Runningmonkeys

Are you the sort of person who keeps laughing well after the joke is over?   Are you the person who keeps eating even after it is physically impossible to fit any more in?  Or are you the person for whom a ”high distinction” isn’t high enough. 

Then perhaps you should be racing the Lake Saroma Ultramarathon this weekend.

I don’t understand the ultramarathon, and I don’t understand ultramarathoners.  I respect them and I encourage them, but I have no wish to join them just yet.  They seem to live on another plain to what I would call normal runners.  I mean just about anyone with a bit of sticking power and time, can prepare for, and complete a marathon.  But an ultramarathon is a totally different species.  How can you possibly prepare for races over 42.2 kilometres?  It isn’t safe for mortals to train even 42.2 kilometres a day, so how is it that someone with human genes is supposed to prepare for races like this?

Anyhow, these events seem to be getting more and more popular worldwide, and so I can ignore them no more.  Even my wife hinted that she would consider preparing for an ultramarathon now that our new baby has been born.  I hope that this doesn’t mean that she is on the slippery slope towards insanity, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Someone who is going to run in the Lake Saroma ultramarathon next weekend, that I know is not insane, is my friend Yamazaki-san.  Yamazaki-san is a member of our cycling team and so we spend a lot of time together out on the road together.  I can vouch for the fact that he is a rational, clever, and accomplished athlete.  His running training has turned him into the fastest all-round rider in our team. 

When I ride with Yamazaki-san, we see eye to eye.  We experience the same things and follow similar goals.  But this weekend, Yamazaki-san is heading off on an adventure that I don’t even nearly understand.

I guess when I look at an ultramarathon, I see a similar blur of confusion that a non athletic, sedentary person would see when they look at a marathon.  “What goes on there?  Why do they do it?  I feel sort of jealous and sort of shocked at what they put themselves through.  Surely the pay-off is enough, but I just can’t see it from my “vantage point”

Perhaps one day I will grow up and seek the treasures of an ultramarathon, but for today, all I can say is:

“Gambatte (dig deep) Yamazaki-san.  Give it all you have got.  Bring home some memories and learn something about yourself on the way.”  I look forward to hearing about it.