Did you say 200 Miles?

Last weekend I volunteered for the Bigfoot 200-mile endurance race in the Washington Cascades. When I first heard about the race several years ago I thought it was crazy. But then I became intrigued, so I decided to check out the scene by working as a volunteer medic at the 93-mile aid station. What would people look like after running 93 miles on no sleep?

Some runners, particularly toward the front of the pack, did not look bad!  But some runners looked rough. The longer they were out there, the rougher they looked. Perhaps the most common challenge, as far as “medical” issues go, when enduring a 200-mile foot race, is blisters.  They pop up everywhere.  It’s impossible to know where they will pop up in 200 miles unless you run 200 miles.  Those shoes that protected your feet in the last 100 miler race? They might become your worst enemy in 200 miles. Most of my weekend medical duty consisted of taping runners’ feet.

One of the benefits of me doing the foot taping is that it gave me a lot of time to talk to runners.  I learned that many of them were repeat Bigfooters who flew in from all over!  I even met someone who travelled from as far as Tel Aviv for the second year in a row.  I met people who live in vans and drive from one endurance race to the next. I met one guy who is literally running every 200-mile race in the United States in ONE YEAR.  So WHY? What drives these people to endure the physical suffering, sleep deprivation, nausea, soreness and blisters race after race?

I asked people. I discovered there are a few pervasive motivating themes which bubble to the surface. These themes include: experiencing the course beauty, determination to finish after a previous DNF, processing death, bonding with family, celebrating sobriety, and completing a physical challenge. I imagine the top runners enjoy achieving excellence and pushing the sport forward. But even though the individual motivation might differ, one reward that resonated with everyone is that running an endurance race is LIFE CHANGING.  In a world that is chaotic, mediocre, and at times cruel, these races offer spiritual enlightenment, strength, beauty, and the deep satisfaction that only comes from doing something very difficult and pushing from the essence one’s being.

The 200 miler isn’t crazy after all.