Tigst Assefa broke the marathon world record by more than two minutes in Berlin last month. That’s mind-boggling. Then again, Courtney Dauwalter broke the course record at the Western States 100-Mile Endurance Run, one of the most prestigious and historic ultra races in the world, by more than an hour. There are still some unanswered questions about what limits endurance in “regular” long-distance races—but when it comes to ultrarunning, we’re still trying to figure out what the right questions are.
This is the blank spot addressed by a big new paper in the journal Sports Medicine, titled “Limits of Ultra: Towards an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Ultra-Endurance Running Performance.” That’s a mouthful, but the key word in there is “interdisciplinary.” Ultrarunning success isn’t just about having a high VO2 max or great running economy—though both those attributes are helpful. It’s also not just about being mentally tough, or hydrating appropriately, or having an iron stomach. It’s all of those things and more, which is why the paper brings together the insights of nine authors from a…
