Yes – it is real. And it does not feel very good. Especially after prime events with a lot of emotions involved both before and during the race the emptiness afterwards can be universal. If this hits in a challenging phase in life, the combination is obscure and of unreal intensity.
What should have been glorious days full of joy in light of the achievement feels like an exhaustive roller coaster. The usual go-to relief to the day-to-day challenges feels no longer easy and free but like a strange burden. Even after the body successfully finished the recovery the ease of running does not return. The emotions left out on the trails seem to be drained and gone without return. It feels strange to even think about covering a substantial distance. Why would one want to even think about it. It has been done, it has been completed and that chapter seems to be finished. It feels like digging too deep into something – everyone knows that causes trouble.
Science started to explain, to understand and to provide guidance but most articles do not fully cover the point. The closest is this article with the following section about the emotions.
I feel seen.
It´s a process – it always has been. The blues does come in different flavors and intensities. And yes, the time will heal and finally, after what feels like ages this time, the emotions will return. The joy of running will be back, the light-hearted strives through the surroundings will feel complete again.
Let’s hope it happens before the next race starts.
Since 2016 there have been 823 attempts at the Legends Trail events from 442 runners leading to 320 finishes (total finish rates = 38.9%). Out of the 442 runners 53 (12%) have been female – the finish rate of male (39.2%) and female (36.3%) is almost identical.
Amongst the finisher there are 62 athletes (14%) with more than one finish. Out of these multiple finishers there are 28 with no DNF at all – the 100%ers. These 100%ers have 2 (16 runners; 3.6%), 3 (5 runners, 1.1%), 4 (3 runners, 0.7%) or 5 (4 runners, 0.9%) finishes. On the other end of things there are athletes not being able to finish a Legends Trail at all – the 0%ers. There are 44 runners (10%) with 2 DNFs, 16 runners (3.6%) with 3 DNFs, 6 runners (1.4%) with 4 DNFs, one runner (0.2%) with 5 DNFs and lastly 2 runners (0.5%) with 6 DNFs and no finish.
Between both of these extremes a whole bunch of scenarios unfold underlining the serious fight of lots of athletes with this race. There are 19 runners (4.3%) who started with a DNF followed by one finish. That seems to be a group desperately wanting the LT in their books but one finish is all they came for. 12 runners (2.7%) returned after 1 DNF and 1 finish to LT only to DNF again (and eventually add more DNFs/finishes) – they seemed to hold on to this beautiful run although its not going to end well each time. 11 runners (2.5%) finished more than once IN A ROW after their first DNF (some added some DNFs afterwards as well). A reasonable big group of 18 runners (4.1%) finished their first LT and DNFed their second and leaving it with that – quite understandable. Some runners (17, 3.8%) however decided to return after the first finish and the DNF in the second LT to add more DNFs/finishes to their LT history. There are 7 runners (1.6%) who finished the LT after 2 initial DNFs (and some added more runs after that). No runner starting with 3 or more DNFs ever finished a LT. Lastly there are heartbreaking stories of runners with DNFs after 3 consecutive finishes and the one story we all witnessed in 2024 with a DNF after 7 finishes.
The finish % averages as well as the veteran and novice finish %s of all editions of the Legends Trail can be found below.
With a prolonged Legends Trail from 2026 onwards a new set of data will be generated. It probably does not make sense to combine both data sets. So that’s that.
If you can’t follow your heart – follow the numbers!
You may have trained well. You may have struggled with getting those miles in. You may feel very well prepared. You may feel weak and stupid for your decision to start. You may feel rather calm because you think you know what’s coming. You may freak-out for the 100 reasons of DNF awaiting you. Your life may have been cumbersome the last months, stressing you out. You may have found your inner balance and focus. You may be well-rested and relaxed. You may be filled with doubts.
There may be thousands of differences between us until that very moment. The moment of race start. The moment equalizing all those differences.
