Between two evils, I always pick the one I never tried before.
—Mae West
Most people do not associate Mae West with running,
especially ultra running. The famous vaudeville
sex symbol and queen of the double entendre was before my time and I doubt she
ever ran a mile in her entire life. Yet
I and many other ultra runners live by her well known quote above. We just
replace the word “evils” with “runs” and we have our mantra.
Ultra runners by nature are restless souls. They start off
by just running road races or short trail races. Then they finish a marathon
and wonder what else there is? Yes, I have races that I do on a regular basis
but there is something attractive about a race in a different location or a
unique challenge.
So, when I look at my year of running I know that there will
always be a few races I bookmark but all of a sudden, I have this urge for a
tough and unique challenge. I know that I am not the only crazy runner out
there which I will get to in a minute. First let me explain this year’s runs. I
have two races I was determined to do. They are two totally different kinds of runs,
but they fulfilled my Mae West urge.
The first was running the Grand Canyon rim to rim to
rim. That came about because my wife and
I were planning on seeing friends in Arizona sometime in April. I knew that
Arizona has great trail races, so I began to search races in which to include
in my trip. Somehow, I stumbled upon people who run the Grand Canyon rim to rim
to rim. Before long I was obsessed with the idea and started watching YouTube
videos and reading as many articles as I could on the endeavor.
Yet I knew that high from the Grand Canyon run would not
last and I would need something else to fixate on. So, at the same time as I was scheduling the
Grand Canyon run I registered for A Race for the Ages (ARFTA[JB1] ).
They couldn’t be two more different races. The Grand Canyon was a
self-supported run. It had extreme climbs and descents with widely vary
temperatures. (Sadly, after I had written this blog a major forest fire raged
through the North Rim and this run is not possible now.) It was completely on trails. ARFTA is a short
mile loop on pavement, and you get as many hours to run it as you are old so I
will have 66 hours. Most of the runners will be in their 50’s, 60’s and 70’s. There
is food provided and really no elevation to speak of. I was so excited for both
adventures. They would each test me in different ways. They also met the Mae
West test – something different.
Now I don’t want you to think that I am the only crazy
runner who does this. My friend Dave flew to England to do a race in which he
ran up and down a mountain for 24 hours. More recently he entered a 48-hour
race in Poland because he thought it sounded great. My friend Anthony became
obsessed with running the Cocodona 250, which is a grueling 250 mile trek
throughout Arizona.
Those runs make mine seem rather tame in comparison. I am limited by work obligations to certain times of the year to take time off for a run, although including them in a vacation has helped. My wife thinks it is the opposite, that I pick a run and then convince her we should go on a vacation there. Which is absolutely true.
It is really not our fault. Yes, we are attracted to these
running adventures. But we are also victims of social media algorithms. The
social media sites know we are the Mae Wests of running. We are helplessly
lured into trying a new run on a regular basis. They show up on our feeds.
YouTube videos of races we heard about vaguely but now come to life as someone
else describes their running adventure.
Yet I can’t completely blame social media. We each feed each
other’s addiction. I met my friend Miriam at an ultra-marathon and realized
that she had authored a book about her life and running called Come What May: I
Want to Run. I read it and it led me to entering A Race for the Ages.
While I am really looking forward to ARFTA and a couple of
races after that there is something that is gnawing at me. I have no new races
or runs planned for 2026. I am doing research on various races and thinking up
interesting challenges on my own but have not settled on anything. There is an
empty feeling without a new challenge out there. I know that it is out there. I just have to
find it.
It is hard to describe this restlessness about ultra running
to nonrunners. Even close friends and family members do not understand our need
to find a different race or run and a challenge. They think it is a crazy
obsession. It is tough that the only person who I know would understand our
obsession is Mae West.
[JB1]Ray-
I don’t think you need to put this race title in boldface- you haven’t
bold-faced the other titles--- I am
going to “unbold” it in subsequent mentions-- you might want to do the same
here.
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