Are people pure explorers? Author and science journalist Alex Hutchinson tackled this query in his newest guide, “The Explorer’s Gene.” It has parallels to his 2018 guide, “Endure,” in addition to Dave Epstein’s “The Sports Gene,” all of which take into account the methods “nature” and “nurture” contribute to elite athletic efficiency.
Hutchinson’s latest guide incorporates historic and scientific analysis to clarify why, how, and to what profit we pursue new frontiers, of their many types. He provides private reflections on exploration, too, together with a household hike in Gros Morne National Park in Canada and a crew orienteering competitors he entered when he wanted a break — and a brand new problem — after years of blazing quick monitor and street operating.
As I learn the guide, I puzzled what number of path runners have comparable origin tales to Hutchinson. Ok, few of us have run 13:52 in the 5,000 meters. But lots of path runners have backgrounds in monitor and street operating earlier than in search of the novelty of new distances, elevation profiles, and terrain varieties.
For this month’s column, I took a pattern set of information from the DUV Ultra Marathon Statistics database to think about how path runners “discover” totally different occasions, distances, and race areas. Since Hutchinson, our inspiration right here, lives in Toronto, Canada, I used for my dataset the 232 finishers of the 2025 Sulphur Springs 100k, which takes place in the similar normal area of Canada (1). There are so some ways to discover as a path runner, so my give attention to race outcomes won’t seize how runners discover by means of coaching runs, operating adventures, or quickest identified time makes an attempt. Nor do I’ve a whole image of every individual’s expertise exterior of path operating. For instance, Canadian Olympian Krista DuChene was amongst the finishers of the 2025 Sulphur Springs 100k, however her street racing expertise isn’t captured in the DUV database.
Trends in the Dataset
I began by trying at the selection of race codecs that Sulphur Springs 100k finishers had collectively accomplished. The chart under reveals a range of the distances and codecs represented, although I excluded some area of interest distances that had solely been accomplished by a single particular person, resembling the Badwater 135 Mile or Transgrancanaria 128k. The runners have collectively explored a spread of distances, with 50-kilometer races being the hottest.
Chart Showing Event Breakdown by Distance
The bar chart above reveals the 232 finishers of the 2025 Sulphur Springs 100k collectively had the most finishes in 50k races, with 100k, 50-mile, and 100-mile distances being different in style choices.
Notably, 43 runners (18%) seemed to be exploring path operating and ultrarunning by means of the very act of finishing the Sulphur Springs 100k. For these runners, the Sulphur Springs 100k was their first or solely end in the DUV database, suggesting it was probably the first ultramarathon they accomplished.
Exploring was additionally evident in the geographic sense. Among the 232 runners in the dataset, 95 (41%) had raced out of the country. The most typical race areas exterior of Canada had been the United States and Europe. The U.S. was an unsurprising chief contemplating its proximity to Canada. Americans had been a large minority (13%) of the race finishers, so it tracks that different extremely finishes included lots of U.S. races.
The begin of the 2025 Lavaredo Ultra Trail, which is a well-liked European vacation spot race. Photo: UTMB World Series
Finally, my dataset signifies the 232 finishers had collectively accomplished 552 totally different occasions. This determine could also be inflated if any occasions modified their names over the years, but it surely nonetheless signifies these runners with multiple extremely end sought out some — or tons of — selection.
But, as I’ve stated earlier than, I’ve quite a bit of respect for runners who take a look at themselves by returning to the similar occasion greater than as soon as. Comparing our health towards earlier variations of ourselves may be one other model of exploring, and there have been Sulphur Springs finishers who seemingly share that view. A few examples I noticed in the information had been: Karen Holland, who has two finishes at the Diez Vista 100k; Mark Carey, who has two finishes at the Bromont Ultra 160k, and Jordan Bierema, who has run the Sulphur Springs 50k six instances and the race’s 100k occasion twice.
Unexpected Findings
Of course, as Hutchinson makes clear in his guide, exploration can take many types. It isn’t restricted to racing often, or in unique locales. As I see it, exploring can even seem like: Signing up on your first extremely, getting a DNF since you examined — and located — the limits of your endurance, returning to racing after time away, returning to the similar race to enhance upon your time, intentionally gaining expertise on new varieties of terrain, operating a brand new route, attempting to stick to a coaching plan when life will get loopy … the record goes on.
