Among the many different reactions I got when telling my
friends, family, and colleagues that I was going to attempt a 100K footrace,
one of them was the question ‘Why?’. A
few of my co-workers couldn’t fathom the idea of someone running 62 miles. A very simple question with a not so simple
answer. My response to this question was
‘because it will be fun!’ Clearly not
the most informative answer but it was the best one I could formulate on the
spot.
Still, these guys had a good point. Plenty of people thought I had lost my mind
or, as my cousin and the closest thing I had to a brother put it, I was
‘fucking nuts’. Why would I attempt to
run such a grueling race? Why would I run 31 miles on a hilly trail in Calabasas
in the middle of summer or 35 miles through the trails of the Sierra Nevada
mountains near Lake Tahoe with the entire trail being above 7,000 feet when I
could stay in shape by just running 3 miles on a treadmill? Why would I put my body through the torture
of running such long distances? In
search of my answer, I revisited what got me into running in the first
place.
As my college years came to a close, I promised myself that
I would spend more time exercising once I graduated. I wasn’t in the best shape and needed to
incorporate more physical activity into my routine. I wanted to be fit and have more energy. After
graduation, I began going to the local YMCA every day after work lifting
weights, doing crunches and walking on the treadmill. After several months, I became less interested
in lifting and more interested in walking and eventually running on the
treadmill. Something about it gave me a
rush and I steadily gravitated towards spending a full hour on the treadmill
rather than 30 minutes. After spending
some time building up my endurance, I was able to cover 5 miles in one hour. This new-found passion gave me an element of
excitement in my otherwise ordinary life.
That hour that I spent every day running at the YMCA was extremely
rejuvenating after a day at the office and I looked forward to it every
day. Then one day as the winter was
fading away and spring was taking over the outdoors in Michigan, I opted to go
for a run outside instead of going to the YMCA, taking the advice of some
family friends who were runners. As
beneficial as running had been in my life up to that point, running indoors on
a treadmill wasn’t giving me the sense of adventure that was I after. That 2 mile run around my neighborhood
outside was enough and I became hooked.
I hardly went to the YMCA after that and began doing my 3 and 4 mile jaunts
along different routes of my neighborhood.
I was living at home at the time and after so many years of driving and
riding my bike, trekking around my Dad’s neighborhood on foot was an entirely
new and eye opening experience for me.
Although I had grown up mostly in this neighborhood I felt as though I
were seeing it for the first time. I
could take it all in and when I arrived back home I felt re-energized and
accomplished.
Running outside fed my appetite for adventure. After moving to Chicago, I continued to run
outside all throughout the year. Getting
to know my new home on foot was exciting and rewarding. I was exploring a new area while putting my
body to work and staying in shape. In
Chicago, I would go on to run 10Ks, half marathons and eventually complete my
first marathon in 2010. When I completed
the Chicago Marathon for the first time I felt like I had seen more of the city
in those 4 hours than I had in the entire year and a half I had been living
there. I would eventually create
additional running routes in my neighborhood and even run to places I would
normally take the train or bus. I would
run 5 miles to our landlord’s office and back to pay rent. Sometimes I would run to restaurants to meet
with my friends or over to our friends’ places to hang out.
Living in California opened a whole new world for me. Not only were there new neighborhoods to
explore and beaches to run on, but it was here that I was introduced to
something that would take my love of running to the next level: Mountain trails. I spent lots of time hiking the scenic trails
in Southern California getting to know nature and taking in the sweeping views
of the forest, mountains, and the city basin.
After a while I began running the same routes that I hiked. It was slow going at first but as I did it
more frequently, my endurance built and I could cover the distance in less
time. I was getting everything I loved
out of hiking and I found that I could now run the same hiking route which
filled me with a greater sense of accomplishment.
I soon realized that my favorite method of exploring was on
foot. Whenever I traveled somewhere,
either new or a place I’ve been before, I always incorporated morning runs into
my trips. Sometimes I would map out a
course ahead of time, other times I would just run wherever. Driving around in a car couldn’t even
compare. I could explore the trails, the
city, the beach, all on foot, while taking it all in at 6 miles per hour. And then I remembered all the times back home
and living in Chicago where I would run different routes and run to places like
the grocery store, my landlord’s office to pay rent, and my friends’
apartments. It all started to become
more clear. I run distance to
explore. Of course, staying in shape is
a nice bi product of running but I realized that it wasn’t the real reason why
I looked forward to changing into my running gear, lacing up my running shoes
and heading out the door. There was a
deeper reason; Running was my way of exploring.
I remembered how I felt like I had seen so much of the city after the
Chicago marathon and how running through my old neighborhood was such a great
experience compared to driving. This was
something much more than saying ‘Great!
I got my run in for the day. It
was so hard but I made myself do it’. In
my opinion, Running the Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston or any marathon is the
best tour of a city one could take. What
could be better than seeing so many of the city’s landmarks and neighborhoods
at a slow enough pace that you can take it all in and then reveling in the
accomplishment of running 26.2 miles? Yes, 31 miles may be a long way to run
but by running the Bulldog 50K in Calabasas, I had a chance to explore all of
Malibu Creek State Park in 6 hours. And
I may not have been able to finish The Canyons 100K but still, that was 48
miles of the Western States Trail that I got to experience (I’m going back next
year after some more vigorous training and this time it’s on!). I believe there are many others runners who
share this sentiment as well, and we can all relate. Running insanely long distances isn’t about
staying fit and forcing ourselves to run because we feel we need the
exercise. It’s about exploring. It’s about adventure. It’s about seeing how far we can push
ourselves and how much we can accomplish. Some might say we belong in the looney bin but
I would say otherwise. To me, running
long distance is the most fun way of exploring and the purest form of athletic
expression out there.
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