Has anyone else made the transition from long distance running into light and fast mountaineering? I like to move quick and cover a lot of ground in a single push. My goal is to increase my awareness and skills in the mountains. It would be interesting to me to hear of any growing pains or experiences of other ultra runners who have made the transition or for the matter enjoy both sports.

No. My ultra long distance hike from the parking lot up to Roadside at RRG is my distance trot. Saving the energy for the climbs instead.

Can't say my ultra running has turned into mountaineering, though I can say that there have been some months--even years-- of my life where ultra trail running has supplanted climbing.

Plenty of runners bag peaks, but conditions have to be good and you're definitely not taking the hardest routes. Most CO 14ers have been run, Rainier under very good conditions, tons of peaks in the Tetons, Grand Traverse, Wind River traverses, etc, etc. The guys doing the more technical stuff are usually super solid with their rock climbing and mountaineering skills, though - ie, can you solo the route in running shoes - can you routefind through complex terrain very quickly? Chances are you've already climbed the route and have all the tricks figured out, now just want to do it faster. You're not going to run up there with climbing shoes. I barely even carry water, usually plenty of it in the mountains. The actual running part is pretty straight-forward. Just pick an easy peak and go, then pick a harder one...

I dabbled with ultrarunning for a few years (~50 miles max), but after already having discovered the world of light and fast climbing. Running gave me a better ability to push my endurance limits, but my climbing experience was key to moving fast over more technical terrain and pushing my soloing grades. I stopped ultrarunning, due to hip flexor tendonitis, but still trail run frequently (lots of hills). I run faster now than I did when I was overtraining and it's obviously helped my climbing from a conditioning perspective.

good luck!