Random 88

Its been more than a year since I have done any sort of serious running.....weather, work, travel...all sorts of excuses. So this quote by Roger Bannister really hit home

“We run, not because we think it is doing us good, but because we enjoy it and cannot help ourselves. The more restricted our society and work become, the more necessary it will be to find some outlet for this craving for freedom. No one can say, 'You must not run faster than this, or jump higher than that.' The human spirit is indomitable.”

....guess its time to lace up those shoes again and head out.

Random 85

Good ol' Coach Joe at his best here (from the HCTR listserv)

I do believe that each long run for me is a Vision Quest... for me to find a better me.

And some are a reminder of how frail and weak I am... a reminder that I am only human.

But all that really matters is that I can still GO... fast or slow, no matter... as long as I can GO.

And I wish that I could take a few old friends with me ...

Rick Gastelum, Red Spicer, Dan Keitz, my mom, and my brother to name a few.

They would love to... just GO!

I do these long runs for endless reasons....

... for that one MOMENT that defines a season.

... for that one FRIEND that I would never have met otherwise

... for that one FEELING that I cannot find elsewhere

... for that one PERSON who I have become and continue to become.

so.. send the masses and let em all come to play.

I will continue to sort em out into Good, Bad, Nice, Mean, and so on...

and wonder occasionally into which category I fall in their eyes.

but not worry about it too much

old school, new school, its just school... when you quit changing... you have died.

Life is good!

j:o)e

I need to get back to finding myself now :)

Run

Towards goals?
Away from challenges?
or just ....run

Random 82

Again.....too much....and why is the article under "Fashion and Style" for cryin out loud!
Although the definition of the term "sanity" is highly subjective and open to interpretation when it comes to ultrarunners, this is really testing the limits. A quote in the article says:

You know any sport has gone off the rails when you have to remove body parts to do it

I wouldn't go as far to paint the whole sport with such a broad brush for I am too hopelessly biased towards it...as with every other situation in life....there are a just few who have taken it too far.

Random 81

Seriously NYT....WTF! Devoting an entire article to such nonsense. I am no fast runner myself but all these people complaining in the article are not fast runners by any twist of imagination (4 odd hours for a 26.2...give me a break...I can do that too :P). My take on this is that.....unless you are right up there in the sub 3 or 2.5 hr mark...you should be careful before you open your trap to start complaining! How do you even define how fast is fast?

While I perfectly understand the need for cut0ffs and all, one needs to understand that not everyone has a hyper-competitive streak or the physical gifts to go all out during a race to finish in a super-fast time and feeling like a pile of crap at the end of it all. Just because someone takes 6 hours to finish a marathon doesn't mean they aren't giving it their best shot. You still need to respect the distance and the effort that is needed to finish it. If anything I would say, it is probably harder for the back of packers than the gazelles at the front, simply because of the longer time they have to be on their feet.

To all the whiners I say...if you are looking for a challenge, go run an ultra ....then you will surely understand what the so-called "plodders" go through ;)

What its all about

"Running should be easy, it should be fun, it should include everyone. It shouldn't be a punishment for eating cheesecake, which is what we've turned it into."

"because one thing that you will always see in ultra-races that you will never see in normal marathons are smiles. People are relaxed and enjoying the moment"

"You will not find a four-year-old on this planet who does not like to run. Why? Because they haven't been told it's a workout. "

"You get a sense of real camaraderie out there because ultimately it's about everyone pulling together."

Couldn't have said it in better words than those in this TIME interview of Chris McDougall.

Random 68

(Via: Larry's blog)

One or two familiar-looking trails (Bighorn?) in the video, but mostly ones I have never seen (on the other hand I might be completely wrong as is often the case. As any trail runner would attest, you either know the trail or you are lost :P...no such thing as familiar-looking). The feeling of being out there staring at the majestic mountains, crossing icy streams, slip-sliding on the snow, walking through slush and mud one minute and a gorgeous valley of flowers the next, and the easy camaraderie between a bunch of other people who had the same bright idea as you did....all in the name of running...is something quite magical and hard to describe in words. Looking forward to the time when I can run at least some of these races...or all of them.

Random 63

Once More, the Round -Theodore Roethke

What's greater, Pebble or Pond?
What can be known? The Unknown.
My true self runs toward a Hill
More! O More! visible.

Now I adore my life
With the Bird, the abiding Leaf,
With the Fish, the questing Snail,
And the Eye altering All;
And I dance with William Blake
For love, for Love's sake;

And everything comes to One,
As we dance on, dance on, dance on.

(sources: 1, 2)

(p.s. Do read Steve's post on running in 2 )

Log-1

I haven't been really running or training much over the past year since the RR 100, though the list of races on the left bar might tell a different story. Not to brag, but all the races I ran last year...I just showed up and ran the race...treating each race as the training run for the next one with some minor runs between each....so it was just plain ol' dumb luck that I finished all of them and didn't end up with some serious injury.

