The best Ultra marathon runners?

Hi all,

  Might be a bit of a hard question to answer. Firstly who is the best Ultra Marathon runner or runners in the world and who is top of the tree in the UK?

Just with the Olympics coming up we will see who is the best in their chosen sport, but Ultra marathon racing is a bit different. I'm not even sure what criteria would make you the best?? Most races won in a year or won the most difficult race or won the furthest race possible?. When Googled the name I kept getting was Scott Jurek (Same chap from born to run) . But I was wondering if in the UK we had somebody who is pretty decent and perhaps their name keeps popping up again and again when certain events are mentioned. Just curious as to who these amazing athletes are.

Any help appreciated

trouble is that there are so many different types of race. Road, off road, track. 12 hour, 24 hour 48 hour. Different people seem to favour different types of race. For instance, I help a GB runner who is great on the road and track but is not so good off road mainly because he has developed and ultra shuffle that isnot suited to uneven ground.

For the UK the names Mark Hartell, Jez Bragg, Sharon Gaytor and Lizzie Hawker come to mind. i'm suer there are others that people can think of.

Thanks Podro, I know it was a bit of a difficult question. It's just a difficult sport to find out about. Its good to have people to find inspiration from etc

Listen to ultratalk podcast to hear who is winning what, lots of good tips too.

Dont ask you dont get well done Jeremy appreciate that

mimmi definately...for Europe, Anna frost, Kilian. US  , Dakota jones....

..oh and Seb Chaigneau and Fernanda Maciel...

Didn't mean to be flippant TV, just seems to be so many good runners at the moment it's hard to list, Varies according to type of race/terrain and distance. It's good to see European runners are taking on the US in the big race over there.
Others Ellie Greenwood, Ian Sharman. Mike Wardian, Joe Grant, Anna Trason, Karl Meltzer, Anton Krupicka., Hal Koerner...plus Mike Morton just won Badwater - missed course record by 1 minute!
However the people that inspire me are the ordinary ones (eg Arthur Webb who just did Badwater aged 70!!) that are out there 20-30 hrs plus as while I can admire someone doing a 100 miler at 7-8 min/mile pace I can't relate to it!!

Debbie Martin Consani. New women's record at the GUCR and first overall. And she just seems to constantly be getting better too.

Have been listening to the podcasts. A really nice revelation for me as its more exposure to the ultra world. Every little helps. True JG I know what you mean. Real life people doing extraordinary things. But to have an idea who the top bods are gives me at least a little more knowledge about the ultra running world

Womble -  gee thanks - but 'runner' is a bit of a misnomer.