How far have you run in your life in one event? What was the furthest that you have done? Why did you stop at that distance eventually?
On Sunday, 5 out 9 runners completed the 218km Run Round Singapore. That is an awesome distance covered (about five marathons) over a span of about 30 hours.
What drives runners to do ultra-distances, when the journey of 42.195 kilometres scares mere mortals? It presupposes that athletes, who venture past the norms fall under the category of insane, obsessed and committed. Despite the potential damage that it may do to your body, what drives them to persevere, stay tenacious and determined to complete a predetermined and inane distance?
One of my Twitter friends is John Callos Jr, and he will he be running the Marathon des Sable, a six-stage race covering 150km over fine sand and dunes. He will carry his personal belongings with him, and ensure that no grain of sand hits his feet. Runners can be crippled because of bad abrasions caused by the sandpapering effect of foreign intrusions.
Tobias Frenz also completed this race last year. He ran 130km three nights ago, keeping a runner company. He was interviewed for this blog not too long ago. He did very well, pacing the leader, for the first few legs (days) until he had to slow down.
When was the last time you ventured into the zone of the extreme and the suffering? What did you learn from that?
Photo-credits: Tobias Frenz
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