Ultra_Tales_Issue_13

RUNNERS PROFILEFRANK WOMELSDORFFrank Womelsdorf tells us about his introduction to Ultra marathonWhat is your running background?I’ve been doing athletics since I was about 12,trying everything from decathlon to 800m but as Igot older settled on distance running and steadilymoved up from half marathons to marathons andnow ultras.FrankWomelsdorfTwitter@F_WoWhen did you first start running Ultras andwhy?I ran my first ultra in 2013 (Round the Rock, Jersey48mile) because I wanted to do somethingdifferent from road running and was quite curiousabout this “ultra running” thing that everybodyseemed to be talking about.When or where (at which events) are we mostlikely to meet you?You’ll most likely see me running around SWLondon or doing Three Parks on Wednesdays withmy fellow Serpies.What are your personal key runningachievements to date?Finished my first 100k race in 2014 (Race to theStones) in just over 13 hours, ran a sub 3 hourmarathon in April 2014What was your best result or best raceexperience?The best experience was when on the last fewmiles of my first ultra I suddenly realized that if Itried, I could still run reasonably well. First lessonin how important the mind is in ultras.What was your hardest race experience?My 100k debut this year, another good learningexperience: not taking care of wet feet made for avery painful hobble in the second half of that race.What are your future Ultra Marathon runningambitions?I guess like most people, I’m fascinated by some ofthe big races around the world (Western States,Spartathlon, GUCR) but these are still very distantgoals for me, so for next year I want to run my first100miler (TP100) as well as the UltimateTrails 110krun in the Lake District.What/when is your next event?Not sure yet, probably either Country to Capital inJanuary or Thames Trot 50 in February.32 ULTRA TALES | OCTOBER 2014Sponsored by thehttp://