Originally posted by iTim:A 50-mile run? Wow, kudos to you. I think 13.1 is the limit of my endurance! Just the thought of even doing a second lap (as it were) to make it to a marathon is too much. I have picked up the distance in recent months with getting quicker. Most of the runs are done at lunch with friends from work, so there’s only so much we can do in that hour. I’d like to get myself to some events in 2018, something else to work towards. I’ve been really enjoying it over the past few months now that the weather is cool again.
I know it sounds crazy but an ultra is in a lot of ways easier than a marathon. It's invariably off road, so automatically slower and an expectation of walking the hills. Lots of checkpoints with lots of food that are usually based at the bottom of said hills so eat on the walk up. Keep going, enjoy the scenery.
Marathons are brutal, no two ways about it. Usually on road and an expectation from everyone, yourself included, that you will run every step and feel you've failed in some way if you don't. Not a fan. My road running stops, nowadays, at half marathon.