54-Mile ‘Grueling’ Ultramarathon Should Have Some Insane Views of the Catskills
It looks like we'll have some decent weather in and around the Hudson Valley this weekend. If you're hitting the hiking trails in the Catskills, here's a heads up: there's an ULTRAMARATHON going on this weekend.
Because I would never want to accidentally get caught in any kind of marathon, I thought we should probably share this 54-mile event going on throughout the Catskills.
For those who are curious like I was, an Ultramarathon according to Wikipedia is " is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of 42.195 kilometers."
Manitou's Revenge is a 54-mile Ultra Marathon that I never knew about until today. The ultramarathon runs through the Catskill mountains starting in Windham and continues through the ups and downs of the northern Black Dome Trail and finishing up on the Long Path from Acra Point and ending in downtown Phoenicia.
The Manitou's Revenge blog describes this ultramarathon as "a grueling, gnarly, nasty course with approximately 15,000 ft. of climbing, much of it rocky and precipitous." Sounds fun!
You really need to have what it takes to get through this incredibly difficult marathon. The website explains:
Expect this course to take you much longer than your average 50 miler. That’s why we are allowing 23 hrs. to complete this monster. Because of its remote and difficult nature, there will of necessity be a limited number of aid stations, only 9, and runners should be prepared to spend up to 3 or 4 hrs between aid stations. You will have to be reasonably self-sufficient. To make matters worse, the course gets progressively more difficult as you go along! And to top it all off, the average runner will have to tackle this hardest terrain in the dark.
Is it just me or does this sound more like The Amazing Race/Survivor rather than a marathon?
Which has me thinking, they should totally film this as a reality television series.
To those taking part in Manitou's Revenge Ultramarathon: Good luck! Please stay hydrated and safe. Also, better you than me. I don't think I would make it past the starting line with all those warnings.
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