It's a cliche, yes (and a poster board on the course of many Ultras as well) but there is a lot of truth to the saying "Pain is temporary - quitting is forever." And it was ironic that after reading that sign on the way back from the 34mi turnaround, that is precisely what I had to do at the Miwok 100k. I hate dropping. With a passion. It's the knowledge upon getting to the finish by car that other people were tougher than you and managed to grit it out when you couldn't that mentally stings the most. Second-guessing your decision made in a moment of weakness doesn't help much either. But yesterday, it was something that just had to be done. Outlining a failed race-report is not the point of this writing though.
Support groups are an incredible occurrence born out of moments of shared intensity. They can only come from people who have been in the same situation - who understand when to push you on, and when to help you pick up the pieces. And pick up the pieces my friends did with adept precision in my first failed attempt to finish an Ultra yesterday. I don't even want to imagine how awful the day would have been with no warm clothes, food, transportation and everything else that comes along with dropping 20mi from your intended destination had I not had Devon Devon, Kim, Steven, Mark and crew to play mama and papa bear to a kid in a little over his head on the day. That's what ultras are about really - support. Ultimately, you're the only one who can get yourself to the finish, but except for rare solo-effort instances, it's the help and camaraderie along the way that makes everything truly possible. In fact, some of my favorite moments running have been those times when I'm not doing it for me, but to help others achieve their goals. Whether its scrambling to find a certain type of food at an aid station, or running alongside someone for hours with little to no dialogue just so that they know you are there if they need you, teamwork is all a part of the experience that makes our sport so incredible.
Many of the people whom I am so grateful to call friends are new to my life, some of them only for a few months. But yet somehow, I couldn't imagine how my life would feel without them. That's the special part of being human; you can fight to achieve everything that you want in life, but if you have nobody to share it with it's all for nil really. One of my favorite events on the race calendar, Western States, is fast approaching, and although I still feel the pull to try running it myself, I am going to put more money in the Karma-bank by performing pacer duties again. I know that I'm going to need to pull from that cache in the very near future, so I might as well stock up now!
Thanks to everyone yesterday for reminding me again what our sport is about. You all had commitments to helping others and the energy you put into helping me did not go un-missed.
Jason
