Hamulecki takes long road (really long road) to join ultrarunning’s elite

Western grad’s record-setting journey has come with twists, turns, and challenges — all on her way to leading a growing sport into a bright future.

Julie Hamulecki at the 2022 IAU 100K World Championships in Bernau, Germany.

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The mind of an ultrarunner can go to some wild places.

“Honestly, it’s a lot of fragmented thoughts,” Julie Hamulecki laughed at the thought of where she travels in her head over seven-plus hours of competing. “When you are feeling good at the beginning of a race, you tend to enjoy it, check out your surroundings. Sometimes, I’ll be in the moment when passing somebody or grabbing calories at an aid station. Later on, it can get dark. You’re feeling horrible. You are just trying to pull yourself out of that pain cave. But when it hurts, I just run faster – step on it.”

When you log 50K, 100K, or more during a race, you ebb and flow – physically, mentally, and emotionally.

“It’s a lot of thoughts. A lot. I’ll think about work. I’ll jump into the past. Then I’ll be in the present. It’s highs and lows – a real rollercoaster.”

Through it all, however, Hamulecki now stands among the elite ultrarunners in Canada and the world – a record-setting journey that has had plenty of setbacks, twists and turns, and now sees her leading the sport into a bright future.

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Hamulecki grew up Newark, Ont., a little crossroads located a short run west down Highway 18 from the slightly larger crossroads community of Norwich, or directly south of Woodstock down the Middletown Line.

She was drawn to London where her mom worked as a nurse – “a big enough city that it didn’t feel terrifying, bigger than where I grew up, but not ‘Toronto scary.’” A lifetime of piano lessons and a love of music led to her enrolling at the Don Wright School of Music at Western University, where she earned a BA in Music.

Away from the keyboard, she was an athlete, a lover of baseball, and a competitive figure skater through her first year at university – before she hung up the skates and took to the open road. At first, running was about fitness, staying active, taking a break from the classroom. “Running came naturally to me,” she said. “Funny thing, I didn’t realize it came naturally for a long time; I just kind of did it.”

Running didn’t turn competitive until years later when she took home an age-category award in her first 10K at 30. That’s when the passion – and the distances – started to grow.

In 2013, Hamulecki competed in her first marathon in Toronto. She was leading the race but collapsed 100 metres from the finish line. She assumed dehydration, only to discover later that she was running on a broken foot. Locked into an air cast, she was already picturing her next race – until a series of tests revealed something far more serious than a broken bone, a pre-existing heart condition that jeopardized everything.

“It was pretty intense. I was told to stop running if I wanted to live,” she said. “It was a dark time for me for a couple of years. I had just discovered the sport and really loved it – and then this hit. It was terrifying.”

Around the same time, Hamulecki’s husband, Adam Takacs, had found ultramarathons.

If you don’t know what an ultramarathon is, just picture any race that covers a distance longer than a standard marathon – meaning any race longer than 42.195K.

Yes, it’s as far as it sounds. Most ultramarathons start at around 50K and progress upward with 100K being the next most common marker. Of course, there is always the Sri Chinmoy Self-Transcendence Ultramarathon, considered the world’s longest, clocking in at 5,000K. It’s traversed around and around one city block in Jamaica, Queens, New York City, over 40-some days.

When his wife faced the loss of running in her life, Takacs suggested she try longer distances at a slower pace as an option. The thought was that she could get the same enjoyment, but with far less risk.

“It was just a theory – he doesn’t have a medical background,” Hamulecki laughed.

She took the idea to her cardiologist who was, shall we say, somewhat skeptical. But she pressed forward.

“I kept pushing, working with my cardiologist, and I’m still here today. I just try to do everything – all the training, the races – intelligently,” she said. “I have put my heart to the test pretty intensely for the last seven years now and I feel amazing.”

In 2015, Hamulecki ran her first ultramarathon, the 50K Run for the Toad in Paris, Ont., where she finished fourth overall and second among women (3:59:50). The following year, she finished first overall (8:41:50) for her 100K debut at the Niagara Ultra in Niagara on the Lake.

Since then, Hamulecki has been among the world’s best.

Hamulecki finishes at the 2019 Niagara Ultra 50K in Niagara on the Lake, Ont.