It may be an advantage to be well trained, rested and calm. It may be that your stress vanishes at the very moment of start. It may be that your stress haunts you for the whole race. It may be that the sun is shining. It may be that the weather is a serious issue. It may be that the course is too difficult to handle this time. It may be that things out of your control will end your race. It may be that no matter how well prepared you are it won’t fit. It may be that your best is not good enough. It may be that you find out that you are capable of so much more.
Whatever was, is or will happen – we are in it together. What unites us is the vague vision of reaching the finish line in time. Whatever may attempt to stop us, has to be defeated.
A random group of internet folks (including myself) found Endurance Score on our Garmin watches. We figured that it could be interesting and started to monitor to try to understand what it does, how it „thinks“ about life and the bigger picture and ultimately to use it to make fun of each other.
As science seems to be ignoring this important topic
the following summarizes our findings of our carful data evaluation.
Note 1: data were recored on 2x Enduro 3, 1x Enduro 2 (the expensive one) and 1x Fenix 7X (which randomly restarts every 20 km which takes around 2 min). The E-Scores of us are between 7500 and 8500 Note 2: all of the below is 100% true Note 3: we have a reference group (2x Enduro 3) with E-Scores of around 9500 and they are better runner without a doubt. So the score works.
There you go:
The E-Score takes a random amount of points from you every day. Probably to remind you that the word endurance originates from the verb „to grind„. Its a circle, not an arc!
Once you start to focus on the E-Score it will rise for a certain amount of time. (To give you some initial reward)
Soon after the E-Score will plateau around a number specific to you. Factors influencing this number comprise but are not limited to the following:
the weather forecast at your location
the amount of push-ups you do before going to bed
your BMI
the color of your eyes
the amount of running shoes you have
your favorite soccer club
the number of pets you have
whether or not your tinder profile is up-to-date
the number of followers on your LinkedIn profile
wether or not you wear pants while working
The E-score acknowledges if you follow a structured Garmin training plan: if you do all those stupid threshold, VO2, recovery and long-runs and score all of them at 100% training fulfillment you may not lose points. If you however score 99% or less on one of them you have a problem.
It seems that you gain some extra points if you open the daily push message on your watch from Garmin on X within the first 10 seconds while training. Nasty little insights into the rabbit whole. Garmin usually twitters between 7 and 8 p.m. CET.
The internet says the E-score acknowledges long runs. That is part of the truth. If you do them in min 50% HR zone 3 it may be true – if you stay below that you lose points no matter of the distance.
The E-score acknowledges the olympic distance (100 mile +) with a fixed amount of around 200 points straight away.
If that activity took you more than 24h and if it was an easy course the E-score is reduced by 100 points straight after the first sleep after the run. It feels like winning the lottery with the numbers from last week.
If you end up with a double digit recovery time after a run – don’t even try to run. Try to lower your recovery time. To do so any recorded activity (the longer and the more often the better) EXCEPT running will help. The following list of activities is sorted starting with the most beneficial impact on recovery time reduction. If the activity type is not on the first page in your list you may as apply the suggested type given in (brackets):
Doing the dishes (Cardio), reading a book (Cardio), declare your taxes (Weight Lifting), Pickle Ball, Wingsuite, Sex (Rope Jumping), Chess (Deep Breathing), Yoga, Pilates, doing SOME drugs (Apnea Diving), Mountaineering, Fishing, Hunting, Indoor Rowing, MMA, Lacrosse, Cycling and Swimming.
The only thing to ultimately boost your E-Score is daily (better 2-3 times a day) training between 15-300 km at HR zones 3-5. We have data to support this (not ours of course).
