The simple half-page ads consisted of the words “ENDURANCE is” superimposed over photos of scenes typical of ultramarathons: a runner asleep on the side of a road; a close-up of raw, blistered and bandaged feet; and my favourite, a pile of Western States belt buckles with the caption, “Silver buckles are awarded to those who complete the 100-mile Western States Endurance Run in less than 24 hours. Only Tim Twietmeyer has 24 of them.” (He now has 25 of them.)
I gotta get me one of those, I thought.
One hundred miles in 24 hours? I’ve run lots of marathons, lately in less than three hours. I could do that, I thought.
Then I read Ultramarathon Man later that year and a couple of stark realities hit home. First, the race isn’t run along some coastal highway in southern California; it takes place in the mountains of northern California. Mountains? Secondly, something important happens during any given 24-hour period in northern California that would make that run through the mountains that much more challenging — the sun goes down. Darkness? Running 100 miles in the mountains, partly in the dark… WTF?!?
Maybe it isn’t so easy, I concluded.
I’m set to find out next June. In the meantime, I’m trying to read everything I can to prepare. And sometimes ‘reading’ means staring at pretty pictures of silver buckles.
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