Ultrarunning Tradition – iRunFar

I used to be lately strolling round my neighborhood with my husband, admiring lawns. I didn’t use to try this. It’s the kind of factor that creeps up on you in your 30s. In the future, you might be cool. The following day, you get up and begin admiring lawns.

What I’ve realized is that good lawns don’t occur by chance. They require foresight and diligence. They require lively cultivation. In any other case, weeds overtake them. The identical is true for ultrarunning. What we domesticate grows.

A Rising Sport

Ultrarunning is a rising sport. It was once a small group of oddballs who, for no matter cause, wished to run far. Now it’s a giant group of oddballs who, for no matter cause, wish to run far.

With the expansion of ultrarunning has come vital adjustments. Coaching strategies are extra refined. Media consideration has elevated, and there may be extra money within the sport. Occasions are greater, apart from those that stay the identical measurement however now have prolonged waitlists. The number of occasion distances, surfaces, and topography has elevated, and there are extra race alternatives than up to now. There are additionally extra factions — dissenting teams with competing visions about what the game is or would possibly develop into.

Ultrarunning is in an area of unbelievable progress. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

With the inflow of cash within the sport, have come manufacturers vying for market share. They carry totally different aesthetics, branding, and competing messages about what ultrarunning is about. Typically they get into public feuds about it (1).

This competitors amongst manufacturers might be productive, because it means skilled ultrarunners are actually compensated at ranges commensurate with their worth (2). Nonetheless, it additionally means our consideration is directed towards trivial distinctions amongst clothes and equipment, and away from the center of the exercise — the working, the factor all of us have in widespread.

Hear, I’m not going to be a “doom and gloom” girl. Ultrarunning is at an thrilling second. Development is nice, and I believe the game is usually in good palms with its present management and media. However a threat of progress and commercialization is that they will distract us from what issues.

Perhaps we entered the game looking for respite from consumerism and immerse ourselves in nature, solely to instantly discover ourselves shopping for extra stuff. Or perhaps we wished peace and stress reduction, solely to seek out ourselves studying assume items about feuds between manufacturers we’ve got by no means heard of. Perhaps we wished to edify our characters by way of endurance, and instantly, we’re centered much less on substantial change and extra on our exteriors, dressing up in fancy working outfits extra expensive than our vehicles. We neglect why we began ultrarunning within the first place.

We shouldn’t neglect why we began ultrarunning within the first place. Picture: iRunFar/Eszter Horanyi

A pal prompted me to deal with the query of tradition in ultrarunning’s present second of progress and alter. It’s a advanced query as a result of there isn’t a neat narrative for the methods by which the game is altering. A number of the adjustments are nice, and a number of the adjustments threaten to undermine a lot of what we love about ultrarunning.

The Idea of Tradition

“Tradition” is a notoriously ambiguous idea. In broad strokes, it captures a gaggle’s conventions and norms, together with practices, traditions, and tastes. The etymology of the time period is likewise advanced, with a number of origins, most notably Latin and French. In some contexts, tradition is said to the “cultus,” or reverence and worship (3). It additionally captures agricultural actions corresponding to forming, coaching, and tilling the earth (4). To domesticate is to enhance and render fertile to yield fruit (5).

In assessing ultrarunning tradition, the agricultural picture shall be useful for us. We are able to contemplate three issues:

• We must be clear about what we goal to develop.
• Not all progress is productive; we must always be taught to establish weeds.
• Cultivation is difficult work that requires foresight and diligence.

What Are We Cultivating?

If you ask children how far they will run, they typically assume they will run ceaselessly. In our sport, we measure, in exact phrases, how far we are able to run. On this approach, ultrarunning satisfies a pure curiosity about human limits. We check boundaries and discover ways to endure. That is humanizing and superior.