If you surround yourself with folks with a higher endurance score it must be something great going on. If them happen to be your friends – even better. If you end up in the middle of the night at Baraque Michel: perfection. Admittedly, we asked ourselves for a brick of a second: are we really standing up from that comfy table in the warm indoors and drive all the way up there to end up in the wet and cold marshes? Well – it was worth the decision. As always. 50 miles in the Ardennes in cool but calm conditions. The iceberg. Le basin. The most amazing café break close to dusk. The full-adrenaline first daylight hours. The relentless-endless Fagnes. We did not miss those conditions at all and yet we missed it immensely.
The rest of the weekend was well spent with the one runner I shared the most km with. After years we finally had the chance to enjoy some recovery running together which for that matter never happened before in the last decade. Time to enjoy „our“ forest while discussing ultra. Guess we never came so close to expressing what ultra ultimately means for us and about the various paths to get there. And if it’s worth the suffering along those lines. And what suffering means. And if the ultimate state of mind while running can be reached, or not. And what we would want to await us there. And if it’s wise to aim for that after all.
Thanks all – lets keep adding such weekends to our agenda!
Viel haben wir im Team miteinander geschrieben im Vorfeld – am Samstag sehen wir uns endlich persönlich. Nur um uns ab 1400 deutscher Zeit dem Backyard-Format zu unterwerfen. Eintauchen in hoffentlich endloses Rundendrehen. Ein großer Dank geht schon jetzt raus an unseren Host vom TSV Katzwang 05 – super Vorbereitung, uns wird es an nichts fehlen.
Weltweit sind 63 Länder am Start – mit den jeweils 15 besten Läufern im Backyard Ultra Format der letzten 2 Jahren (August 2022 bis August 2024) des jeweiligen Landes. Insgesamt über 900 Athleten starten zur gleichen Zeit in 63 unterschiedlichen Rennen. Es muss ein Fest werden als Zuschauer.
Hier ist Team Germany 2024:
Team GER 2024
Wenn Ihr nicht vertraut seid mit dem Format – hier ist eine sehr gute Erklärung vom belgischen Backyard Ultra Account:
Für die Zahlen/Statistik-Fetischisten – hier ist Euer Link. Alle Backyard Ultra Zahlen zusammengefasst. Vermutlich sogar mit einigen Live-Updates während der WM. Einfach faszinierend. Team GER liegt vor dem Rennen auf Platz 14 – hoffentlich ist diese Platzierung nach dem Event eine besser!
Für mich persönlich geht es darum die Zeit zu genießen. Und danach noch ein wenig weiter zu machen. Ziele gibt es nicht in diesem Format. Obwohl: eine PB im Backyard, eine PB was den längsten Lauf angeht (281 km) und ach – warum nicht – eine Quali fürs Team 2026 wären schön. Nur wie viele Runden Letzteres bedeutet ist ja mehr als ungewiss. Also: immer weiter!
Viel Spaß beim Verfolgen – sowas hat es in der Größe noch nicht gegeben. Ein Format aus der Hölle erobert die Ultra-Welt. Bald wird es die echten Lauf-Rekorde auf der ganz langen Distanz gefährden, wer hätte das für möglich gehalten.
Weniger als 3 Wochen dann geht es auch schon wieder los. Die letzten Tage ungebremsten Laufens stehen an bevor es ruhig werden wird. Bevor der Atem angehalten wird; tief Luft geholt wird – nur um am 19.10.2024 um 1400 möglichst ausgeruht, fit und mental gewappnet am Start zu stehen.
Für die Backyard World Team Championship gibt es eine Qualifikationsperiode von 2 Jahren (August 2022 bis August 2024 für diese WM) in der sämtliche Leistungen aller Läufer in offiziellen Backyard Ultra Läufen weltweit gesammelt werden um dann nach Ende der Qualifikation nach Staatsangehörigkeit sortiert gelistet werden. Die Listen der aktuell abgelaufenen Quali sind hier einzusehen. Die Top 15 einer jeden Nation dürfen bei den WTC starten – jede Nation in ihrem Land – alle starten zur gleichen vollen Stunde. Die Ergebnisse wurden 2022 in einem großen Google Sheet von den jeweiligen Länderchefs eingegeben und waren damit live verfolgbar – so wird es dieses Jahr sicher wieder sein.
