The Craziest of the Crazies

"100 mile runs — everybody should try them!"

"Yeah, only if you want to die."  Well, die a little bit inside, I suppose.  These runs are truly brutal.  100 miles running around some obscure countryside with only a few other crazy people.  Whatever food you eat tastes horrible, since it is specially concocted for your low energy.  Water does not taste like water anymore; it is more of a slime moving down the back of your throat as you gasp for air.  And your legs!  For God's sake, your legs fall off! 

Well, not entirely.  They hurt, yeah, like hell.  At least that is what everyone says.  On the other hand, ultramarathons usually take place in the world's most stunning places.  Ambling over mountaintops, slopping beside lakes, and watching the night stars twinkle in and out of existence seem to make it all worth the run.  The food isn't too bad, either, according to runner Michael Arnstein, who recently finished 16th overall in the Badwater Ultramarathon in 120 degree heat. 

And get this: all he eats is fruit.  After all, he is "The Fruitarian".

Now try running over twenty back-breaking races a year without even complaining.  That is what Michael does, and then vlogs about it.  So if you think running 100 miles is hard, it is — don't get me wrong.  But this guy does an race of some kind almost every weekend and only eats fruit.  Now this is my kind of hero.  While I really want to follow in his footsteps, baby steps are required first.  Very small, incremental miles, baby steps.

Fruit is amazing running, and all I have to say is it makes you feel 200% better physically and internally with just 0% of the processing of modern-day food.  Keep that in mind, aspiring runners.

This video is of Michael's recent Badwater ultra feat.  Bear with me on this one — I know it's a long video, but it starts to kick up at 2:54.  However, the video gets really interesting at about 7:36, when the uphill climb over two mountains in 120 degree heat really starts to mess with Michael.  Enjoy.

Have fun on your next run!  Remember: anything run is better than what this guy is doing.  I sure know I will be thinking that.

The Cross Country Conundrum

It is considered one of the hardest high school sports — by me at least.

Cross Country, XC, CC: it forces you to push yourself incredibly hard.  The races are 3.1 miles of sprinting over hills in the woods.  Practices are continuous loops of hills over, and over, and over again.  Girls are spiked during the course by other runners passing them.  Those battle scars are almost as bad as collapsing in the final stretch, and girls having to hurdle you (I had to be the hurdler last year).

Yes, courses do sometimes look like this.

In a way, I am so happy this sport is over.  I love running, and it is nice to get outside after school every day.  However, I don't like sprinting six miles for fun.  For me, running is a connection to nature.  I wake up at 5:30 in the morning of the summers, and run into the early morning mist.  Or runs at 9 at night down to the river near my house, which the moon illuminates.

In cross country, I feel like I...miss that.  It disappears somehow—poof—and now I have to spend the post-season trying to find it again.  Long runs on wooded trails and my pre/post-sun workouts are ways I try to enjoy running again.  But by looking back on what I did last year after the season, the best thing to do is...nothing.

Running is known to burn you out.  Most runners purposely take one or two months off during the year, so they don't want to punch someone whenever they run.  While that is almost impossible for me to do because of lacrosse workouts starting the week after the season ends, it doesn't mean I can't take some of the holiday season off.

I would honestly recommend trying this for all you runners out there.  People who overdo it get stress fractures, shin splints, knee and heel problems, and the list goes on.  One boy runner on my team would run 90 mile weeks — until the full-asphalt regiment he was doing gave him a stress fracture in his foot.  He has been on crutches for the past month.  So don't push yourself to that point.  I understand marathoners and ultramarathoners run ridiculously long weeks for training, but just remember to do something that makes you happy when you run.  It will make such a difference.

To Hell and Back

You'd think running a half marathon the second time around would be easier than the first, but that notion was a bit wrong.

Between the insistent pounding my body was getting from wearing Vibram Fivefingers (those funny toe shoes so many hippies wear – not saying that I am one), and the monotonous miles that passed underfoot, the half marathon I ran in Maryland in October was fun, but just with some Hellish bits built in.  Oh – and that little fact I felt like I had been hit by a truck for having a sinus and ear infection; that one I didn't even know about.  But that's what I get, I suppose, when the stress of school catches up with the hundreds of miles cross country season demands of you.

Don't get me wrong!  I love my Fivefingers (yes, I will defend those shoes to the day I die).  I used to run with so many aches and pains, pulls and strains, that I thought nothing would help.  After reading Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run", I was convinced, converted, and completely in love with barefoot running.  I laced up my Vibram Fivefingers, and spent all summer in the US of A and Canada wandering in those shoes.

Half marathons in Fivefingers, though, are a completely different ballgame.  I would never in my life suggest to someone who runs — even serious ones like ultramarathoners — to go out and run an ultra in Fivefingers on her first day in them.  That is just a stupid, stupid idea.  Start out with walking down your driveway and back, and work up from there.  You will feel muscles you didn't even know you had.  And it will be Hell.  How about that, readers — minimalist opinion in a nutshell. Now onto the actual race:

Half marathons are the new iPhone — the thing all Americans are obsessed with, even though some of them don't know why.  For most, training takes months; others go out on a whim and just decide to run 13.1 miles (aka my brother).

During the race, however, those thousands of people running like a flowing stream towards the finish line is beyond inspiring.  Those people triumph up hills and around lakes with you, and by the end, you feel a special connection with your fellow compadres.  Now, the people on the sidelines are the ones who make the race really interesting: the candy handouts, shoutouts to random strangers, high-five lines, and math problems held high on poster boards.  It gives you something to think about during the Heaven and Hell that is a half marathon, but it is even better when Hell has food.

My suggestion on these half-crazy races are this: do it for a reason.   Whether its for a personal achievement, or for a cause, so much good can come out of this running-mania.  I find it absolutely amazing when people are running for others — thousands wearing shirts raising money for the Susan G. Komen For the Cure shirts along other organizations.  There can be an awesome cause waiting for you to raise money for, so make those miles matter.

And run for the sticker.  Cars with 13.1 stickers on them are cool.

There ya go, readers.  I'm trying to switch up this blog a bit.  And to the Canadian readers who seem to be checking in frequently – thank you.  This blog is just getting off the ground, so every bit helps!