Dr. Murray on extreme multi-day racing
June 18, 2026
Congratulations to the authors of this new and important study on the effects of extreme multi-day racing on the human body.
Dr. Alison Murray was involved in the study that followed Ultra endurance athletes running in Nepal and rowing across the Atlantic. They found that when the body faces severe energy shortages, it behaves like a household on a tight budget—it pays for the essentials first.
According to lead author Dr. Danny Longman, the human body actively prioritizes immediate survival and immune defense over everything else. From an evolutionary standpoint, it makes total sense: surviving an immediate threat right now is way more important than long-term functions like reproducing or storing fat for later.
Read the article recently published in Evolutionary Human Sciences: Experimental evidence of life history trade-offs during ultra-endurance physical activity. Longman DP, Murray A, Brown EL, et al.