An ultramarathon is a footrace longer than the traditional marathon distance of 42.195 kilometres. The sport of running ultramarathons is called ultra running or ultra distance running.
Dean Karnazes, is an American ultramarathon runner, and author of Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of an All-Night Runner, which details ultra endurance running for the general public.
The Badwater Ultramarathon is a 135-mile (217 km) ultramarathon race starting at −282 feet (−86 m) below sea level in the Badwater Basin, in California's Death Valley, and ending at an elevation of 8,360 feet (2,550 m) at Whitney Portal, the trailhead to Mount Whitney. It takes place annually in mid-July when the weather is the most extreme and temperatures can reach 130 °F (54 °C) during the day at Badwater Basin.
Scott Gordon Jurek is an American ultramarathoner, author, and public speaker. Throughout his running career, Jurek was one of the most dominant ultramarathon runners in the world, winning the Hardrock Hundred (2007), the Badwater Ultramarathon, the Spartathlon, and the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run (1999–2005). In 2010, at the 24-Hour World Championships in Brive-la-Gaillarde, France, Jurek won a silver medal behind Shingo Inoue and set a new US record for distance run in 24 hours with 165.7 miles. In 2015, Jurek set the Fastest Known Time running record for the 2,189-mile Appalachian Trail.
Pamela J. Reed is an American ultrarunner who resides in Tucson, Arizona and Jackson, Wyoming.
Multiday races are ultramarathon running events which are typically either segmented into daily events of a specified distance or time, or staged so that runners can run as far as they want, at their own discretion, over a set course or over a set number of days. Multiday races can range from continuous 48-hour track events to staged transcontinental treks.
Raymond Zahab, is a Canadian long-distance runner and public speaker. He has run in long-distance running adventures in several countries, including the South Pole, Siberia, and the Atacama Desert in Chile. He crossed the Sahara with Charlie Engle, (USA) and Kevin Lin (Taiwan).
Marshall Ulrich is an American ultramarathon runner and mountaineer. He holds distinctions in several sports: he has completed 124 ultra marathons averaging over 100 miles each, has climbed the tallest summit on each continent, a feat known as the seven summits, and has finished 12 expedition-length races in adventure racing.
Fergus (‘Ferg’) Hawke is an international ultra-distance runner, residing in South Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.
William Morley Sichel is a British long-distance runner.
David Goggins is an American retired United States Navy SEAL. He is also an ultramarathon runner, ultra-distance cyclist, triathlete, public speaker, author of two memoirs, and was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame for his achievements in sport. Goggins was also awarded the VFW Americanism award in 2018 for his service in the United States Armed Forces. Goggins also published a New York Times Best Seller book titled Can't Hurt Me: Master Your Mind and Defy the Odds.
Ákos Kónya is a Hungarian ultramarathon runner from Oceanside, California.
Amy Palmiero-Winters is a below-knee amputee, long-distance runner, and triathlete. She holds eleven world records in various events. In 2010, she was awarded the James E. Sullivan Award as the top amateur athlete in the United States and the ESPN ESPY Award as the top female athlete with a disability in the world.
Valmir Nunes is a Brazilian runner. A former world record holder, he currently holds South American and Brazilian Ultramarathon records.
Arun Bhardwaj is an ultramarathon runner from New Delhi, India. In 2009, he won the 567 km George Archer 6 day race in South Africa. In December 2010, he ran 186.4 kilometres (115.8 mi) in 24 hours in Kolkata, India and thus beat his previous best of running 177 km in 24 hours.
Eleanor Robinson is a British former ultramarathon runner and two-time winner of the IAU 100km World Championships. She was the first woman to run over 150 miles in a 24-hour endurance race. She was the winner of the first Badwater Ultramarathon in 1987. She was twice bronze medallist at the IAU 100 km European Championships.
Harvey Sweetland Lewis is an American ultrarunner.
Gerald Tabios is a Filipino long-distance runner and Ultramarathon runner. Among his most notable races in the United States is the Badwater Ultramarathon. This is an annual race that stretches 135 miles through Death Valley, California in July and ends after a steep climb of Mount Whitney. In the world of Ultramarathons this race, where temperatures often reach 130 °F, is frequently coined "The Toughest Foot Race in the World." Tabios is a 8-time Badwater 135 finisher.
Dion Leonard is an Australian/British endurance athlete and ultramarathon runner, motivational speaker, and author of New York Times Bestseller Finding Gobi, the non-fiction memoir of his story of his dog, Gobi, who ran 77 miles of a 155-mile race across the Gobi Desert. Leonard who grew up in Warwick, Queensland before moving to the U.K. started running in 2013 and has already achieved numerous top 10 finishes in ultra races around the world in the most extreme conditions. Leonard has not only competed in but completed some of the world's toughest ultra running races across the most inhospitable landscapes.
The Moab 240 is an annual ultramarathon in Utah.
