Earlier this year, probably around the time I turned 46, I suddenly decided I wanted to run an ultra marathon. Say whaaaat?!?! Yeah, call me crazy, but I had already done two marathons in the past. Anchorage Alaska Midnight Mayor Sun Marathon in June 2000 [finish time → 8:26:14] and the Myrtle Beach Marathon in February 2002 [finish time → 6:32:23]. I know I’m slow, but that’s not the point.
The point is that when I decided to look up just how long an ultra marathon was, I discovered that it was any race distance longer than a marathon rather than a set 100-mile race, which is what I thought it was. Because that will probably NEVER happen. So I set out to find the shortest possible ultra I could find, and as it turns out a 50k is a popular ultra distance because it’s only 31 miles.
That’s only 4.8 miles longer than a marathon. I could totally do that, right?
And what I thought was a cool idea would be to run a 50k when I’m 50 years old. That’s only 4 years away, so I guess the next step is to find the race I want to participate in. But how do I decide on the best ultra-marathon race to run in?
Once I chose my distance (50k), I considered six other factors to help me choose.
- Location
- Type
- Time Limit
- Weather
- Day and time
- Coolness Factor
RACE LOCATION
The first question to ask yourself is where you want to run the race. In a big city? At the beach? An exotic location? How far do you want to travel to get there? Drive or take a plane? In the US or somewhere else in the world. I happen to know of an amazing race-finding resource and if you haven’t heard of runningintheusa.com yet, you’re missing out. You have to check it out. Stat. You can factor in distances, regions of the US, what month the race is in and so much more. Works great on mobile too!
I decided I didn’t want to fly and that I wanted a race in the southeast, near the coast, that wasn’t too far to drive to. About 50 results popped up for 50k races in the southeast.
TYPE OF RACE
Next, decide if you want a road race or a trail race. A lot of trail races were popping up, so I took that out of the equation because that meant lots of hills and I wanted the easiest race possible and as flat as possible. Florida has lots of flat land, so things were looking in that direction.
Types of races:
- Trail races (usually means hills or mountains)
- Road races (usually less rigorous)
- Hilly vs. flat
TIME LIMIT & QUALIFIER
Some people love to race to win. But lots of us middle-of-the-packers and especially us back-of-the-packers don’t care about winning or even necessarily making a certain time. That being said, time is still an important factor to consider. Are you going to run the race, walk the race, or do a combo? Honestly, most people do a combo. Jeff Galloway even says that 9-10 minutes of running followed by 1-2 minutes of walking can make you have a better race time.
If you know your average pace time and you know your race distance, you’ll need to calculate how long it will take you to finish the race. Maybe even factor in if you get injured and have to walk the entire distance. Since a 50k is 31 miles and the average walking speed is around, let’s say 3.1 mph, then a 50k could take a slow “racer” about 10 hours to complete.
Lots of marathons have an 8-hour cut-off time. My Alaska marathon had 8.5 hours. I was so thankful. Even still, that gives someone roughly 3 mph to finish the race. And I found a 50k with a 12-hour time limit! Although it might actually be 16 hours (they had both times listed and I don’t know which was the accurate number).
The last thing to consider about a time limit is if you want it to be a qualifying race or not. This is really important to a lot of serious runners, so be sure to check the race website to find out for sure. Personally, for this race, it didn’t matter to me a bit. Although the race I found did have the distance certified by USTAF. So that’s always nice.
WEATHER & TEMPERATURE
The weather definitely plays into the location you choose. Time of year as well. I guess that could technically be another factor. I didn’t want to run a big race in the middle of the summer because that’s when I host my own race, the Writers Who Run 5k & 10k Race for Literacy in July - in North Carolina.
So weather, location, and time of year kind of all go together. I didn’t want it to be super hot or super cold. Florida in the dead of winter is not considered cold to someone who’s used to a snowy winter in January. With a low of 45 and a high of 70, Florida was looking better and better for my 50k race location. One race I found was in January and that seemed a good time for a race in Florida since hurricane season is over by then and it’s not very rainy.
BEST DAY AND TIME FOR ROAD RACING
This might be the least important contributing factor. Most races are held on a Saturday or Sunday. I prefer to race on Saturdays so my Sundays are free to worship, rest, and relax. But I have run races on Sundays in the past. Time of day can be important too. Some races are actually run at night, which is part of that particular race’s coolness factor. I’ve done one. The Maggie Valley Moonlight Race in western North Carolina. It starts at 8:00 pm and was a great race! But for a 50k? I definitely need it to be a daytime thing.
COOLNESS FACTOR & BLING
Lastly, you want to feel like the race is going to be fun. The coolness factor can be time of day, location can also play into it, the medal, the race’s purpose like a charity of some kind, or a fun theme like donuts, hot chocolate, the popular Color Runs, or something else. When I saw the title of this race – WILD THINGS RACES – I had to check it out. I mean, my last name is Wild after all. So… this race is in mid-Florida on a flat, paved surface, with a 12-hour time limit, and it’s based on the book, Where the Wild Things Are by the late Maurice Sendak. (I have address labels with that theme!) The race takes place on a Saturday and it’s a 5k loop repeated 10x so that everyone feels like they’re at a party during the entire race and nobody is “left behind” and feeling alone. Perfect! I’m all in!
When you find a race that checks all the boxes, it’ll be a good one for you! For me, that ended up being a 50k in the southeast (specifically Florida), on a paved, flat surface, with a really long time limit of 12 hours, on a Saturday, with low chance of rain (hurricane season was over) and temps between 45-70 degrees, and a cool theme of Where the Wild Things Are.
The last question I had to ask myself was if I wanted to run the race the YEAR I turned 50 (2026), or when I actually WOULD BE 50 (2027). Because the race is in January and my birthday is in April. I asked my husband and he said, “When you’re 50.” So that means in 4 years and 2 months (January 2027), I’ll be running in the Wild Things Races in Ocala, Florida to celebrate turning 50. Wish me luck! And feel free to join me!
Keep writing, keep running.
XO,
Christie :)
What's the longest race you've ever run in? Share in the comments.
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