Does the Gain Justify the Pain?

June 12th, 2009 Posted in Story, Training

Training marches on.   Am I nuts, or just a piece of sirloin?

I’m in taper mode physically while I ramp up my mental  preparation.  I feel like a piece of meat being prepared for tenderizing.  I’m thinking I should be rubbing eggs over my body and rolling around on a floor covered in breadcrumbs.  I bought a foam roller to loosen up the tendons and muscles in my legs.  This thing is something right out of the dungeons of York and days of Henry VIII (which BTW is an exceptional Showtime series - The Tudors - a must see).  Marcy asked me the other night if I was OK - I guess I sounded like I was either having a heart attack or giving birth as I rolled my IT bands over this evil tool.  I think, from the look in her eyes (and the drool on her face) that she also might have been visualizing me stuck on a skewer, surrounded by green peppers, onions and  mushrooms……I have been avoiding going near the bar-B-Q lately…..But I digress.

It is hard to describe to someone who hasn’t been there themselves, the place that ultra runners go - especially during a 100 mile race - physically, mentally and spiritually.  It is truly a spiritual journey and if one is lucky enough to arrive, it is euphoric - for the brief time you are there.  Is it all worth the pain to achieve the gain?

The game is mind over matter and spirit over mind.

Western will break me down physically to the core, there’s little doubt of that.    The course is comprised of 100 miles of single track trails and Jeep roads that traverse over some of the most rugged portions of the Sierra Nevada Mountains with a change in altitude - up and down - of almost 40,000 feet.  The heat will be brutal (ranges 90-115 degrees) and the punishment the quads, hamstrings, glutes, ankles and calfs take from the pounding downhills and steep climbs in and out of four canyons - one after the other - is unforgiving.   I’ve spent 9 months trying to prepare my body for this adventure best I could.  That’s over now and I can do no more.

The body will attempt to wear down and conquer the mind throughout the run.  My body will be arguing with my mind all day and night about wanting to quit.  “Why are you doing this to us?” the quads will scream.  “You’ll do permanent damage to me“, the Achilles’s heel will bark.  “You’re only a scissor cut away from removing your wrist bracelet and grabbing a chair and a beer…..do it, do it now!“, the hammies will moan.   As I get tired my mind will be more and more tempted to succumb to my body’s pleas.  It really wears you down mentally.

That’s when I’m stripped to the absolute core - no longer reliant on my body or mind.  It’s then that it’s all up to the spirit within me.

In the end, it isn’t my mind or body that will enable me to achieve my goal - to finish Western.  It’s all going to be up to my spirit.

So for these final two weeks - good grief - TWO WEEKS! - I will be spending my time preparing my mind to go as deep into the race as possible and my spirit to take me the rest of the way home.  To that end my mantra which I’ll repeat over and over and over again during the race is, “Really really bring on the pain!”  Pain will not be my enemy but my ally.  I’ll draw strength from it, look forward to it, let it wash over me.  I know this all sounds a bit masochistic and even satanic but as I said earlier, it’s hard to explain the justification of the pain if you haven’t experienced the gain.

I suppose, the euphoria drug users feel, in a fleeting moment, resembles the place I speak of.  But instead of being followed by dread and regret, those ultra runners who complete their journey are left with the feelings and memories of a journey to a place that is heaven on earth.  If there is such a place a Nirvana, this is it. Yes, the gain justifies the pain.