This week I just finished reading Dean Karnazes’ book “Ultra Marathon Man Confessions of an All-Night Runner” as he was talking through his journey of running the Western States Endurance Run, I discovered Gordy Ainsley, aka the inventor of the ultramarathon.
An ultramarathon is defined as any distance longer than the traditional 42.2km.
Gordy Ainsleigh was the first man to run the Western States Endurance Run. This Ultra is 100 miles — 161km. The Western States trail was first traversed by 7 soldiers in 1972 who marched the trail in 2 days. In 1974, Gordy Ainsley got it in his mind to run the 100km in under 24hours. In a summary of Gordy’s own words, his friend said that that would be a “stupid” thing to do and it seems that spurred Gordy into making the decision to give it a go. Gordy did it in 23 hours and 42 minutes, with as he called it “only” 18 minutes to spare.
From what I can tell it takes a person just crazy enough to try a “stupid” idea. When Gordy felt like giving up he told himself to just take the next step, and he also had a friend, Diane - who encouraged him not to quit and to keep at it.
From what I can tell, it takes a certain type of person to run these “crazy” distances. A person who is, bold, not afraid to take risks, a person with an extraordinary belief in themselves, a certain amount of stubbornness and gumption to just keep going even when things get really hard.
As a novice ultra-marathoner myself I have just had a glimpse of this fascinating wonderful world. What I can definitely say is all these qualities translate to invaluable assets in life in general.
“Ultra-runners don’t just know how to run with pain, they expect it, and use the adversity to better themselves” Michael D’aulerio.
Sources: Wikipedia
www.wbur.org [ A horse race without a Horse: How Modern Trail Ultramarathoning was invented]
Ultramarathon Man: Confessions of An All-Night Runner: Dean Karnazes
Image Source: www.ultrarunnerpodcast.com
