I’m a runner. Just a few months ago, I would have written: “I
run”, now being a runner is part of my identity, I think of myself as
one, and that makes me part of a global community of millions.
I’m also an ultra runner. OK, that one I hesitated to write… After
all I have so far only completed one ultra marathon (that is, a distance longer
than the standard 42.2K marathon). Moreover, the label puts me in the same
category as luminaries like Dean Karnazes, Scott Jurek, Pat Farmer or Lisa
Tamati. Talk about daunting!
Yet I would indeed consider myself an ultra runner. Not a fast
one, not an experienced one, but a normal guy who happens to have completed an
84K run and sees himself as an ultra runner.
Why run ultra marathons? On the face of it, it is a rather
pointless activity. It is debatable whether it is good for your body, given the
battering you go through, it certainly isn’t good for your social life, it is
painful, exhausting, possibly dangerous, and does not carry high prize money,
even if you manage to win races (the most you get in many cases is a belt
buckle!) Yet many of us are addicted to running ultras. I can’t say whether it
will be my case, I am too new to the sport, but I know I can’t wait for my next
one (70K in New Zealand’s Coromandel Peninsula in November, hopefully).
My personal attempt at answering the question would start with
what I experienced during that 84K run (which was itself part of a wider 250K
multi stage race). It wasn’t exactly fun: I had really bad cramps in my calves,
I had painful blisters on my feet, and I was totally exhausted at the end. Yet
the feeling I had after crossing the finish line was one of pure joy. I felt a
sense of accomplishment such as I had not experienced before. I had dug deeper
than ever before, and come out victorious. I now knew I could achieve
extraordinary things if I put my mind to it.
I didn’t do well that day. I completed the stage in around 16
hours: if you do the math, it’s not a great pace. In fact I probably did more
walking (or maybe shuffling) than running. But that didn’t matter, I had gone
deep inside myself and learned things about myself that I probably could not
have learned any other way, and that alone makes the experience unique and
worthwhile. It is not just the fact of being alone in the desert. I think it is
the actual pain and exhaustion, the fact of pushing your body beyond its
limits, that leads to such insights. When you reach that point, you don’t wear
a mask anymore, you are totally yourself, and that can be scary because who you
see may be a person you have seldom seen before. And what is more, other people
see it too. During an ultra you get to see the true essence of a person,
whether it is yourself or your running mates.
The fact that you see people the way they really are also leads to
human relationships that are very different than can be built in other
situations. The sense of camaraderie experienced in these events is truly
unique. No one really cares who wins the race, it is more about ensuring that every last
person gets the help they need to cross that finish line. Ultra runners form a
community unlike any other, one that can only be understood by taking the
plunge.
One
thing is for sure, you’ll never run alone…
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