Das deutsche Team läuft dieses Jahr in Nürnberg unter der Schirmherrschaft des TSV Katzwang 05. Die Planungen im Hintergrund laufen auf Hochtouren und schon jetzt gilt es Danke sagen für die Mühen des Orga-Teams welches unser Team in diesem Jahr bestmöglich versorgt und supported wissen will. Alle Infos zum Wettkampf, zum Team und allem Drumherum werden hier gesammelt:
Es lohnt sich sicherlich auch den Instagram-Accounts bu_sattelite_de und pfadsucher_com zu folgen um immer mit den neuesten Updates versorgt zu werden.
Wenn ich mir den Bericht vom Lauf 2022 so anschaue kommen wunderbare Erinnerungen hoch. Zwar waren wir damals am Rand der Pandemie in einem im Umbau befindlichen Stadion in Kandel beheimatet und doch war es trotz dieser Umstände ein wunderbares Erlebnis als Team zusammenzufinden und zu versuchen sich untereinander zu stützen, zu supporten, zu pushen und für jeden das Beste an diesen Tagen herauszuholen. Die 33 Runden der Team WM 2022 konnte ich nur ein einziges Mal toppen – PB mit 36 Runden beim Legends Backyard in Belgien im April 2024 – und so gilt es dieses Mal erneut zu versuchen eine neue PB zu erlaufen. Die Möglichkeiten in diesem Format sind unglaublich schwer zu ergründen. Die Mischung aus Einfachheit die plötzlich umschlägt in extreme Härte ist schwer zu fassen. Läufer mit schneller Grundgeschwindigkeit sind eindeutig im Vorteil – da mir das verwehrt ist, bleibt mir nur so ’schlau‘ und energiesparend im Wettkampf zu verharren und zu warten – darauf dass das Ende nicht kommen möge, darauf dass die Zeit ohne zu sehr an mir zu nagen einfach an mir vorbeiziehen möge.
Das deutsche Team dieses Jahr erscheint mir eine höchst interessante Mischung aus Läufern und Läuferinnen aus den unterschiedlichsten Richtungen der Langdistanzwelt zu sein. Ich freue mich sehr darauf die Neuen persönlich kennen zu lernen und die Altbekannten endlich wieder live zu erleben. Allein das wird ein Fest. Mein Support wird mit Michael vom Biber Backyard Ultra jemand sein der das Format kennt und liebt und der schon beim Legends Backyard in Belgien wunderbar supported hat. Auch als es dort kritisch wurde konnten wir uns soweit verständigen und über meine Unleidlichkeit hinweg sehen, dass ich immer pünktlich auf die Runde kam – das werden wir in Nürnberg weiter perfektionieren. Über allem steht die Aufgabe Deutschland in der Nationenwertung so weit wie möglich nach vorne zu laufen und einen würdigen Sieger unseres Teams zu küren der zur Einzel-WM im kommenden Jahr in Tennessee antreten darf.
In diesem Sinne: stay tuned über die oben genannten Kanäle!
