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TRIPLE CROWN
Imagine
an athlete that has run more than 100 ultramarathons. And
not just your average ultramarathons (defined as any race
over the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles), this guy
has:
Completed
116 Ultramarathons
Averaging over 100 miles each!
Would
you be impressed?
What
if we told you that ultramarathoning is not his only skill,
or the only area where he has excelled. What if we told you
that he is also a:
Record
setting adventure racer and
Seven
Summits mountaineer
It's
true! He's one of only three people in the world to have
competed in all 9 Eco Challenge adventure
races and has climbed the highest
peak on all seven continents, including Mount
Everest, all on first attempts!
Now
do we have your attention?
Marshall
Ulrich, 55, is the only person in the world to complete the
Triple Crown of Extreme Sports, defined as:
- Completing 100
or more ultramarathons, averaging over 100 miles each
- Completing 10
or more expedition-length adventure races
- Climbing each
of the 7 Summit (on first attempts, just for good measure)
It's
true. Marshall Ulrich is the only person in the world that
has achieved such amazing things in three extreme sports:
ultrarunning, adventure racing, and mountaineering. His specialty
is competing in extreme conditions including the scorching
heat of deserts and the cold, thin air of the world's highest
mountains.
Marshall
Ulrich truly is one of a kind, and does things according to
Marshall Law:
believing that the only limitations
are in your mind. And...
Nothing
limits Marshall!
Marshall
Ulrich has run more than 100 ultramarathons averaging 100
miles each
- 116 to date, for anyone who's counting. Hard to imagine,
isn't it?
Now
imagine that he has also set multiple records along the way,
including being the first - and often the only - person to
complete unimaginable ultrarunning feats. Things like being
the:
- Only
person to complete the Badwater
Quad – 584 miles
from Badwater to the top of Mount Whitney and back again,
twice – over 10 days. That's more than
four consecutive Badwater Ultramarathons, the 135-mile race
across Death Valley: the race dubbed as "The World's
Toughest Footrace" - since Marshall continued the additional
11 miles to the summit of Mount Whitney,
making each crossing 146 miles. And, he did it in July folks
(in fact, for his third leg of the Quad he competed in the
official Badwater Ultramarathon) so temperatures ranged
from over 120 degrees to below freezing.
- Only
person to finish the self-contained, unaided,
Badwater Solo
run pulling a 220-pound cart 146 miles from Badwater to
the top of Mount Whitney – 77 hours 46 minutes. The
cart contained everything he needed
for his crossing, including all of his water. He was truly
on his own out there!
- First
person to complete the
Death Valley Cup, finishing
the Badwater Ultramarathon in 33 hours 01 minutes plus the
Furnace Creek 508, the 508 mile bike ride through Death
Valley (yes... he's done some ultra-distance biking too!)
in 38 hours 31 minutes in the same summer.
- Only
person to ever complete the Leadville
Trail 100/Pikes Peak Marathon Combination
on the same weekend. That's right. He ran the Leadville
Trail 100 on Saturday into Sunday morning, then got a ride
over to Pikes Peak and did the marathon on Sunday. Total
elapsed time? Including the car ride? Only 36 hours
34 minutes!
- First
person to complete all 6 American 100 mile trail runs in
one year – finishing in the top 10 in 5 of the 6 races.
That's right. He ran Old Dominion, Western States, Vermont,
Leadville, Wasatch Front, and Angeles Crest... all in the
same season; with a total combined time of only
128:37:44
for all 6 ultramarathons.
-
Only person to complete the
Leadville Triple Crown,
completing the Leadville 100 mile
mountain bike, 100 mile run, and 100 mile kayak... on consecutive
weekends.
- First
person, along with his friend Scott Weber, to complete the
Quad Pikes Peak.
Yes, that's right. Four consecutive summits
of Pikes Peak. That's 104 miles, with 30,060 feet of elevation
gain. Oh... and just for good measure, he did it again the
following year.
Just
some of his ultramarathon records include:
- Record
four time winner Badwater Ultramarathon
(135 mile) desert race dubbed "The
world's toughest foot race"
- A
record 13 official finishes
of the Badwater 135, followed each
and every time by continuing on the 14,496-foot
summit of Mount Whitney, for a total of 146 miles. The "purest's"
(and some would say only) way to truly complete Badwater:
going from the lowest to the highest point in the lower
48 states.
- Record
Badwater 146 -
running across Death Valley from Badwater (minus 282 feet)
to the summit of Mount Whitney (14,496 feet) covering 146
miles – 33 hours 54 minutes
- A
record 19 crossings of Death
Valley
Oh...
and he's completed:
- 12
Leadville Trail 100 ultramarathons, with four top 10 finishes
and seven sub-24 hour buckles; and
- 5
Western States 100 ultramarathons, all of which were sub-24
hour buckle finishes
And...
did we mention that he was the 4th Place American at the Marathon
Des Sables in Africa, took 6th Place at the Iditafoot 100
mile footrace in Alaska, and was 28th at the Sahara Race in
Egypt? Of course, there's more... but you get the idea.
Based
on *just* these ultrarunning and ultramarathon accomplishments,
would you trust that Marshall Ulrich has the knowledge and
and experience to coach any runner? Even Olympians? Well...