Now that I'm on a self-enforced sabbatical from training for any races in the foreseeable future (a long story for another time), I decided that I need to keep doing some short runs every now and then and try to build up some sort of a regular running schedule just to keep myself sane. So on a lark, just laced up my battered old shoes (they would cry out for mercy if they could...they are/were my first ever pair of running shoes...I have put so many hundreds of miles on them literally...and I can also see all the running geeks with their mouths agape in horror that I risk running in such shoes) and decided to head out on a short (read single-digit miles) run this evening.

It was an amazing run by my standards, to say the least, even though it was slightly warm (lower 80sF) and extremely windy. And hence good reason for my first blog post about my own running :). For those of you who know my running style, I am not a fast runner but today I was just flying. Never before I think, have I covered 5 miles with such drastic elevation changes in such a short time (52 mins to be precise). And to top it off, I was feeling really happy at the end of it (have had a similar feeling only a few times in all these years of running). To me, this was like winning some major race. (Boston here I come...if only..sigh). By the end of the run I had a wide, silly grin plastered on my face, my hair all disheveled by the wind...no wonder I was getting some weird looks from people on the street, but I didn't care. All I could think of was how carefree and peaceful I felt during those moments my feet were pounding the asphalt. My favorite running haiku (source) kept playing in my head (to complete the picture of craziness...yes...I hear voices in my head... :P) and I couldn't help but marvel at how apt it was for how I felt.

I run, I escape
The crazy world fades away
My pace is my peace

I think I am beginning to enjoy this "not training" phase but I just hope I can keep this momentum going and keep getting my running fix regularly.

Disclaimer: Yes, this was a ROAD run. I do plan to explore some local trails in the coming weeks/months to avoid my transmogrification into a complete roadie :P.

The longest run

Just when you think your long run over the weekend was a tough one.....imagine a run of 25,000 miles on six continents and through 37 countries. Read more about this incredible journey here.

On Running and Life

(The recent pseudo-philosophical posting streak, can be partially attributed to the fact that my brain has been doing something that it has not really done in a while...some thinking...so be forewarned for some cheesy writing ahead)

For some reason, I started to ponder about how much of a metaphor my formerly-active-now-almost-dormant-hopefully-more-active-in-the-future running life can be for my-life-now-in-general. How naively confident (dare I say, bordering on arrogance) I am of my ability to get through a race or a long run, training or no training. How this "no fear of the unknown" has actually worked to my advantage most of the times (though, to be completely honest, it has also bitten me in the behind a few times as well). How tough I am mentally at the low points during a race, not letting the fact that there are scores of others passing me with each step, get me down. How it actually spurs me to keep going on. How I have eventually managed to crawl my way out of those troughs most of the times. How I don't care a fig about the time it takes me to get to the finish. How happy I am when I actually finish a race (for reasons less obvious than the finishers bling and schwag at the end of each race).

Maybe its the clarity of thought that you get when you push the limits of what your body is physically capable of; when the race is all but over for you physically, but the mind wills the body to move through the pain, taking comfort in the fact that with every step you are inching closer to the finish. Whatever it may be, I wish I could apply some of those painfully obvious bits of wisdom (!?!) picked up along the way in so many of those runs, right now. The simple credo of 'one foot in front of the other' till you reach the finish and savor every bit of the journey with enthusiasm, even if it hurts like hell, is something I can and should surely adopt right now. And as the saying goes, that which does not kill us, can only make us stronger (Nietzche?).

Inspiration

With an inkling of what goes behind the scenes in preparing for an ultra, the actual logistics involved during the run and the fortitude and endurance that is needed to get through such a grueling challenge...all this before more mundane factors like the terrain and weather even come into play.... I can safely say that this recent achievement by Santhosh, is truly epic...do read his ultra-detailed report of it. Congratulations to him and all the support crew.
Santhosh...you make me proud to be a part of the bloo frat :)

A long story in short quotes

Or the story of my first 100 miler.. at Rocky Raccoon on February 9, 2008. This highly overdue post has been a long time in coming, baking in the "drafts " oven over the last 9 months (totally unintentional to publish this post at this point of time..and the time interval is also coincidental ). But looking at the sorry state of my blog over the past few weeks, and also because it has come up a few times in some recent conversations, decided that it was a good time for it to see the light of the day.

Since I was too brain-dead to write up each and every memory of the race (4 loops of 25 miles each is a loooong distance and takes a loooong time...take my word for this), I decided to capture what I felt at every stage of the race from the moment I signed up after a first not-so-successful attempt at a 100 to the moment I finally crossed the finish, using quotes from famous people obviously more intelligent than me. Reading it now really made me relive all those moments although it may not make much sense to someone reading this. So here it goes...as they say....better late than never....the story as it unfolded

While signing up for the race
"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."
- Douglas Adams

At the start of the race looking at the other runners
"These nuts got guts."
- Jeff Stegeman, writing for Durango paper 7/10/98 about Hardrock

"Any idiot can run a marathon. It takes a special kind of idiot to run an ultramarathon."
- Alan Cabelly

Loops 1 and 2 when I was blasting through the course for the first 50 miles and feeling really good:

"Heaven is under our feet as well as over our heads."
- Thoreau

"If I can see it, I can run it."
- Randi Bromka Young

"I never met a carbohydrate I didn't like."
- David Lygre

"If Klingons were runners, they would be Ultrarunners."
- Bryan Hacker

"If I can't go faster I'll go longer."
- Doug Barber

"Drink, drink, drink! Pee, pee, pee!"
- Ed Hart

Loop 3 after the sunset and the cold dark night crept upon us:

This was the point where I was beginning to feel a bit irritable to say the least. I was tired, hungry, sleepy, my feet were beat up and I knew all the time I had built up in beating the cut-offs in the first two loops will be lost on this one.