What a perfect time Late Summer Breeze floating the surrounding A whisper of summer warmth, of joy, of carelessness Drinks with friends til late at night – a mild and colorful high Dark moments remain forgotten All those 5k runs feel like flying in blazing haze
Ever so slightly the days start to shorten The returning breath of darkness makes you shiver Sometimes the shiver seems to creep into you Waking up unpleasant and dark memories Memories you though were gone for good Memories which feel vague and yet quite real
Memories of never-ending darkness Memories of trails too faint to follow in front of blurry eyes Memories of the wet and the cold and the shivering Memories of good friends quitting while you couldn’t help Memories of overwhelming hopelessness Memories of endless hours of mere stumbling Memories of pale faces on wet stones Memories of trees which turn into shelter and back to trees with you approaching Memories of unconscious brave individual wandering around without orientation Memories of longing for pain to stay awake Memories of pain and yet falling asleep while walking Memories of flashing green and blue LEDs on one of your shoulder
The undoable task to set the mind up once more is ahead No hope, no glory phrases, no strong emotion will survive the misery Those returning from out there may have their secret reasons Unspoken forces which made them tolerate the task
Lets meet at the tree down by the lake Where the reflections are superior Many passed this place – very few recognized The beauty of this spot
Best time to be there is when the sun is about to set A cold breeze from the water Cools down the heat of the day Welcomes the night with all her despair
Best time to be there is when the night is at height When the pale moon is reflected In the black and smelly surface Tricking the fools to believe it is solid ground
Best time to be there is when the sun is about to rise When the tree stands as a statue In front of the appearing marshes While vague blue endlessness reveals behind the lake
Best time to be there is when the sun is at height When the gleaming sunbeams Are reflected by a light breeze of wind Turning the lake into millions of diamonds
Lets meet at the tree down by the lake With those who treasure the marshes With those who value the void With those fascinated by the beyond
It was late 2009 when I moved to Aachen. This was two years after my first and fastest Marathon on the 13.05.2007 (3h21m). Coming from handball and cycling races I was afraid enough to actually train for that first marathon back in 2007. I came to Aachen to finish my studies here and well – stayed. I started to log my running km electronically in 2010, ran a few more Marathons the next years (Rurtal, Hamburg, Düsseldorf, Norderney, Monschau, Jungfrau, Saarbrücken) and then met Helmut and came in contact with the LTB Aachen running club in 2012. While continued to run Marathons I learned that there is more. The group run Rund um Aachen 2013 (63k) opened a whole new world. Running, eating and fun were combined.
2014 started with more group runs (Limburgs Halfzwaare from Willem M.) and it escalated in my first official „ultra“ (Rennsteig Supermarathon; 72k) in May 2014. I also met Björn as well as Stefan Vilvo in 2014 – this should change things dramatically. It opened the door to endless hours in the Eifel and Greater Aachen Area. No trail was too blocked, no mud was too deep and no river was safe from us anymore. I came in contact with Olne-Spa-Olne – another run that can change perspectives. In 2015 we started to create with the „matschige Aachen Marathon“ aka mAMa our own interpretation of a Marathon in Aachen – and should host not less than 9 mAMa runs (10 if you count the lonely „Race Director Edition“ during Corona) from 2015 til 2024. But it didn’t stop there. I ran my first 100ks in 2015 (Limburgs Zwaarste and soon after WHEW) and after that it just continued – too many runs to mention them all. The first 100 mile-attempt took place during the 24h run in Iserlohn in 2016 (148k) and was then finally completed at the TorTour de Ruhr 2016 (Arnsberg-Duisburg; 100 mi).
By sheer luck I saw and followed a really strange live-tracking page of an event on FB in 2016 and contacted the RDs Maarten and Marek end of 2016/beginning 2017 to learn more about that strange thing. I tried their LEO180 in 2017: a hopeless, pathetic and unsuccessful attempt – but one which left a deep mark and opened the book to another dimension of running. We watched the Yiannis Kouros „Forever Running“ documentary on YouTube the evening before that 2017 LEO180 and M&M mentioned a famous run called Legend Trails – and that this would be the real thing. It sounded strange, abstracted and way beyond my possibilities. It was the most tiny spark imaginable that was ignited that November 2017 but nevertheless that fire started to burn and grew over the next 7 years.
The stories have been written and are all preserved on this page. What a ride it was. Endless stories about endlessness – about what happens beyond the possible. Life finally started to change in 2023 and after exactly 15 years the time in Aachen will end in 2024. Time to run those trails one last time; time to say goodbye to the Eifel, to the Ardennes and to Hautes Fagnes – I owe them a lot.
