Ultramarathon

So now that this thing is started and publicly displayed, I will start to delve into my prospects for the future. I've always been fascinated with endurance. Thats probably because I never had any and it seemed so far out of reach and unattainable. There was always an allure for people who could run in what seemed like an effortless manner, then just keep going. Forever. Me? I would amble a few yards and suck wind like I had just been held under the ocean for 10 minutes. What was it about these people that made it so easy and smooth? Fascinating... It wouldn't be until my late teens that I actually started to run with some modicum of success (i.e. could run for more than a minute at a time). Following the repair of my heart, I decided to start taking advantage of some of this newfound capacity. Granted, this capacity simply allowed me to ascend a flight of stairs without stopping for a break in the middle, but nonetheless, it was exponentially more than I had before. I will never forget my first mile. It was on a treadmill in my parents basement. The mill faced into the corner (only God knows why it was positioned that way), with concrete walls providing only the most entertaining scenery for a jaunt on the human rat wheel. My father was doing some work in the basement while I was "running" (4.0 MPH, 1.5% grade) on the treadmill. I felt pretty good considering how long I had been at it. My memories of the mile run consisted of that thing I plodded through in elementary school during the annual "running of the buffaloes" around the makeshift track that my private school had. I was always the last finisher, having walked most of it, with my times somewhere upwards of 20 minutes. I remember the gym teacher having stopped her stopwatch several minutes before I jaunted into the group. When she saw me she told me that she will just put me down for having "completed" the distance. No time was ever mentioned. So there I was, droning along at a measly 4.0 MPH (in my mind I was running like the wind, because I had never gone so fast for so long), my dad only a few steps away. About 15 minutes later I heard the "beep" on the mill that I had reached a mile. What?!?! I ran a MILE? I couldn't believe it. I shouted to my dad who knowingly nodded and smiled, recognizing this milestone of an achievement. I remember the hug that was exchanged. It felt like I was being congratulated for having climbed Mount Everest. I was hooked. I remember continuing to run on the treadmill for several months after that (outside was too intimidating), having slowly worked myself up to two miles at a time, still staring at that concrete wall. The wall and its misery became a kind of meditation for me. Something I was proud of. I could stare at a wall, running, in the dark basement. I was a MACHINE... Over the next couple years, into early college, I experienced an on again, off again relationship with running. I would occasionally do it to keep up my "cardio", having succumbed to a bodybuilding lifestyle in the meantime. Big and buff was the mantra, and cardio only served to keep my leanness (I'm pretty lean as it is, the "cardio" was more of an obligation fueled by the bodybuilding credo). Slowly, I delved into the endurance sports community, starting with mountain biking, then running and cycling during my freshmen and sophomore year in college. I even did a triathlon (an obsession for another post), making the short sprint distance my first organized endurance event. To date, this remains the only formally organized event that I have ever done. Over those years, I remained intrigued by the ultra endurance athletes in various disciplines, including cycling, mountain biking, and running. They were superhuman. Running 24 hours straight? WTF?!? I wanted that. I wanted to rank myself among them. I don't know why it has taken me this long to do so (might be a realization I come to as this progresses), but I am finally going to pursue an ultramarathon. The Blues Cruise 50K is my outlet of choice this year. My wife will be running it with me. We will be training together, separate, whatever our schedules allow. The race is on October 6th 2013 www.bluescruiseultra.com. It is on trails, around Blue Marsh Lake in Reading, Pennsylvania. Thus begins my destiny...