This is my official bib number for tomorrow's Bucharest International Marathon. It will be my 9th official marathon.
A few days ago, while trying to put together my gear for this race, I looked at my finisher medals and realized I have run more ultramarathons than marathons. If I remember well, there were 12 ultra finisher medals and only 8 marathons (as for half-marathons, 10k or 5k races, these were just a few).
If you're new to ultra-running this may feel strange to you. The logical way would seem to be: run as many marathons as you can until you decide to go for an ultra. While I agree running a marathon first will definitely help, I wouldn't go for the "as many as you can" part. Not at all.
You see, ultra-running and marathons are very different sports. Marathon became a speed race, especially during the last 20 years. With all the efforts made to break the barrier of 2 hours - which is very close, in my opinion - marathons became just very long sprints. All the preparations for such a race are focusing on the speed, and you're training almost always above the aerobic threshold.
On the other side, ultra-marathons - and by that I understand races longer than 100 km -are getting closer to what we should understand by "endurance sports". A 100km will be run anywhere between 10 and 14 hours. That's a lot of time to spend running. And a 200km race will most likely give you the opportunity of a "second dawn", an event which ultra-runners are very much cherishing. And all the preparations for marathons are done under the aerobic level (more on that below).
So, while I respect and admire marathon runners, I confess my preference goes towards ultra-running. It's true that it takes more time to prepare and the ordeal is quite a bit longer, and also the recovery time is sometimes measured in weeks or months, but the benefits are an order of magnitude higher.
With all that being said, why do I run this marathon?
Two reasons:
This event was my first marathon ever, so there is an emotional attachment. Five years ago, with almost no training at all, I decided to run a marathon, so I signed up for this race and, to my huge surprise, I finished it. Damaged, battered and bruised, but I finished it. I still remember how big it seemed at that time. Now, after having finished races longer than 200km, it looks just like a standard measurement unit. Ultra-marathons are often measures in "marathons". A 100 miler would roughly be 4 marathons.
It's a good way to stay fit. After my last 48 hours race, which was, from a certain point a view, a complete failure, I need to get back in shape. And that's the perfect occasion.
Aerobic versus Anaerobic Running
Aerobic means running below glycogen burning rate. Running in such a way that you will rather burn fat than sugar. For instance, when you walk, you're burning fat, not sugar.
Anaerobic is the "second gear" of our body. It was designed to to keep up safe from predators, by allowing very high speeds. The downside was that those speeds couldn't be maintained more than a few dozens of minutes. Anaerobic running (and anaerobic training, broadly speaking) do have significant benefits. But everything good in huge quantities become something bad.
That's the reason I picked up ultra-running, because it allows me to experience all those modified consciousness states and opens the gates to introspection, but it doesn't do this in an overly damaging way for the body.
Nevertheless, I will still try to get a good time tomorrow. Anything under 4 hours would be a good time for me.
I'm a serial entrepreneur, blogger and ultrarunner. You can find me mainly on my blog at Dragos Roua where I write about productivity, business, relationships and running. Here on Steemit you may stay updated by following me 
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