As a result of our central job in ultrarunning is endurance, we must always deal with that. We must always goal to domesticate our capability to persevere, studying to stay in place in pursuit of arduous items. This pursuit is worthy of our vitality and a focus for its personal sake, insofar as it’s pleasant. However working far may refine us in some ways, requiring that we develop into affected person, resilient, and diligent to carry out effectively. It’s good in itself and for its penalties.

There are different items, or fruits, that we are able to goal to develop. Group has lengthy been a precedence amongst ultrarunners — group runs, shared service, crewing, and mentoring. I’ve written up to now about how ultrarunning is the hospitality sport. We are able to proceed to domesticate a welcoming reception for brand spanking new runners.

One other good price cultivating is sustainability work. We spend a number of time outdoors on trails and within the woods. Extra so than different sports activities, ultrarunners are sometimes engaged within the work of preservation and look after the forests we run by way of.

Gabe Joyes’ crew on the 2025 Hardrock 100 proving as soon as once more that ultrarunning is a group sport. Picture: Niko Carste

Study to Establish Weeds

Ultrarunning is a rising sport, however not all progress is our good. We must always work out what’s productive within the altering panorama and prune away the issues that choke out the great.

What are the proverbial weeds of ultrarunning? A few of them could also be structural. For instance, perhaps we don’t like races being consolidated beneath main corporations. Or perhaps we do. A few of them could also be private or dispositional. Gossip (unrestrained speech about each other), vainglory (caring extra concerning the picture you set ahead than the individual you actually are), elitism (which undermines hospitality), and materialism (a preoccupation with shopping for stuff) all come to thoughts. I additionally talked about that there are extra factions than earlier than.

To some extent, factions and dissension are inevitable as the game grows. That’s how people function. In “Federalist 10,” James Madison wrote that factions are “sown into the character of man” due to differing opinions, tastes, and pursuits (6). Hopefully, we are able to disagree in constructive methods and keep in mind the very giant, wonderful factor all of us have in widespread: working far. If we are able to’t, then unproductive discord is one other weed that may choke out the great.

Cultivation Is Exhausting Work

Good lawns don’t occur by chance. A superb working tradition gained’t both. We have to collectively spend money on the factor we care about, with the “repetitive, persistent, and loving care of the farmer (7).”

Which may imply encouraging others, supporting their races, serving on committees, and doing path upkeep. If neighborhood is an asset, then we’ve got to figuratively get our palms soiled, cultivating friendships.

It’s simple to complain about weeds. It’s a lot tougher to actively thwart them and develop one thing good of their place.

There are a lot of methods to domesticate neighborhood. Picture: Ron Heerkens Jr

Closing Ideas

Ultrarunning is at an thrilling second of growth, commercialization, and alter. A lot of this alteration is productive. However a threat of business progress is that it could undermine tradition and choke out what’s particular concerning the sport. Like garden steward, we must always diligently domesticate the great and be taught to acknowledge weeds.

Name for Feedback

• What does working tradition imply to you?
• What different methods can we domesticate good working tradition?

Notes/References

1. See Ok. Frost. 2026. Fulfill, Presently Operating, and the Combat Over Operating’s Aesthetic. Right here & There. Accessed 6 April 2026 Hyperlink: https://www.hereandthere.membership/p/satisfy-currently-running-and-the-fight-over-running-s-aesthetic
2. At the very least a few of them are. Ultrarunners stay the proverbial ‘ravenous artists’ of sports activities.
3. Pieper, J. 1998. Leisure the Foundation of Tradition. Transl. by G. Malsbary. St. Augustine Press.
4. Oxford College Press. (n.d.). Tradition, n., Etymology. In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/2200472041
5. Oxford College Press. (n.d.). Domesticate, v., 1.a. In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved April 7, 2026, from https://doi.org/10.1093/OED/5406101325.
6. Madison, J. 1787. The Federalist Papers. No. 10. The Avalon Challenge. Internet Accessed 7 April 2026.
7. Malsbary, G. translator notice in Pieper, J. 1998. Leisure the Foundation of Traditionp. 70.