It’s closing time and Sam Pasceri says goodnight to the last employee to lock up the Lockport Athletic and Fitness Center.

The next morning when the same employee comes in to open up, she’s curious.

“You’re here already?” she asked.

“I never left,” Pasceri said, still on the treadmill with Pop- Tart wrappers and empty Mountain Dew containers scattered around.

This is part of his training — preparing for sleep deprivation.

Pasceri, of Lockport, will compete in the Triple Ironman in Lake Anna State Park in Virginia this weekend. His race began Friday morning and he has until 7 p. m. Sunday to complete the 7.2-mile swim, 336- mile bike and 78.6-mile run.

“I’m one of those people that need something to keep me going,” said Pasceri.

The 35 year old completed Ironman Lake Placid in 2005 and 2007, Ironman Arizona in 2007 and Ironman Wisconsin in 2008.

But starting in 2007, he looked for something more and entered his first 50K race.

“I love the Ironman race but after a few I felt I was capable of more and I wanted to see exactly how far I could push myself and that’s where ultra distance racing comes in,” Pasceri said. “I look at it like this: I can do one of two things — I can stick with a shorter distance and push for a faster time or I can take my time and push for distance. Right now, I choose distance. Plus, the people you meet at these ultra distance events are amazing. It’s a growing community of athletes from all walks of life.”

About 40 people will participate in this year’s event which includes a Double and Triple Ironman. Pasceri completed the Double Ironman last year — which meant swimming 4.8 miles, biking 224 miles and running 52.4 miles — in 34 hours, 48 minutes and 39 seconds.

“People are always looking for new ways to challenge themselves,” said Steve Kirby, race director for the Virginia Double and Triple Ironman. “People want to push themselves and see what they can do next. It’s the same in triathlon. They find out about the race from somebody else, or know someone who’s done it and in a couple of years they get up the nerve or the distance and try it.”

First it was marathons. Then it was Ironman. Now, it’s ultra events that are drawing more participants and developing their own athletic subculture.

Technically, an ultra running event is any race which is longer than a marathon—26.2 miles. Events either go by distance — the most popular are 50Ks, 50-milers then 100-milers — or time — to see how far you can run in a certain amount of time, from six hours to 24 hours.

For Carl Pegels, the attraction of ultra running has been to take the marathon, perhaps his favorite distance, and extend it a bit. Pegels, professor emeritus at the University at Buffalo’s school of management, has run in about 40 ultras across the country.

“I started ultra running when the first ultra run in Buffalo was organized in 1981 by David Broad, a local runner,” Pegels said. “It was a 50-mile race in Delaware Park, 28 times around the 1.75-mile loop.” That race morphed into a six-hour race at the Amherst Bike Path, which participants can run for as long, or as short, as they want.

“For most of [the Buffalo ultra race] history, the field averaged about 25 to 30 runners, virtually all out-of-town people,” said Pegels, who served as the race director for a number of years. “Buffalo is not an ultra town. Do not ask me why. There are only about half a dozen serious ultra runners in Buffalo, even up to the present.”

But those who do compete in ultras, including the Western New York Ultra race series which encompasses much of the state both in participants and race sites, have found an outlet for their personality and their lifestyle.

While the ultra family may be small and diverse in some ways, participants are common in one important trait.

“You have to be stubborn,” Pasceri said. “In order to go that long and that far, you just have to be completely stubborn and refuse to stop.”