A Long Time Away

I've been very busy with my runningrelays.com blog - too busy, in fact, to update my personal blog once since last March.  Not one mention of my marathon, my ever lasting flu/bronchitis/diseased lung (ha ha), my cross country journey which has reached the halfway point for the year.  Nothing.

But today's topic of TiART is Relays, Ultras and Tri's, oh my!  and I just can't resist.  Because I guess I'm, at heart, a non-traditionalist, if that's what relays and ultras are all about.  It's no secret that I'm crazy about relays - how could I not be if I spend most of my free time researching and blogging about relays and team names? - but I'm a little crazy about ultras too.  I just haven't done one yet.

I first learned about ultras after reading Dean Karnazes' Ultramarathon Man.  I was fascinated by a race called the Badwater Ultra - a 135 mile race through Death Valley at the height of summer.  Now I've driven through Death Valley in June - it was miserable.  But to learn that there are people who run across it?  I was fascinated!  So I picked up a copy of Running on the Sun, a documentary from the race.  A new world was opened to me.

Now, let me just give a disclaimer; I really don't want to do the Badwater.  But I am inspired by running long, by the idea that a race can be about going the distance, rather than going the distance the quickest.  A race where it's me against the terrain, the elements.  The type of race where you find what you are made of. That I like.

So I signed up for my first trail run - a 25k out at Hagg Lake in February - a place known for its mud.  Although I wasn't running the ultra distance, I was running in the ultra environment (there is a 50k that day too), and what I saw, I loved.  The atmosphere is much more relaxed than a traditional road race.  Aid stations are stocked with things like gummi bears and pretzels and soda.  After the race, we enjoyed hot dogs and soup.  Everyone seemed to support each other, to share the trail and encourage each other.  It was one of the hardest races I've done - I was walking at the end, with muddy shoes and legs (and apparently, it wasn't even a muddy year!).  And I thought it was so cool.

It's the shared spirit that I respond to, I think.  In relays, you are sharing an experience and challenging yourself in a way that I find lacking in a regular road race.  It is very common for ultrarunners to run together for long stretches, helping and encouraging each other through the painful miles. I can't put my finger on why this would be true of ultras and relays, and not regular races, but it is there.  I can feel it.  So I'm looking at trying an ultra distance next; maybe tackling the 50k version of Hagg Lake.  It's a lot to contemplate, but I find it exciting.