Motivation in ultra-marathon runners In the ultramarathon run, the motivation of the athlete is one of the milestones, not only during the race, but also during the workouts, which are long and very exhausting. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between sports experience (expressed as the number of finishes in ultramarathons) and the motivational properties of ultramarathon runners. The Motivation of Marathoners Scale ‘examined the motivation of ultramarathon runners compared to long-haul runs with shorter distances (control group).Participants were 1,539 Polish runners, 382 women (24.7%) and 1,157 men (75.3%).The ultramarathon runners (n = 425, 26.7%) terminated at least one ultra-marathon, while the control group consisted of fovers shorter distance (n = 1.114, 72.3%). The ultra-marathon runners had higher values in affiliation, life meaning and lower in the areas of weighting, personal target achievement and self-esteem as runners in the control group. The number of completed ultra-marathons was negative with the personal target achievement, the competition and the recognition scale.The degree of training experience correlated negatively with the personal target achievement scale for all participants and with the self-value scale in the control group.
In summary, ultra-marathon runners had other motifs as runners with a shorter Rendistanz. These results should be considered by sports psychologists and other professionals to develop tailor-made interventions for ultra-marathon runners. The whole work can be found under https://www.dovepress.com/articles.php?article_id=43295