The Happiness of Pursuit: Finding the Quest That Will Bring Purpose to Your Life by Chris Guillebeau

Author:Chris Guillebeau [Guillebeau, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780385348850
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2014-09-09T00:00:00+00:00

Three Hundred Marathons and Counting (But Why?)

John “Maddog” Wallace qualifies as an obsessive. For the past three decades he has been running … and running … and running. A former smoker, John could hardly run at all when he began. When he ran his first marathon in Reno, Nevada, he hit the infamous “long-distance wall” and struggled through the final 4.2 miles. At the finish, he said to anyone who’d listen, “I’m never doing that again!” (First lesson: Don’t make resolutions immediately after finishing your first big race.)

When I first started reading about Mr. Maddog, I thought the next part of the story would be something like this: “A few months after the first marathon experience, he started running again, this time learning to run smarter. Gradually, he grew to appreciate the idea of running another long race. Eventually he was hooked.”

But people like Maddog are not like you or me. Most of the story I had in mind turned out to be true, with one small exception. Instead of waiting a few months to ease into running again, Maddog waited two days. Then, instead of registering for another race several months away, he signed up for the Sacramento marathon … merely two weeks later. Most doctors and running coaches would advise against such a feat, but Maddog finished the race nine minutes faster than the first.4

For his third marathon, Maddog had the good sense to wait longer—this time a whole three weeks. He ran the San Francisco marathon, observing the harbor from the Golden Gate Bridge as he strode through the last miles.

The next year he moved to Dallas and joined a running group where he was first given the nickname “Maddog” because of his persistence and hyper-accelerated racing schedule. Maddog ran more marathons, holding up better and gaining confidence. Over time, the goal just took hold: He would run everywhere.

At age fifty-four he officially began a quest. He has now run more than three hundred marathons in more than one hundred countries. For good measure, he also ran a marathon in all fifty U.S. states—twice!

Another committed athlete, Martin Parnell, worked his way up to an even bigger goal. He started by cycling from Cairo to Cape Town, stopping along the way to experience a way of life much different from the small town he called home in Alberta, Canada. The high point was playing table tennis with a twelve-year-old boy in an African village. “Over one hundred kids yelled and cheered as we played the game,” Martin told me. “At that point I realized the power of sport and play.”

Martin lost the Ping-Pong match but completed his cycling trip in Cape Town, excited about the possibilities of undertaking more big trips in the name of charity. He was drawn to the idea of quests and designed an entire series of them, partially constructed around the criteria established by Guinness World Records.

Martin’s goal is to raise at least $1 million for a children’s charity he supports. His 2013 goals

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