For me, the nice shock on this evaluation was seeing what number of runners discover trails inside their residence province or area with the occasional ultramarathon. It was a welcome counterweight to the FOMO and upward social comparability typically facilitated by social media. For instance, did it really feel to you want everybody was at the Western States 100 this 12 months? Well, most runners in my pattern dataset have by no means raced in the U.S. and 75% of these runners haven’t accomplished a 100 miler.
And does it really feel as if everybody else races typically, when your loved ones has to juggle the logistics of childcare so you may spend a day at a neighborhood race? In actuality, simply 12% of this 12 months’s Sulphur Springs 100k finishers common greater than two ultramarathons per 12 months, as the graph under signifies.
This is in keeping with “UltraRunning Magazine’s” 2024 participant statistics, which confirmed 51,573 runners had a mixed 68,228 ultramarathon finishes in North America — that works out to 1.32 finishes per runner, a determine that will enhance modestly when races on different continents are thought-about.
Chart Showing Average Ultra Finishes per Year, per Runner
Chart displaying the quantity of extremely finishes per 12 months logged by finishers of the 2025 Sulphur Springs 100k.
Does it really feel as if everyone seems to be racing internationally? Only a minority of runners in my dataset have accomplished so, and 32% of these runners are Americans who had traveled to Canada for this very race. Traveling for this established race (a Western States 100 qualifier), which takes place inside 100k of the U.S. border and the place the forex trade price favors Americans, has comprehensible enchantment for a quantity of American runners.
But even amongst the proportion of Canadian runners who’ve participated in ultramarathons internationally in earlier years, the quantity doing so in 2025 could also be decrease. I calculated the quantity of worldwide runners (and Canadians particularly) on the beginning record for a number of U.S. ultras in 2025, together with a quantity of the largest occasions in addition to occasions in states alongside the Canada-U.S. border. Canadian participation charges, and worldwide participation charges extra broadly, had been typically down from the earlier 12 months.
Canada’s Marianne Hogan striding out in the excessive nation at the 2025 Western States 100. Photo: iRunFar/Bryon Powell
Even in the 2022 survey outcomes for the Trail Ultra Project, runners with worldwide racing expertise had been in the minority at 29%, regardless of drawing from volunteer survey respondents, who had been extra more likely to be passionate ultrarunners, as assessed by their consciousness of and willingness to finish the survey (2).
Does it really feel as if everyone seems to be operating super-long races of 200 miles or extra? The thrilling media protection of the 2025 Cocodona 250 Mile actually elevated consciousness of these occasions, however they’re nonetheless very area of interest. Only six of the 1,927 race leads to our dataset had been for races of this format. Only 0.3% (505 of 145,186) of the North American extremely finishes recorded by “UltraRunning Magazine” for 2024 had been 200 milers (3).
Closing Thoughts
I believe path operating and ultrarunning are splendidly conducive to exploring new locations, new challenges, and our bodily and psychological limits. The information suggests I’m not the solely runner who feels this fashion. Looking at this month’s information set, we see there isn’t, nevertheless, a slim definition or single blueprint for easy methods to discover in the sport. The stunning and typically irritating factor is that we get to determine it out for ourselves.
Call for Comments
- If you’ve already learn Alex Hutchinson’s “The Explorer’s Gene,” what’s your tackle it?
- Does the information introduced right here replicate your personal expertise or observations at races?
- How do you discover, both inside or past the context of ultramarathon races?
Notes/References
- There could also be a couple of readers of this piece who will emphasize that Hamilton shouldn’t be half of Toronto, and subsequently take situation with me describing the race location as being in “the similar normal area” as Toronto. For these readers, please remember the fact that I dwell in Winnipeg, virtually midway throughout the continent. For me, if a race is inside a four-hour drive of the place you reside, it’s in your area.
- Source: https://www.trailultraproject.com/survey
- Source: https://ultrarunning.com/calendar/stats/ultrarunning-finishes