I think what makes the ultra running community what it is, is the way things are streamlined or simplified so everybody is running the same race.

As opposed to a 400 meter sprint, there’s a certain camaraderie in ultra running because you're doing something that's long enough and hard enough that you may need help from other people. Runners might exchange electrolyte tablets, or share water and snacks on a really long section.

They're all starting at the same time. They're running the same course, within the exact same event as opposed to track and field.

There isn't any systemic separation, and I think there are ways to probably incorporate that into other sports.

The biggest issue is that sports and people in general, are obsessed with categorization related to awards and winning. Obviously, those are important to us athletes, and I don't want to take away from that.

The best thing about the ultra community is you can be competitive if you want to be, but it really doesn’t have to be about competition if you don’t want it to.

Ultra running doesn’t always have this same focus on categories. There’s the top three men and women, but they don’t usually get into things like age groups and other forms of categorization.

When I was running the regular marathon distance, there was a lot more competition. People care so much more about age groups, gender groups, awards, rules – it's all unnecessarily reinforced.

Do we really need awards for every five years of human life? Probably not.

In marathons, they'll have different waves and different heats. So there possibly are ways to address making sports more accessible by addressing these gender-restrictive barriers.

[As told to @Ragi Gupta — continued]