ULTRA MARATHON MOTIVATION

Kate Dzienis • December 17, 2019

By Elizabeth Bennett, AURA Member & Sports Science Writer

So as the year draws to a close, how’s your ultra marathon motivation going? For some of us motivation may be low as the cumulative fatigue of the year takes the edge off most things, including our enthusiasm for long, slogging, hot runs. For others though, motivation may be high as the end of year brings with it a surge of anticipatory excitement for those New Year ultra marathon goals we have all set ourselves. Regardless of how you may be feeling at this precise point in time i.e., just an end of year snapshot, did you know that ultra marathon runners have been found to have some unique motivational characteristics compared to other runners?

A recent study (Waskeiwicz et al, 2019) researched the motivational characteristics of ultra marathoners compared to those runners who compete in running events <42.2km. The 1539 Polish participants in the study included 382 women and 1157 men. Of the 1539 participants, the control group consisted of 1114 runners who had never participated in an ultra marathon, and the study group consisted of 425 runners who had finished at least one ultra marathon (243 had finished 1-3 ultra marathons, 127 had finished 4-10 ultra marathons, and 55 had finished >10 ultra marathons).

The researchers used the Motivation of Marathoners Scale (MOMS) to measure the motivational characteristics of the study participants. The MOMS includes 56 questions about runner motivation and is divided into four main categories:

Psychological Category
Life meaning
Psychological coping
Self esteem
Achievement Category
Competition goals
Personal goals
Self esteem
Social Category
Social – i.e., affiliation and life meaning
Physical Category
Health orientation
Weight concerns

The study found that ultra marathon runners reported higher scores on the social scale i.e., social affiliation and life meaning, than the control group and lower scores on the personal goal achievement, self esteem and weight concern scales. These trends indicate that ultra marathon runners are more motivated by the social affiliations and life meaning that come with running ultra marathons than any personal achievement goals or goals that revolve around either running making them feel better about themselves or running being satisfying because it’s a means to achieving a body weight related goal.

In both groups the level of training experience was negatively correlated with personal goal achievement, but the frequency of training was positively correlated with both personal achievement and competition scales. In other words, in both groups the longer both groups of runners had been runners the less emphasis they placed on personal goal achievement, but the more frequently both groups of runners trained the higher the importance of personal achievement and/or competition measures were.

So what’s the significance of this research? Well firstly, it’s only the third study that has been done comparing the motivational factors of ultra runners compared to other runners, and the results of this study are consistent with the other two studies (Hanson et al, and Krouse et al) thus showing that there’s a very clear trend appearing about the uniquely identifying motivational factors of ultra marathon runners compared to other runners.

Secondly, this study confirms what some of us may think we already know intuitively about ourselves and our fellow ultra marathoners i.e., that ultra marathon runners are a “type” and our motivational factors for ultra running are integral to our type.

And finally, if you are a coach, talent spotter or runner thinking of stepping up from shorter distance running to ultra marathon running, this study poses a good (self) selection question to ask i.e., what is the driving force for their/your running, is it more about social affiliation and life meaning or is it more about achieving goals or weight control etc? If it’s the former then they/you may be well suited to ultra running but if it’s more about the latter than either they/you may not be a good ultra marathon running match or may be their/your relationship with ultra marathon running is one that needs more time to develop and mature.

Motivational food for thought as one running year draws to a close and a new running year is on the horizon.

Elizabeth has a BA(Hons) and a Master of Exercise Science (Strength and Conditioning). She has worked as a clinical exercise physiologist, coach, and sports science writer for 25+ years. Throughout her life Elizabeth has also been a dedicated long distance runner and proactive representative of various peak sporting bodies including Fitness Australia and AURA. For many years she had a weekly sport and fitness column in The Canberra Times, and in 2011 she was awarded a place on Fitness Australia’s Roll of Honour for her long term outstanding contribution to the fitness industry. As a long distance runner Elizabeth is decent enough with a marathon PB of 2.59.38 and a 100km PB of 9.47.30. One of her ongoing pet interests is researching and writing sports science articles about ultra running for Ultramag.

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AUTRA News Report 19-02-2025

By Kate Dzienis • February 19, 2025

The latest in race results, covering Cradle Mountain Run, City Run, Oscars 100 Hut 2 Hut and Yaberoo Trail Ultra.

