon of more than 4500km aimed at embodying the spirit of what it means to be Australian……..More

A few photos from Walk New Mexico …..More

Peter Rietveld -Running through Austria ……More

25 Apr 08

Photos from South Africa 6-day race………….More

22 Apr 08

Melbourne to Brisbane Ultra The Ultra, a 44 day stage race from Melbourne to Brisbane, to be held in October and November 2009, has announced that it is now taking expressions of interest from elite athletes. There is to be a cap of 15 runners, with approximately half expected to be from within Australia. the balance from overseas…….More

17 Apr 08

DeBoom to run at Leadville Tim DeBoom, a two-time Ironman World champion and America’s No. 1 ranked long distance triathlete, today announces his entry in the 2008 Leadville 100 trail race – a 100 mile ultramarathon through the Rocky Mountains of Leadville, Colorado…………More

Gary Hause walking in Australia Getting ready to leave on the next section of my walk around the world. I will be flying to Cairns, Australia, on May 15th 2008 and start walking south along the coast to Melbourne. I have a 6 month visa and a return ticket from the Melbourne airport………..More

16 Apr 08

Peter Rietveld - running across Austria …………………….More

Run across America - for PFC Diaferio Yesterday was day nine for me. The headline story on the Albuquerque evening news Thursday night was about the weather. Apparently the cold temps and fierce winds were part of a storm front that would be with us for a couple more days. Oh joy……More

14 Apr 08

Budhia Singh’s coach murdered The controversial former coach of a six-year-old Indian distance runner has been shot dead by an unidentified gunman, reports said. Biranchi Das, whose handling of Budhia Singh caused widespread concern, died shortly after the attack in the eastern state of Orissa, the Press Trust of India said late on Sunday……More

11 Apr 08

Ultrarunners to remember Bataan Death March The Filipino veterans of World War II may not be able to complete the 20-meter “Walk with the Heroes” in Mariveles, Bataan, on Tuesday but Ed Paez and the San Fernando Runners Unlimited Inc. will honor them with a two-day 102-kilometer run that will retrace the infamous Death March of Apr. 1, 1942 that saw thousands of Filipino and American troops being forced to walk from Bataan to Tarlac by the Japanese military…….More

Paul Ashton raises $12,000 EVERY man and his dog trains for ultra-marathons - at least Ashburton’s Paul Ashton does with his two four-legged companions. Mr Ashton ran the 160km Alpine Skyrun last weekend to raise money for mental illness organisation Mind Australia……More

Mpotoane to be buried Top South African ultra-marathon runner Michael Mpotoane will be buried in Bodibe village near Lichtenburg, North West, on Saturday……more

Great Walk to Beijing - 2008 International stars and cancer survivors - 228kms along the Great Wall of China in just 23 days. You too can help build a global model for patient focused cancer care and research – The Olivia Newton-John Cancer Centre…….More

10 Apr 08

Brett’s Final Report - 100 Miles for CanTeen After 3 years of training and 18 months dedicated to raising awareness and funds for CanTeen, the organisation for young people living with cancer the big day was almost upon me……..More

06 April 08

Walking the Amazon trip under way On April 2nd 2008, Ed Stafford and Luke Collyer started their attempt to walk over 4,000 miles from the source of the Amazon River in southern Peru to the mouth in Brazil. The expedition will be uninterrupted and is expected to last between 16 and 18 months……More

04 April 08

Peter Rietveld - Run for your Lives 2008 And another restday, looking like a holiday here and so it feels. Mind you I have been working out the last three months after coming back from Ethiopia. In Addis Abeba was a very nice hill where I ran up every morning having a great view over the city, but in the project there was logically considerable less possibilities to run………More

Martin Fryer - 24hrs on a treadmill I think it was sometime in early January this year when Ian Cornelius, President of the Australian Ultra Runner’s Association (AURA), sent around an email seeking expressions of interest for participating in a 24 hour treadmill race…….More

