One hundred miles is another good standard, as it’s a distance somewhat commonly run. Over a dozen 100-mile trail races can be found in North America, and some people, such as Janice Anderson of Georgia, try to run all of them. She has run at least seven this year, nearly winning one of them outright.

ULTRAS ARE TIME CONSUMING

There’s a time investment in running an ultra that some runners might not want to accommodate. For instance, this year’s Chancellor Challenge 100K started at 7:00 A.M., and the winner didn’t cross the line until after lunch. The back of the pack arrived after sunset. (If you’re not that fast, you’d better be good at running in the dark if you want to finish an ultra—I recommend bringing the most powerful headlamp you can find.) So, an ultra can eat up an entire day, and if you factor in prep and recovery time, your entire weekend is pretty much shot.

For me, attending the Chancellor Challenge meant missing the season premiere of “Baywatch.” (A show I watch for its brilliant plot twists and exceptional photography. For example, once the female lifeguards were forced to perform a rescue—of all female victims—in their underwear, which of course was the latest stuff from Victoria’s Secret.) I’m one of those rare sorts who knows how to program his VCR, but I imagine some people at the Chancellor missed the episode altogether. Committing to an ultra can require a sacrifice.

ULTRAS NEED A CREW

Although some rare ultrarunners pride themselves on doing without a crew, most find it convenient to have one. It helps to have someone to make sure all the stuff you need is ready when the time comes. Typically, ultramarathoners will pack at least one extra pair of shoes, an extra pair of socks, extra articles of clothing, and an assortment of drugs (Tylenol, Advil, Tums). Then there’s all that food. Not just the usual Gu, Gatorade, and PowerBars. Ultramarathoners also need easy-to-digest stuff, like turkey sandwiches or peanut butter and jelly.

I crew for my wife (see me in a recent Ultrarunning magazine helping her during the Vermont 100-Miler). As a crew person, being ready with all the necessary stuff at every point you’re going to see your runner presents a set of challenges. I might add, at the risk of sounding like a fashion model, that it’s actually hard work. Fortunately, at the Chancellor, I was able to stay in the same area the entire race and see Ellen three times per each 10K loop. At the Vermont 100-Miler, I had to drive from point to point, never knowing exactly when she’d turn up. Plus, you never know exactly what your runner is going to want when they come in—and when they want something, they want it now. You’ve heard the phrase “hurry up and wait”? Well, for a crew member, it’s just the opposite: you wait and wait and wait, then hurry, hurry, hurry. In fact, I’ve been told that CREW is the acronym for Cranky Runners, Endless Waiting, and I believe it.

At the Chancellor, Ellen began in a three-way race for third place. The first two runners, Edit Berces and Valentina Shatyayeva, started out well ahead of the other women and stayed that way. Ellen hung in her three-way race until about 40K, when things started to break up. She was having trouble with one leg dragging. We had discussed what to do if that happened. We’re both 33 and have been running for a long time. Neither of us is too proud to drop out of a race if it’s not going well. My own rule is that I drop out only when I’m forced to (if I pull a muscle, for instance), but I don’t run ultras. People who run ultras really hate to DNF because it’s an event where finishing is most of the challenge.

I’m not much of a coach. I don’t easily assert my will upon others, and I’m not good at reading people and telling them what they need to do at a given moment. At the Chancellor, I did manage to suggest to Ellen: “Go through 50K and get a split, then decide.” I was quite proud of myself for that. Ellen finished the first 50K in 4:07, which, if doubled, would be about her PR. So, she had a tough decision to make.

ULTRAS ATTRACT A CERTAIN KIND OF PERSON

I regularly train over 100 miles a week and sometimes grow tired of the shocked reaction I get from “normal” (i.e., sedentary) people when I tell them that. People who run ultras get it even worse. To a certain extent, I understand the reaction. To be honest, I’m not convinced that running more than 20 miles at once is healthy. Yet, even though I rank pretty high among U.S. distance runners and have competed in big races all over the place, it’s often Ellen whom people want to talk to when they meet us—and it’s not because they discern that I’m antisocial by nature (although I am). They want to hear all about how she trains for her ultras and how it’s possible to actually finish one in a reasonable time.

Maybe it’s the extremism of the event that makes it so interesting to others and pulls in those distance runners looking for something different and challenging. I was surprised when my friend Dan Held recently transitioned from conventional marathons to ultras. But, then again, he’s got that strong compact body with the big quads you see on successful ultrarunners. A 2:13 marathoner, in his first 100K, Dan’s finished fourth in the World Championships in 2000. When I asked him if he’d ever run another, he said, “Yes, probably,” although he had sworn otherwise during the final miles.

Ellen got started on ultras when someone suggested she try a 50-miler in Central Park. She ran 6:29 and went home thinking, So this is what I’m good at. And she is good at it. But at the Chancellor, when things started getting rough after 50K, she fell into some of what she calls “normal person thinking.” At noon, the Tufts 10K for women started at the Boston Commons—all of maybe 800 meters from the start of the 100K. When Ellen saw them, she admits to thinking, Wouldn’t it be nice to race just one 10K instead of doing this all day?

Apparently not nice enough, as she stuck with the ultra until the end. She finished in 8:47, about a half hour behind where she wanted to be, but still good for fourth place and $750.

The amount of backing the Chancellor Corporation put behind this event was remarkable. It’s one of the only ultras with prize money. There was also a free dinner the night before and another immediately after the race.

As we were eating, Ellen’s friend Craig Wilson finished the course in 11:36 to beat the 12-hour cutoff. Even after finishing, he kept running because he wanted to run with some people still out there. I watched him go, then looked at Ellen and shook my head. This is one sport I’ll always be content to observe from the sidelines.

Check Joe’s Web site at http://www.joelemay.com