Marshall is doing just that, and you can benefit from his
knowledge and experience by taking part in one of his training
camps, conducted along with his friend Lisa Smith-Batchen.
Check out the Training
Camps page to find out how you can join a camp
TODAY!
So...
now are you impressed with this athlete?
With his ultramarathon feats and records?
But
that really isn't everything about Marshall
Ulrich, the athlete. His ultrarunning accomplishments are
just the start. Now let's look at some of his amazing accomplishments
in adventure racing and mountaineering.
Marshall
started adventure racing in 1995 with the first ever Eco Challenge
adventure race, held in the desert and along the rivers of
Utah. He went on to compete
in all 9 of the Eco Challenge adventure races,
something only two other people in the world have done.
Marshall
has also competed in the Raid Gauloises, Primal Quest, Expedition
BVI, and the Adrenaline Rush. All told, Marshall has competed
in 16 expedition-length adventure races.
Here's
a list of Marshall's 12 official
finishes in expedition-length adventure races.
Marshall
also completed the entire course as an unranked finisher at
his first adventure race, the 1995 Eco Challenge Utah. He
was also a participant at the 2002 Raid Gauloises, Vietnam;
1996 Eco Challenge British Columbia, Canada; and the 1996
Extreme Games, Mexico.
To
read more about Marshall's adventure racing career as a founder
of member of the Stray Dogs Adventure Racing team, see the
Team
Stray Dogs Web page.
In
less than
3 years - from June 16, 2002 through March 10, 2005 - Marshall
completed mountaineering's the Seven Summits. He was fortunate
enough to be able to reach the summit of the highest peak
on each of the seven continents all on first attempts.
Here is a chronicle of Marshall's Quest
for the Seven Summits.
- Denali
– 20,320-feet, highest point in North America, June 16,
2002 – Alaska, USA
- Aconcagua
– 22,840-feet, highest point in South America, February
1, 2003 – Argentina (via the normal route - climb in 2007
planned for the Polish Glacier)
- Kilimanjaro
– 19,340-feet, highest point in Africa, July 2, 2003 – Tanzania
(he summited again in 2006)
- Mount
Everest – 29,035 feet, highest point in Asia/the world,
May 25, 2004 – north side, Tibet
-
Mount Elbrus – 18,481 feet, highest point in Europe, June
14, 2004 – Russia (you read it right - he summited Elbrus
less than 3 weeks after Everest!)
- Mount
Vinson – 16,067 feet, highest point in Antarctica, January
12, 2005 – Antarctica (with wind chill temperatures -70°
F - burr!)
- Mount
Kosciusko –
7,310 feet, highest point in Australia, March 10, 2005 –
Australia
Yes, yes... we know.
Some people consider 16,023-foot Carstensz Pyramid in Irian
Jaya (or Papua), Indonesia to be the 7th summit. That holds
true if you look at the "Australia/Oceania continent,"
and consider the Indonesian islands as a part of that "continent."
So... just to make sure all of the critics are satisfied...
Yes,
yes... Marshall is planning on climbing
the Pyramid, too. In fact, he's working on putting together
a guided trip to Carstensz Pyramid in October 2007 to finish
the Seven Summits, CP list. See the Mountain
Guiding page for more information on this possible
guided climb.
Marshall
has also climbed:
-
Mount Blanc – 15,774 feet, highest point in western Europe,
July 9, 2006 – France
-
Mexican Volcanoes – Orizaba (18,490 feet), Ixta (17,159
feet), and Toluca (15,390 feet), guided (by Marshall) October
2005
– Mexico
- Mount
Tronador – 11,722 feet, as part of the 1999 Eco Challenge
Patagonia - Argentina
- Mount
Whitney – 14,494-feet, 14 times; 13 times after running
135 miles across Death Valley – California
Other
high altitude experience includes biking and trekking at 17,000
feet in the Himalayas as a part of the 2000 Raid Gauloises
in Nepal and Tibet, as well as a 100-mile state race in the
Himalayas of India.
Marshall
has climbed 15 of Colorado's "14ers" (mountains
over 14,000 feet) and frequently runs up and down some of
the 14ers, in particular Pikes Peaks and Grays, as training
runs. Now that he lives at 10,400 feet, a 3-hour run out his
back door over to 13,294-foot James Peak - over St. Mary's
glacier into the beautiful James Peak Wilderness area - is
a common and well loved experience.
Marshall
has applied the knowledge he gained on these mountains, which
was built upon more than 20 years of ultrarunning and 10 years
of adventure racing (this guy knows how to take care of himself
- and others!), to guide clients on mountains around the world.
He truly enjoys helping other achieve their goals.
To
find out more about Marshall's guiding services
see the Mountain
Guiding page
Marshall
also uses all of his athletic experiences - and life experiences
- as an almost unlimited source of adventure material to drive
his motivational speeches. To learn more about how to hire
Marshall to speak at your next event, see the Speaking
Engagements page.
Marshall's
exploits have been covered by the national press for more
than 20 years, and have been a source of exciting material
for Marshall's own published stories. See the Publications
page to learn more, including information about his upcoming
book:
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