Updates from Australian Ultra scene ……More

31 Mar 08

Glen Turner finishes Run - Zoom across the USA Glen has reached Tybee Island, GA and has successfully finished his journey! His total distance is 4,233 km in 37 days 1 hour and 18 minutes. Congratulations Glen!……..More

The Jornada del Muerto beckons This blog is new. I’m a little nervous, after all this is my first time blogging. I feel the need to “catch you up to date” on what’s about to happen, as this blog is coming to life as my preparations for a major walk are just about complete. If there’s a single underlying purpose (at least for the next month) to this blog, it will be to carry the tales as my walk unfolds. Here’s a little background:……….More

29 Mar 08

Brett’s Run for Canteen - On now

24 Mar 08

Shaun Brewster - Portland to Melbourne On Tuesday March 25th 2008, I will commence the journey towards my hometown Portland from Melbourne, on foot. The distance from the heart of Melbourne city to Portland is roughly 370kms. This distance equates to running roughly 2 marathons per day for 5 consecutive days. If all goes well, I will be home on Saturday March 29th 2008…….More

Tony Mangan - running through my fears Just after 24 hours into the Across The Years 72 hour race I grabbed a water bottle from my table while running at full speed. My right foot hit the kerb. I bounced off the table and went into orbit. In slow motion I seemed to spin around and around as though I was in a spin dryer……..More

Irish Poker Playing 24hr Ultra Champ Dara O’Kearney has made a good start to the year by beating a high quality field in the European Deep Stack Champinship held in Droegheda over the weekend…….More

21 Mar 08

Brave runner to take on Two Oceans All his life Darryl Howe was told that he would never walk; now the 30-year-old who was born with cerebral palsy will be competing in the Old Mutual Two Oceans Marathon after having completed eight marathons in the past seven years……..More

Canberra 2 day Walk - 2008 The Canberra International Walking Weekend is a non-competitive event open to everyone. The walking weekend is usually held late March/early April each year. The next walk will be held on 29-30 March 2008…….More

20 Mar 08

Brent Weigner on Growing Bolder He has run ultra-marathons on every continent on the planet, which has taken him to nearly 100 countries and to the North Pole for races. Ultra-marathons involve distances of 26 miles or more and many of them are 100 miles long…….More

Jim Sullivan on Growing Bolder The 55-year-old has completed 240 marathons and apparently that wasn’t enough. So, now, he’s into ultramarathons, which are usually 50 or 100 miles long and involve extreme courses…….More

News from Colac The Colac Velodrome has been measured by Dave Cundy and is certified at 444m a lap and this has now been sent off to the IAU for ratification……..More

17 Mar 08

Jamel Balhi - running the world I started to run to escape. To run away from society, things I didn’t like, boredom. I wanted to go to the sun, to meet nice people, just like when you go on holiday. I felt like going away, being on holiday forever! But it was essentially a rejection of society, the consumer society that makes fools of us, with silly fashions. And I wanted to go to Asia………More

16 Mar 08

Never mind Beijing Forget Beijing. Madcap Irishman Colin Carroll, part-time sumo “flyweight” and a world champion in elephant polo, has unveiled plans to launch the “Paddy Olympics.”……More

Less than 50 days until PACE run starts In 49 days “Bob” (the stroller) and I will be starting the 620-mile trek on the North Dakota/Montana border… running west and racing thousands of school children from around the world…….More

14 Mar 08

Paul Ashton’s 100 Mile for MIND I am doing a little run (100miles / 160km) next month in the Australian Alps with the aim of a) Making myself very tired b) Loosing weight c) Having fun and d) most importantly raising funds for the Mind Scholarship program……..More

12 Mar 08

Vale Ken Matchett Was sad news today to read that Melbourne Ultra runner, Ken Matchett had passed away……..More

Dr Andy Lovy named USA 24hr Team Doctor Roy Pirrung, team manager of the 24-hour National Team announced that Dr. Andy Lovy has been selected to be the team doctor for the 2008, IAU World Challenge…….More

