For University of Guelph biologist Steve Newmaster, “shelter in place” during the COVID-19 pandemic has meant holing up in a series of mountain cabins in the American southwest since March.

But the avid trail runner is hardly stuck indoors or alone. Tongue-in-cheek, he says physical distancing is easy to do when you’re among 100 ultramarathon runners spread out over a 50-kilometre race route.

Besides continuing his research, which these days involves helping to develop diagnostic test kits for the novel coronavirus, Newmaster is training and competing in trail races consisting of half marathons and ultramarathons (anything longer than the standard 42k marathon).

Typically drawing competitors from all over the world, these events force entrants to endure weather extremes, elevation challenges and rugged terrain.

Race organizers this spring have taken precautions for COVID-19, including limiting entrants, staggering starting times and providing handwashing facilities at food and water stations en route.

In mid-March, Newmaster ran the Antelope Canyon half-marathon in the Arizona desert. Covering 21 kilometres in two hours, 42 minutes, he finished fourth in his age category.

When the pandemic curtailed travel, he decided to stay in the area, where he could continue to collaborate online with research colleagues worldwide and run in subsequent races.

After three weeks spent training at about a 5,000-foot elevation in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, he rented another mountain cabin about 8,000 feet up in southern Utah. There, just weeks after turning 53, he was preparing for a 50k race through Bryce Canyon at the end of May.

Beyond that – and depending on pandemic travel restrictions – the integrative biology professor has other events lined up this fall in Colorado and Chile. Next year, he’s aiming for races in Indonesia as well as Mt. Kilimanjaro in Tanzania and the Peruvian Andes.

A lifelong back country and cross-country skier, Newmaster ran his first ultramarathon only three years ago, a 50k race in California’s Sierra Nevada. Finish times are less important than besting the terrain and often-extreme conditions, but he says that inaugural race also stood out for his result: “To my surprise, I came in third in my age category.”

He started running ultras after meeting his girlfriend and training partner, Donna Webster, a California toxicologist who has run in ultramarathons worldwide for more than a decade.

The long-time field biologist says ultras are not that far removed from workaday life for him. “It’s very normal for me to get dropped off by helicopter with a backpack and a plant press, jog over an extreme landscape for 20 kilometres, research a spot and then hike back out.”

Ultramarathons in the wilderness appeal to both his competitive runner and his botanist sides.

Participants need to pay attention to the rugged course. “You cross rivers, run up a steep mountain, you may be scrambling on all fours down a cliff.”

On a recent training run some 10,000 feet up, he slogged through knee-deep snow. Elsewhere, rain can pose the greatest threat. “You can be crossing a dry, rocky riverbed that can turn into a raging torrent in an hour.”

At the same time, the biologist always has an appreciative eye on his surroundings.

Running through the southwestern landscape involves negotiating steep, narrow canyons, encountering crimson-coloured rock spires called hoodoos and pausing atop cliffs affording mountain vistas that stretch for 100 miles. On one recent 40k training run, he followed the tracks of a cougar with her cubs and stopped to snack on pine nuts gathered from pinyon pines.

An ultramarathon is no tourist jaunt, says Newmaster.

“It’s a mental challenge, you have to have a certain kind of personality and character. When you start to hurt and get cramps, you have to work through it. You get to a spot in your mind where it doesn’t seem to matter anymore.”

As surreal as it sounds, he says, “It helps to think about research questions or math equations. I’ll be thinking about solutions and the next thing, the miles are clicking by. It makes you go into this state of hypnotism. You’re watching the trail and thinking, and you forget about the pain. It’s kind of a beautiful thing.”

Preparing in mid-May for that month’s Bryce Canyon ultra, Newmaster was aiming to complete the course in under 10 hours. Extreme weather conditions would be a main challenge. Along the route, temperatures fluctuate from about 27 C to freezing.

Newmaster routinely carries a small running pack stuffed with gear for all conditions, including a compass for navigating often poorly marked trails. This spring, he had logged about 5,000 kilometres on his Italian-made shoes developed for trail running in the Alps and equipped with spikes for snow and ice. After they blew out in May, he had to order a new pair that arrived a week before the Utah run.

Newmaster competes in about 10 ultras and half marathons each year.

In early June, he will don a head lamp to run a nighttime half marathon in Zion, Utah. While traversing the desert under a full moon, he expects to alternately take in the area’s renowned star-scape and watch out for its equally well-known rattlesnakes.

In September, he will do the Imogene Pass Run in Colorado.

Ultras attract all kinds of competitors, says Newmaster, including octogenarians. “They go like the wind, they put you to shame. My thought is that I’m going to be doing that when I’m 80.”