What is Ultrarunning?
Ultrarunning also known by its more popular name ‘ultramarathon’, is as the name refers --- any distance longer than a traditional marathon (42.195 Km).
The history of the sport can be traced back to the time when two million years back the Homo species evolved and started exploring this new form of travel. Without the luxury of stop watches or distance markers one can only imagine how far the very first athletes traveled before stopping.
Who can forget the famous story of Pheidippides who travelled to Sparta to request help when the Persians landed in Marathon. Greece. He ran 240kms in 2 days. Pheidippides has been a central figure in the birth of the marathon.
What started as a younger cousin of the marathon has quickly risen to a graduated move for several marathoners. Today there are hundreds of thousands of runners who participate in several thousand ultra races around the world.
The International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) was officially recognized by the IAAF in 1988. The IAAF recognizes the IAU as the governing body for the sport of ultrarunning around the world.