10 Mar 08

Yiannis Kouros challenges Dean Karnazes Proposal from Yiannis Kouros’ racing manager To whom it may concern, I represent Mr Yiannis Kouros, as his racing
manager. Because too much and foolish noise has been made from one self-made
³ultra-marathonner² and from the deceived and/or paid media, I propose the
following:……….More

2 Mar 08

71 year old to tackle the Marathon Des Sables A 71-year-old woman in Saitama Prefecture will run the Marathon Des Sables ultramarathon, one of the world’s most grueling sporting challenges, becoming this year’s oldest runner and the oldest Japanese ever…….More

Mackey’s team seeks Iditarod glory When Lance Mackey strings his team along Fourth Avenue for this morning’s Iditarod ceremonial start, a non-timed, 11-mile puppy parade through Anchorage’s streets and urban trails, six of his dogs will begin their chase for an unprecedented four-peat……More

1 Mar 08

Walking the Great Wall In August this year (200 will fly to Beijing from there I will travel west to my starting point at the Jiayuguan Pass. I will then proceed east through the towns of Suzhou, Shandan, Jinchang, Yinchuan, Yulin, Zhangjiakou, Qinhuangdao until successfully complete my journey at the Shanhaiguan pass……..More

Walking the Amazon In April 2008, Ed Stafford and Luke Collyer will attempt to walk over 4,000 miles from the source of the Amazon River in southern Peru to the mouth in Brazil. The expedition will be uninterrupted and it is expected that it will take 16 to 18 months to complete…….More

Running for Walking In 2008 I am planning on running from Winston Salem North Carolina to my home town of Salem Ohio to raise money for Multiple Sclerosis. I am looking for financial, moral, and physical support……More

29 Feb 08

De La Varre and his new book Don’t tell Rene Paul de la Varre that it’s impossible to run away from one’s problems.Maybe “away” is the wrong word. “From” might be better … as in, “out of,” “starting at” or “beginning with.”…….More

Iditarod Trail Invitational now on Congratulations to Dario and Philip for a great run into McGath! Jose and Joseph made it into Puntilla and are in good cheer and good shape. They both plan to leave in the morning for Rohn. Rob has a large group of foot racers into Rohn and they will more than likely head out in the morning. Nikolai has not had any racers arrive as of 8:30pm they may have stopped at Bison Camp or will be in late tonight……….More

100 mile in Kuwait It was 6 a.m. in Kuwait when the race began. The finish line for Ruben Cavazos, 48, was 100 miles away, but every agonizing step helped raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project……More

450 mile run in New Jersey Running a 26.2-mile marathon is tough enough for most.Imagine doing nearly three of them in one day. And then repeating that incredible madness for six straight days. That’s what ultramarathoner Jody-Lynn Reicher plans to do the week of April 21-27 when she attempts to run the length of New Jersey not once, but twice…….More

27 Feb 08

The Six Foot Seven WHEN seven runners raced the length of the historic Six Foot Track from Katoomba to Jenolan Caves in 1984, they had no idea they were launching an event that would soon rival the big-budget, corporate-sponsored marathons of the capital cities…….More

Project Sahara - Pressure Point Two brothers, mates, fathers inspire challenge and motivate each other in the lead up to the biggest race of their lives. These passionate, creative philanthropists will run six marathons in seven days across the Sahara Desert, dubbed one of the most physical and mentally challenging footraces on earth - Le Marathon des Sables (Marathon of the Sands)…….More

23 Feb 08

Feedback needed for Distance Running Article I am a writer, psychology researcher and runner, working on an article for my psychology website (Neurotransmission.org) about the psychology of distance running. Part of the story will relate to the career of Dean Karnazes, an athlete whose reputation clearly inspires strong reactions in Ultra circles…….More

Verofit Sports drinks I had a drink this morning of the Verofit Regeneration energy Supplement this morning after training ( yes the webmaster is in training). Tasted ok and the body seemed to handle it ok………More