A 50 Mile Metaphor
What my first trail ultra taught me about kindness
I ran my first ultra a few weeks ago. For fifty miles, I listened to the birds and my steps and my breath - steady or crying or winded or strong - and the forest and the cheers from the runner just ahead just behind just passing by and mostly just my thoughts.
One thought I kept returning to was that races are magical places because they are more perfect, compassionate microcosms of life. In a race, we are all running the same course. The distance (stupid), the elevation (absurd), the geography (beautiful sometimes brutal) are the same. But even on the same course, ✨none of us assume we are all having the same race.✨
For some of us, it is our first ultra, for some our second that month alone. Some of us have been running for decades, some of us are recovering from injury, some of us love the uphills and hate the downs, some of us are great at positive self-talk, some of us beat ourselves up, some of us haven't been able to stomach food all day, some of us couldn't fit in the training we wanted, some of us knocked this training cycle out of the park, some of us are dealing with something else entirely, some of us are having the day of their life.
On the part of the course where I'm flying and feeling my strongest, someone else is considering dropping out. On the part of the course where I can't bring myself to do more than walk or cry, someone else is smiling at how fresh their legs feel. Every runner out there recognizes that we show up on race morning completely differently. Every runner out there knows that on the same course, we are all having a different race. And we treat each other accordingly.
We tell each other we've got this, we're looking strong, we're so close, keep it up, almost compulsively. And we mean it. We know we will always feel better and we will always feel worse. And you never know when hearing someone say those words will help you believe it.
Thank you to everyone who made the Georgia Jewel #covidsux edition miraculously happen this year, and for giving me a full day in the woods to wonder at how nice it is to give each other and ourselves the benefit of the doubt, trust in the process, and as many keep it ups as we can.