In this third installment of 'So you want to run an ultra?' the Scarecrow Runner throws down some deeper insight into ultra running and from his own experience. For those who are already training or putting the miles in, you need to prepare for the dark and unknown aspects of ultra-running; especially the longer distances beyond 50 miles.

Anthony shares some important mental aspects that are important to consider in your ultra journey. Pressing past the pain, pressing past the disappointment and pressing past the negative mindset.

These 3 areas are huge in ultra-running.

• Pressing past the pain - everyone will experience pain in an ultra, but everyone is different and it will affect you at different times. You have to get past the pain. You will experience pain and discomfort running an ultra. The pain train or pain cave many runners call it will come calling at some point and you have to be ready to press past the pain or embrace the possibility of a DNF.
• Pressing past the disappointment - with every training session or even with every ultra race there are traces of disappointment. It could be a lot of different things ranging from not training well, to training well and then everything goes wrong during your race. Regardless of the things leading up to the race, during the race or after the race there will be disappointments. You will face them in your ultra journey and you must learn to press past them.
• Pressing past the negative mind set - this is one of the most important aspects of ultra-running. You have to get out of your own head and definitely stop listening to the negativity around you. During a race you will find yourself in some dark places and you will have to learn how to identify the negativity and get beyond it. Negative mind-set and negative thoughts will destroy you during an ultra and you need to be prepared to press past this roadblock and find a path around it or through it.

I hope this episode will shed some light on some of the heavier and deeper aspects of ultra-running and will assist you in pressing past and pressing forward.

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