Run Gently Out There: Trials, trails, and tribulations of running ultramarathons by John Morelock

Author:John Morelock [Morelock, John]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
Published: 2013-09-15T16:00:00+00:00

Is the Gamble Worth It?

So here I am again, sitting here at my pretend typewriter (it’s really a word processor on my laptop) glancing at an electronic background of CNN, MSNBC, the ultralist (aka “the ‘list”, ultra-list, or… ), and three or four other connections to what I think of as the news of the day in topics all across my interest scale with so many side trips that whatever I was going to write about quickly vanished. I am my editor’s worst nightmare.

Oops! Huh? I hit the “back” arrow on the browser to reread. Hmmm, really? And why one would go out into that heat…The gamble isn’t worth it. Of the many comments I have read during the several days of a “runners lost, runners found’” story, this one stands out. The gamble isn’t worth it. An appropriate response in French is au contraire! Even with all the (potentially) inherent dangers of trail running, endurance running, ultrarunning, or whatever you call our running, that phrase sums it up for me. Au contraire! Quite the opposite!

It is worth it. The slow steps and the fast steps. This year, via the Internet in one form or another, we were treated to following an astoundingly fast run at Wasatch—another side trip. Was it really only 2002 that Nate McDowell put things together to become the first to break the 20-hour barrier at the Wasatch Front? It seems like forever ago, such was the giant step he took. If we didn’t take the chance to go out there, we wouldn’t have any understanding of what Geoff Roes has accomplished. If we didn’t go out there, we would not know that although his footsteps may have long grown cold, it is the same trail for Wendy Holdaway, and her finish held just as much value as his. It was well worth being out there.

At the Watershed Preserve 12 Hour, I was happy with my 32.25 miles and was done for the day. Kathy was just heading out for her “50k” lap. She smiled at me and said, “This may take a while.” But, as with others who face the challenge of one physical barrier or another, who fight one training interruption or another, who see cutoff times as almost insurmountable barriers, she turned and went back out there for that critical one more lap. That last lap is a gamble only to those who don’t value being out there running. For the rest of us, it is a sure thing. It might take a while, but that plus side of 30 miles has a value all its own, and that makes it worthwhile.

The love of competition is the stage for what are often thought of as the biggest gambles. He really laid it on the line today. She gave it her all. The runners left it all on the trail this weekend. Generally those are descriptors used for the frontrunners. But, as Dan Baglione pointed out, “You never know for certain what lies ahead on the day you stand at the starting line waiting to test yourself again.

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