"The first 50 miles are run with the legs, the second 50 miles with the mind."
- Unknown

"Why am I doing this?"
- Don Herres

"Well, there *used* to be a trail here somewhere ... "
- Kent Street

"You'll be wistful for the "wall" of the marathon, when you hit the "death grip" of the ultra."
- Bob Glover

"Why would anyone want to do this a second time?"
- Sue Haupt

"ARRRGH -- what in God's name ever possessed me to think this would be a good thing to do?"
- Charles N. Steele

Loop 4 after barely making it past cutoffs and setting off on the final 25 miles:

"Yay! Only 25 miles to go"
-Never in my wildest dreams thought that I would say that out loud

"At some point it doesn't get any worse."
- Unknown

"Beware of the chair!"
- Unknown

"My doctor told me that jogging could add years to my life. I think he was right. I feel ten years older already."
- Milton Berle

"Nobody should ever run a race where they are lapped by the sun."
- friend of Alex Swenson, referring to 100 mile races

"... slowed my pace to the point that I could have been rear-ended by a sleepy snail."
- Dave Olney

"I have to find another port-a-tree."
- Ellie Thayer

"Running is a four weather sport."
- Unknown

"90% of ultrarunning is 100% mental."
- Unknown

"Nobody is going to finish this damn thing for me, but me."
- Unknown

Crossing the finish line:

"It just doesn't get any better than this."
- Chris Nymann

"I have met my hero, and he is me."
- George Sheehan

(source)

And finally....finito....the shiny buckle is all mine...muahahaha

Quote for the day

“Life hits us with something new every day. We can either duck and hunker down in the trenches, or we can stand tall in the wind and shout, ‘Bring it on darlin’! And don’t be stingy with the jalapenos!’”

-- late“Big Red” Spicer, former RD for Palo Duro ultra

Redefining insanity

Anyone who thinks that people who run measly ultramarathons are crazy, should read about this guy, David Goggins (via:Endurazone)

2:03:59

First 2:04:26 and now this! Haile Gebrselassie is an animal...smashing his earlier record by a whole 27 seconds! To put things in perspective this is about a 4.40-odd min/mile pace (I think) for the whole 26.2 miles! I don't think I can run that over a 100m distance. Or looking at it another way, I would need a 15 mile headstart if I were to ever beat him in a 26 miler :P

On insanity

Or any other term that you can use to describe this guy as he talks of his twice-a-week commute. On a separate note...Alan does seem to be a very nice guy and my claim to fame is that I happened to meet him last year at Sunmart where I was pacing a friend through 50k and ran a couple of hundred yards with him during the race (he had flown in from CA to Huntsville, TX to do a 50 miler there and a marathon the very next day at Dallas....where we saw him charge through 26.2 miles again!) as well as enjoy a nice hot meal of dal and puliyogare at the end of the race with the other Team Asha folks :)

Food to go

Donald writes on 'a movable feast' in his multi-part series on preparing for the Western States 100 miler, in which he talks about the calorific requirements during such endurance events and all sorts of goodies that people like us (ahem :)) consume during these crazy ventures.
The best part is his concluding paragraph which I can totally identify with :P

if you should ever see a sluggish-looking guy with dirty legs and sweaty clothes running around carrying a half-eaten peanut butter sandwich, don’t be alarmed. It’s not some homeless man stealing food from a grade-school picnic – it’s probably just a goofy ultrarunner gearing up for a big weekend of eating.

(via: Scott Dunlap's blog)

The marathon is easy

Because there are no lions.

On ultra-running

"Are these runners ultra-tough or ultra-crazy?" asks Jonah Keri in his article on ESPN (via: A trail runner's blog). From personal experience, you have to be a bit of both. As popular belief goes, no sane person in their right mind would consider running such distances. I completely disagree with this sentiment although most people who know me probably think I have a mental problem after I tell them about the fun runs that we bloos have been doing over the last year and half.. and most of them are too nice to tell me this to my face :).
Says Yiannis Kourous....by most accounts, the greatest ultra-runner of our times, in the article,

"Ultra running is a metaphysical event. If you don't have that kind of idiosyncrasy, you will never become an ultra runner, even if you train all your life. I am one of those people who recommend and try to inspire people to get involved with running. But ultra is not a fun-running sport -- it's only for unique souls."

Thrill seekers? Adrenaline junkies ? Or plain masochists....? You decide.