If a race does not have hills, a view, a course longer than 26.2 miles, or some form of epic challenge, it is not a race for Associate Professor of Economics Charles Steele.
His taste for ultramarathons developed in 1983 – the year he was supposed to run his first marathon. After the marathon was cancelled, Steele could not let his hard work and training go to waste. He read that if a runner was in shape to finish a marathon, running in an ultramarathon is not much different. So he ran his first ultramarathon and finished with only the experience of running ten mile road races under his belt.
Since then, Steele has competed in 32 ultramarathons and four marathons.
“You train for an ultra like you train for a marathon,” Steele said. “The long run is most important. I occasionally do a really long run, which for me is 15 to 20 miles. But never run 50 miles before the actual race.”
Pace, Steele said, is one of the most essential elements to successfully running an ultramarathon.
“My fastest 10 miles are the last 10 miles,” Steele said. “By the end, if you feel that you can go further, then you’ve properly paced yourself.”
Race day to Steele is just like any other training day. His mentality is to run like he does during training. For Steele, training consists of runs varying in distance and company.
“I’ve run with [Professor of Political Economy] Gary Wolfram and a few students,” he said. “I’ll train with friends, but it helps to train by yourself because you’ll do a long run yourself on the day of the race.”
Steele is currently training for three upcoming ultramarathons, all of which take place in Montana: The Elk Horn 50 mile, the Old Gabe in Bozeman, and the Le Grizz, which Steele has run 11 times.
“I once told Larry Arnn that they could hire me, but I’d be gone every second Saturday in October,” Steele said.
This year, Steele invited his History of Economic Thought students to join him on a run. Three accompanied him. Among them was senior Jack Hummel, an economics major.
“We ran nine miles,” Hummel said. “His dog, Chaos, came on the run with us.”
During the run, the group discussed miscellaneous subjects, from Steele’s favorite ancient artillery weapon – the atlatl, a throwing spear of sorts – to economic paper topics.
Although he typically runs 50-mile or 50k ultramarathons, Steele said he has run a 100-mile ultramarathon and would like to run one again in the near future.
“A 100-mile ultra is different than the shorter ones physically and mentally,” Steele said.
If he were to run the 100 mile ultra marathon of his choice, it would be the Hardrock 100 Endurance run in Colorado.
“It’s considered the toughest 100-miler. You never go below 9,000 or 10,000 feet and hit a 14,000 foot elevation,” Steele said. “If humans can cover it on foot, someone will try to make an ultramarathon of it.”
Steele’s other dream ultra marathon would be the Barkley Marathon 100-miler in Tennessee, which is also considered one of the hardest ultramarathons.
“It was designed to be impossible to finish, although people have finished the race,” he said.
Of the 900 people who have attempted the Barkley Marathon since the race began in 1986, 13 have finished.
According to Steele, these endurance events offer more than a mere endorphin kick. He said his participation in ultra marathons has taught him to have a strong mentality, in and out of the Montana wilderness.
“The key to finishing is R.F.M. — relentless forward motion,” Steele said. “I was in a tough Ph.D. program. I saw people finish and people who dropped out. Some of the people who dropped out were sometimes the smartest. But the people who kept going, those are the people who stayed.”
Rather than entering ultramarathons to win, he enters them because they are fun and “gripping,” due not only to the sheer accomplishment of running great distances in the wilderness, but because he relishes the opportunity to run alongside a supportive group of people, regardless if they are in front, staying with the pack, or holding up the rear.
“Ultimately you run to survive — to finish,” he said.