At the beginning of this month, starting on April 4, runners held a special home edition of that race, and dubbed it the Quarantine Backyard Ultra . After 63 hours of running a 4.2-mile loop around his Arlington, Virginia neighborhoodwhich totaled 262.5 miles without sleepingultrarunner Michael Wardian was the last man standing. (About 2,400 athletes from 55 countries started the race, where they were connected via Zoom.)
A challenge like the Quarantine Backyard Ultra is quite a bit about the physical game, but a whole lot about the mental one. I loved that this race was so simpleits very democratic and favors no person, Wardian says. Since you stop after every loop and start again on the hour, theres no advantage to being faster.
So instead of winning the race on speed, you win it by being smart. His strategies (and maybe soon, yours):
Dont ask, how much longer?
Instead of asking that questionespecially because there was no answer and no way to control what the answer might beI wanted to focus on the things I could control. I wanted to take care of myself, meaning I wanted to stay up on my fueling and keeping my body sound so that I didnt let anything become a problem, he says.
Watch your dashboard
I would review myself as if I were looking at a dashboard: Am I eating enough, drinking enough, do I feel any hot spots, do I have enough music and how much battery life is left, how are my shoes, socks, shirt, sunburn, etcetera, Wardian says.
Pace yourself
Unlike with other races where you finish by coming in first, there wasnt an advantage to finishing faster in the Quarantine Backyard Ultra. It paid to be willing to think it wouldnt end, so he says he kept thinking, do a pace you know you could do all day, every day. There arent points for coming in faster.
Worry about you
For the last 16 hours of the 63-hour run, Wardian was competing against just one other personaround and around the neighborhood, for two-thirds of a day. It would have been tempting to focus on the other person and get impatient for him to drop. But Wardian knew the better way: Dont worry about the other person. Worry about you and how you feel. And he cites the endurance sports (and life?) truism that the only thing that is a given is that no matter how good you feel, it will not last, and no matter how bad you feel, it will not last. Dont worry about things you cant change, he says. If you cant change it, let it go. It doesnt deserve your attention and just wastes time and energy and usually isnt great for your head space.
Keep showing up
Boston Marathon winner Des Linden encourages this keep showing up strategy, and Wardians a fan. I believe it. If you just keep getting to the line, good things will happen, he says. Every hour, for 63 of them in a row, Wardian showed up. I didnt know when this race would end, but I did know that as long as I kept myself fed, warm, and took care of my needs, that I could keep showing up.
The end was also a beginning
When you dont know how long something might last, it can be scary and a little disheartening. But I hope what I did gives people hope. Since then, Ive seen people who Ive never seen running before doing the loop I was on, he adds.
Wardian is no stranger to tough, far-flung challenges. He set records including the fastest 50K on a treadmill . Hes known for many long races in many different placesin 2017, he ran seven marathons in seven days on seven continents. The other cool thing I realized is that you can have some of your biggest adventures and dont have to be that far from your home, he says. The biggest thing Ive ever done happened 50 feet from my front door.