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Over the last generation, ultrarunning’s popularity has exploded globally, with participation increasing 1,676% since 2000, according to a study by RunRepeat, in collaboration with the International Association of Ultrarunners. The increase is 345% in the last decade alone. You might not be one of them, but there have never been more ultrarunners.

That holds especially true for women, who now represent 23% of global ultrarunners (compared to just 14% in 2000). In Canada, women represent more than one in three ultrarunners (35%), a representation well above the global average and second in the world behind Australia.

As the distances get longer, female ultrarunners are faster than their male counterparts, too. In 5Ks, for instance, men run 17.9% faster than women, but that changes to just 11.1% faster at the marathon distance. Once you hit 100-mile races (160KM), the difference shrinks to just .25%, and above 195 miles (313KM), women are actually 0.6% faster than men.

The fastest women in the world are from South Africa, followed by Sweden and Germany. Canadian woman are 10th, ahead of ultrarunning powerhouses like Australia and France.

Hamulecki knows how fast the world is getting – and it has continued to push her forward.

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“It feels pretty normal to me,” Hamulecki said. “Maybe it’s because I live with another ultrarunner. It’s just our life together. It’s just business as usual – get up, train, run, race, be in pain, recover, do it again.”

Pause for one second and let these distances set in – a 100K drive wears many of us out, and so the thought of running from London to Goderich is hard to put into context.

Hamulecki runs six days a week, every week, taking only Mondays off, and then will mix in speed workouts and longer runs as she builds towards a race. Preparing for an eight-hour race, it takes work to get your body used to being on its feet for that long. It’s like a marathon buildup, but perhaps involving fewer training kilometres than her 42.195K colleagues.

“People think ultras and they think you need to run long all the time. That’s not what we do – and it has been working,” said Hamulecki, who works as a segment producer on CTV’s The Social.

She burns through shoes every few months, and when racing she consumes only “boring calories,” liquid calories and “horrible tasting-yet-super-useful” gels. She hydrates, but not a lot. Yes, your stomach gets confused on a run of that distance.

“You’re trying to avoid a lot of things out there while also trying to do things right.”

A single 100K race is actually a tale of two races. During the first 50K, you’re motivated by other runners on the course. You’re seeing some strong runners around you. People are smiling. People are fresh.

The last 50K, well, that’s when the race officially starts. “You see a lot of grimacing. You see tears. You see fewer runners on the course, as they pull out of the race,” Hamulecki explained. “You’re also feeling that pain yourself. That makes it harder to continue. But you have to make yourself move forward.”

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Hamulecki has continued to move forward – and at an incredible pace.

Since 2016, she has appeared in three IAU 100K World Championships. In her debut, she finished with a time of 8:06:35 (83rd overall/14th among women), just off the Canadian record. Two years later, she broke the Canadian record with a time of 7:58:11 (73rd/12th). 

Last month, the championships took place in Bernau, Germany, following a pandemic hiatus.

In her previous five 100K races, Hamulecki came in with a rough target time – eight hours. This race, however, she was more exact, mapping out a kilometre-by-kilometre pace and marking it on her watch along the way.

“I had never done that before because so much can happen over eight hours,” she said.

A flat course and cooperative weather gave her hope. She raced consistent kilometres, staying on pace through 30K. Equal splits were making her smile. Having competed in an 80K race weeks earlier, she noticed her time in the championships at the 80K mark was even faster than that previous race.

“From 80K onward, it’s just about keeping the wheels on. You don’t stop for anything. You’re just hanging on.”

With the finish line in sight, technology played a few tricks. Her GPS was off just a bit, signaling her finished when she still had another 800 metres or so until the end.

She finished at 7:36:39 (72nd/ 13th) – setting another Canadian record.

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Yes, Hamulecki has been getting faster. And the news doesn’t get any better for her competition.

At 42, she is entering her prime in the sport. (The average age of ultrarunners has decreased by one year in the last 10 years, from 43.3 years to 42.3 years). While continuing to compete on the 100K road and throwing in a marathon in the fall (you know, just to do it), she plans to take on her first 100K trail race in February. It’s outside of her comfort zone, but she’s excited to take on the challenge.

“The sport is growing, getting faster and faster. There was a time where ultraracers plodded along, but the racing now is quite competitive, and seems like it gets more so every race. There is a wave of talented athletes out there and more and more are finding the sport all the time – it’s incredible.”