Earlier today I read an article in Men's Fitness Magazine highlighting the craziness that is called Ultra Distance Athletes. These nuts take part in insane races like 100 miles in rough, inaccessible terrain. Voluntarily.
WTF? Don't these people know that a simple race from the Battle of Marathon to Athens, just 26 miles, KILLED Pheidippides?
Yep. He dropped dead at the end. Yet modern men try to emulate the feat by enrolling in marathons everyday. Fine. Crazy, but I'll leave it alone.
But when people boast about taking part in SUPER- DUPER Marathons, I just think it's odd.
Listen to the article's author account of these super endurance feats:
"I have friends you have pushed themselves hard enough to vomit out the lining of their stomach or been dehydrated severely enough to lose consciousness and wake up in a hospital bed. They've broken bones, bled heavily, soiled their pants-some have had pieces of their innards removed, blacked out, been bitten by poisonous snakes, spat up and peed blood, had parasites crawl in and out every orifice and been delirious, overheated and frozen"
Graphic, I know.
But I wasn't describing some barbaric form of war fueled torture. I am talking about a "sport". People do this willingly. They willingly to take part in 100 mile, hard terrain races.
People pay for this.
Then again masochist often pay big bucks to be whipped around in a dungeon. This, to me, is no different.
The article touches on the endorphin high to which many of these "endurance junkies" are addicted. It also briefly discusses the psychological risks involved in these activities.
I am tempted to draw a parallelism between these people and others that partake in self-injuring behavior like "cutting" or anorexia and other eating disorders.
I don't understand why someone would be willing to take part in this "sport" if the end result for someone to succeed and actually finish is inevitably tied to some sort of physical punishment or demise.
Advocates claim: "Oh, it feels so good when you are finished" Well, yeah, but it would also feel good if you are torching your own skin with a creme brulee torch and decided to stop.
The author of this particular article states that the ultimate pay off for this "Odyssey of the flesh"? "the thrill of the race: that intense feeling of being alive"
Maybe it's just me, but I really don't have the need t put myself through arduous torture in order to feel alive.
I'll take a sunrise at the beach over a 100 mile marathon anytime.
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