Final 2024 Points Competition Results

By Alexis Oosterhoff • January 30, 2025

Results for the 2024 AUTRA Points Competition have been finalised, and are available on our Points Competition page. Full details of the top 10 (as shared on Facebook during January) are detailed below, and results for all participating AUTRA members can be found in the documents at the above link. It was a real battle throughout the year between our top two finishers, Phil Gore & Kevin "BK" Matthews, with both giving it their it their all at events, and through contributions to the community - volunteering at multiple events, and submitting articles to our monthly newsletter, Ultramag. They finished within 2km of total distance for the year (Phil on 1203.087km, and Kevin on 1205.510km), and it was only Phil's final volunteering effort on 6 Inch Trail Marathon in December that gave him the that very narrow victory. As you'd be aware from previous communications, this marks the end of the Points Competition. With trail running (of all distances) now incorporated into AU T RA's constitution, and after careful consideration of the costs of the competition payouts in it's current form, the committee felt it was time for it's retirement. This marks my seventh and final year of delivering the points competition to membership (2018-2024), after taking on the role from Cheryl Symons. It has brought me great joy in doing so, and I feel like I've had an opportunity to get to know so many of our members through seeing their race (and volunteering) performances over the years! I'm continuing in my role as the AUS/NZL statistician for DUV (from whom we shared the data for the points comp), and you can expect to continue to find your ultra-race result on their site. 1st Place - Phil Gore (WA) - 86 points Phil's achievements this year have included a massive 265.653km (and 2nd place) at the IAU 24h Asia & Oceania Championships, wins at the Red Dirt Backyard Ultra (33 laps), the Australian leg of Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship (96 laps), and the Soochow/Taipei 24h Ultramarathon (270.826km). He also knocked out an easy (!) 72km at the Light Horse Ultra 24h in between supporting his amazing wife Gemma. Those two 24h wins netted Phil new Oceania 24h Open Male records, IAU Level 1 qualifiers, and pushed him to the top of Australia's 24h trophy board (with only the great Yiannis Kouros having run further). Phil topped-up his points by contributing one article to Ultramag, worked as an Event Director at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, and volunteered at a further five events through the year. He finished on 86 points. 2nd Place - Kevin Matthews (WA) - 84 points Finishing in 2nd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Kevin Matthews. He monstered his way through the year with finishes at Australia Day Ultra 100km, Delirious WEST 200mi, 24 laps at Herdy's Frontyard Ultra, 190km at Light Horse Ultra 24h, 23 laps at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, and also completed Feral Pig 100 miler, Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km. And to top things off, he contributed five articles to Ultramag, and volunteered at five events. BK ran 1205km in Ultramarathon races this year, all of them AUTRA-listed, and surpassed 100 marathon finishes (including 51 Ultramarathons!) Kevin finished the year on 84 points, a massive 34 points ahead of our 3rd place finisher Sue Robertson. 3rd Place - Sue Robertson (WA) - 50 points Finishing in 3rd place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Sue Robertson. Sue completed the Ultra Series 100 miler trilogy of Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST, and rounded out her year with the Sandman 50km and Six Inch 47km races. She received 30 points from the racing at AUTRA-listed events, and was awarded a further 20 points by volunteering across eight events and contributing two articles to Ultramag, for a total of 50 points for the year. Thank you Sue! 4th Place - Margie Hadley (WA) - 47 points Finishing in 4th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Margie Hadley . She was the top-female finisher at both the No Time to Die Frontyard Ultra & Wild Dog Backyard Ultra, 2nd at Birdy's Backyard Ultra, ran 182km at the Australian 24h Track Invitational and placed 3rd at Coast to Kosci. Margie received 47 points in the competition 5th Place - Melissa Robertson (NSW) - 44 points Finishing in 5th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Melissa Robertson. Melissa took out 1st place at Irrational SOUTH 200 miler, 2nd place at Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place at Hume & Hovell 100 miler, 3rd place at Rumble in the Jungle and 6th place at Ultra-Trail Kosciuszko 100 miler! She also volunteered at the GNW 50km event, receiving 44 points in the competition! 6th Place - Aaron Young (WA) - 42 points Finishing in 6th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Aaron Young . Aaron finished in 1st place at each of the Ultra Series "Triple Crown" of 200 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), 55 laps at Big Dog's Backyard World Team Championship, and rounded his year out with Feral Pig 100 miler. Aaron receives 42 points, just nudging ahead of Maree Connor (who also finished on 42 points) on a count-back 7th Place - Maree Connor (NSW) - 42 points Finishing in 7th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is NSW's Maree Connor. Maree had an outstanding year, achieving 2nd place with 221km (and an IAU Level 1 qualifier) at the IAU 24th Asian and Oceania Championships, 1st place at the Lakes Trail Festival 100km, 1st place with 67km at the Southern Sydney 6h race, and 1st place with 116km at the Narrabeen Allnighter 12h. Maree also competed at Spartathlon race this year (for which she contributed an article to the September Ultramag on her experience), receiving 42 points in the competition. 8th Place - Darren Linney (SA) - 41 points Finishing in 8th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is SA's Darren Linney . Darren completed 34 laps at No Time to Die BYU, 199km at the Adelaide 24h race, and 814km at the Australian 6 Day race, for a total of 1241km raced and 41 points . 9th Place - Tristan Cameron (WA) - 40 points Finishing in 9th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Tristan Cameron. Tristan completed the Ultra Series Triple Crown of 200 mile races (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), along with Feral Pig 100 miler, for a total of 1154km raced and 40 points. 10th Place - Jen Millum (WA) - 39 points Finishing in 10th place in the AUTRA 2024 Points Competition is WA's Jen Millum . Jen finished 1st at all three of the Ultra Series Trilogy of 100 milers (Delirious WEST, Irrational SOUTH and Unreasonable EAST), and was 2nd female with 35 laps at the Wild Dog Backyard Ultra. With a volunteer stint at the Yaberoo Trail Ultra, Jen finished the year with 39 points in the competition. To view the complete list of members who secured points in 2024 click here and then follow through to Points Summary under the 2024 tab. All winners have already been contacted, with cash prizes distributed for 1st - 7th places, and AUTRA Store vouchers sent for 8th, 9th & 10th.