Why do people race 200 Miles?
Are these people CRAZY? Last weekend I volunteered for the Bigfoot 200-mile endurance race in the Washington Cascades. When I first heard about the race 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 BEAT. The longer they were on the trail, the worse they looked. Perhaps the most common challenge, as far as “medical” issues go in 200 mile races is blisters. They pop up everywhere, particularly in places where they didn’t exist in a 50K or even 100 mile race. It’s impossible to know where they will strike in 200 miles unless you run 200 miles. Those favorate shoes you’ve been training in? 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 being the foot taper-upper, is that it gave me 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 a guy who is literally running every 200-mile race in the United States in ONE YEAR. I even met David Goggins as he asked me for vaseline in the most polite way possible (I’m seen briefly in this video taping a knee :-) And Killian Korth? He didn’t stop long enough to chat since he was on the mission to win. 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 motivating themes which bubble to the surface. These themes include: experiencing the course beauty, determination to finish after a previous DNF, processing death of someone they were close to, 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 motivation 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 through from the essence one’s being. They find out who they really are.
The 200 miler isn’t crazy after all.
