Acceptance and serenity
“Most of all, the ultra distance leaves you alone with your thoughts to an excruciating extent. Whatever song you have in your head had better be a good one. Whatever story you are telling yourself had better be a story about going on. There is no room for negativity. The reason most people quit has nothing to do with their body”
Scott Jurek; Steve Friedman, “Eat and Run: My Unlikely Journey to Ultramarathon Greatness”
“When I’m out on a long run,” she continued, “the only thing in life that matters is finishing the run. For once, my brain isn’t going blehblehbleh all the time. Everything quiets down, and the only thing going on is pure flow. It’s jus time and the movement and the motion.That’s what love–just being a barbarian, running through the woods.”
― Christopher McDougall, Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen
“The great outdoors” presented by the valley near the Lookout Mountain hummed under my bikes airbars. It was my second loop. Two loops make the course of Ironman Chattanooga, set aside minor differences in course layout. I was on my own for the most of the 5,5 hours out of those 6 I spent on the course.
At first there was chatter with fellow triathletes riding the same route. Then I broke off and headed up. I knew the route: since the time I rode it once in a cold slit rain without any rain gear, in a company of some great athletes leading the way. Since the time I made it in heat of Southeastern June after 4.5 miles swim.I had enough of food and water for the journey. All I wanted is to be there within certain time, with predefined effort.
After some time I was on my own with the tennis balls of my thoughts roaming in my head chaotically.
“You will have enough time for talking to people in your head” – said a fellow triathete once, referring to the Ironman course.