[throwup238]

> The record for the Western States 100, which has nearly 19,000' of elevation gain, is just over 14hrs for men, and about 15.5hrs for women.

Tor des Géants (78,700' over 205 mi) men's record is 66:44 at just over 3 mph and that doesn't touch the Barkley marathon with 60,000' gain and under 2mph, though that's more to do with the rough terrain than elevation.

190' per mile isn't that much, especially since the Western 100 ends 5,000' lower than it starts.

[alexey-salmin]

Try walking up a rocky mountain pass and measure your horizontal speed.

3mph at Tor des Géants means running at every runnable segment.

[PaulDavisThe1st]

There certainly are "ultra" routes that essentially require just speed hiking. But the majority of 100+ mile ultras are not like this, and allow capable runners of moving much faster than "speed hiking" pace.

[throwup238]

OP said "Ultra events with 100+ Miles and tons of elevation gain" (emphasis mine).

"Tons" is subjective, but their statement is objectively true for a bunch of ultra marathons - Tor des Géants and Barkley were just the ones of the top of my head. He is not "totally incorrect" as you said.