[Flow]

Quelle

Run/Walk Strategy. My first ultramarathoning mentor was Jim Walker, an ultra veteran from Grass Valley, California. Jim has run 120+ marathons, finished Western States four times, American River 50 eight times, and the notorious Badwater race (135 miles across Death Valley in midsummer heat) once. Jim holds the record for the round-trip ascent of Mt. Whitney. Obviously, he knows quite a bit about ultrarunning, and like many ultrarunning veterans, he’s generous with advice.
Before I ran the American River 50 the first time, I stopped by Sports Fever to check strategy with Jim. I said I planned to run 25 minutes and walk 5--or maybe run 50 minutes and walk 10. Jim said, "Oh, no!–you'll tear yourself up. You should do 5 and 1." I said, "You mean, run five miles and walk one?" "No, no! Run five <minutes> and walk one <minute>."
Jim explained that 5:1 works like magic, that it's far less stressful than 25:5. He said he decided to run AR50 straight through one year, and finished in 10:15. The next year, he did 5:1 and ran 8:24. "I even stopped at Granite Bay for a bowel of soup in the RV."
I used 5:1 at AR50 and finished in 10:14 at age 53–no speed record, but I felt pretty good throughout.